Recommendations, methods to prepare for long-distance running
There are usually two types of runners in a road race. One is the serious runner who has trained for the race and wants to do well. The other is a casual runner that wants to run alongside a friend and get another tee shirt to show people that you are a runner.
The serious runner trains and prepares for a specific race and has a set time that they will run the race in. Over the years I have trained a few runners and prepared them for a specific race. The one type of runner that stands out is someone that wants to run a marathon. Many of them have heard about the marathon as being the ultimate distance to run as a runner. Most have no idea that a marathon is 26.2 miles. Some run a 10K and will say that they have run a marathon. Then they find out that a 10K is not a marathon and the next thing they want to do is run a “real” marathon. I used to think that you needed a base run of ten miles to start thinking of a marathon distance.
A weight lifting friend of mine had done the bodybuilding and powerlifting thing and now wanted to add a marathon to his “to do” list. At that time he couldn’t run three miles without stopping. Preparing him to run a marathon was going to be a long process at this stage of running. His strength was good, but that endurance thing was a real hold up for a marathon. To get him used to staying in motion for three to four hours was not going to happen with just running. I introduced him to bike riding. A person can ride a bike for an hour or more and not pound the feet, the knees, and hips as much as in running. Plus the hour to three hours riding a bike built up his aerobic capacity. When the leg muscles finally got used to moving for three hours his wind as ready to go. Between the bike riding and gradual buildup of longer distances running he met his goal and ran a marathon.
The other person that wanted some help was a friend that ran with his buddy in 5K and 10K races. His buddy would always “kick” at the last 200 yards and beat him. He would try to stay with him but the guy was just a little faster and would win the competition between them. He wanted to see if there was some way to eventually win a race with this buddy of his.
There are two methods to getting faster at the end of a race. I assumed he had the endurance to run the distance but lacked the speed to win the competition. One method was, “if you want to run fast, you need to train fast.” In this case he just needed to run fast for 200 yards. Intervals on a track where you jog the curves and sprint the straightaways (100 yards) for a training session was what we needed. A good warm up of a mile is first. Then a mile of jog, then sprint, for another mile for a few training sessions should show improvement. It is good to follow the intervals with another mile jog for a cool down.
A second method is to run a faster pace at time during the race so that his buddy would be more tired at the end and did not have that fast speed. Alberto Salazar did that in the New York Marathon against another runner known for the kick at the end. He put on surges of speed to get ahead of him and the guy would have to exert more energy to catch up. By the time they got to mile25 Salazar put on another surge of speed and the guy just let him go as he had taken the kick out of the other runner’s legs during the race. The problem with that for my friend was that the two of them liked to run together until the very end of the race.
I have always been a firm believer that a strong athlete can do better in almost any sport than a weaker athlete. In the past the argument was which is better, the skilled athlete or the strong athlete. In some sports it was the skilled athlete, and in other sports the strong athlete was superior. An example of this was when I coached wrestling. My wrestler had so many moves he could fill a book full of his wrestling moves. His opponent that day had maybe four moves total, but was very strong. The two of them got to the mat and the other guy grabbed my wrestler and it was, “crunch”, and my wrestler couldn’t move. About the only thing my wrestler could move was his hands. He lost that match, and while he was the most skilled, the strength athlete was the better that day.
Today, most athletes are both strong and skilled, so getting to be the best is a tougher task. For my friend, I recommended getting stronger. Instead of running every day we spent two days a week in the weight room. Leg strength, abdominal strength, and explosive power exercises, such as bench steps and vertical jumps, were the primary focus in the weight room. A few arm exercise were added to the program because a good arm pump in a sprint can be of great benefit. After a few weeks in the gym with the weights my friend finally out kicked his buddy in a race and felt all the hard work was worth it.
If you set a goal in running the preparation needs to be programmed for that goal. Whether it is increasing endurance, or getting more speed, the preparation needs to fit the goal.
