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Thursday, 22 July 2010
Understanding Proper Training Pace
Giving thought to what pace you should be running on any given
day enables you to shape your training to meet specific goals.
It
also helps cut down on mileage that offers little or inefficient
training effect. This takes an understanding of what various running
paces do for you aerobically, mechanically and chemically.
Perhaps
the easiest way to be sure you’re running at the desired pace is to use
a heart rate monitor, but many people simply learn over time how their
bodies feel at certain training paces. The following will help you
become accustomed to the feel of each type of running and provide an
overview of the various factors in play at a given running pace.
Easy
Pace
Easy running occurs at about 60 to 70 percent of
your maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max), or 70 to 75 percent of your
maximal heart rate (MHR). It is a good recovery pace in between faster
workout days, and so in this sense it is your "normal" training pace.
When this pace is held for longer runs, it’s a useful way to attenuate
your body’s glycogen depletion and rely more on fat for energy.
These
runs are more about putting in the time than pushing the intensity.
They will help you become accustomed to fluid loss and other cellular
stresses. Easy pace is the one at which any training regimen begins—and
should remain for three weeks before introducing faster running. Focus
on light turnover and rhythmic breathing.
Threshold Pace
At around 88 percent of VO2max or 90 percent of MHR,
this pace provides quality training with limited stress. For many
runners, it’s slower than 5K race pace by about 24 seconds per mile.
These are the "tempo runs" we incorporate into our training, and they
should feel comfortably hard. You can use threshold pace for other
running, too; such as mile repeats with one-minute rests in between.
The
pace is best for improving the body’s ability to clear lactic acid from
the blood during exercise. The importance of this increases with
distance. Also note that, at 20 to 30 seconds per mile slower than
threshold running, there is a useful pace for long-distance runners
we’ll refer to as "marathon pace". Use this as an effective alternative
to the typical easy run. Just avoid any non-specific training intensity
that falls elsewhere on the continuum between your easy and threshold
paces.
Interval Pace
This is hard
running over short distances. The goal is to eventually achieve 98
percent of MHR for brief periods of time. Intervals should never be
longer than five minutes, and they are usually much shorter. Intervals
train the body to carry on through prolonged periods at VO2max. As a
guide, your pace should approximate a pace that you could not keep up
for longer than 15 minutes. This is not all-out running.
Running
intervals faster than this pace will introduce fatigue and possibly
injury; it will certainly compromise your next training day. Remember
that you’re not running at MHR for 15 minutes. (If you were to actually
perform a 15-minute run at this pace as a test, you would not be running
at MHR the entire time.)
Repetition Pace
This
is faster than interval pace, but does not improve VO2max as
effectively. It’s used to get your body moving smoothly at a fast pace. A
runner training for a 10K will have the same interval and threshold
paces as a runner training for 1,500 meters. But because one runner is
training for a faster race than the other, their repetition paces would
differ.
Racing requires running economy and speed, both of which
this pace improves by forcing the mechanical aspect of the training to
mirror race-day running. Unlike interval training, fully recover in
between repetition work bouts. You should be able to run the sixth 400
meters as fast as the first.
Once you understand the benefits of
each pace, you can begin to sculpt a training regimen over many weeks
that meets your specific distance goals in the most efficient way
possible—while remaining interesting and varied at the same time. For a
middle-distance runner (racing between 5K and 15K), long runs should
generally not make up more than 25 percent of total weekly mileage,
threshold running 8 to 10percent, intervals 6 to 8 percent and
repetition pace 5 percent.
Author: American
Running Association (16 Jul 2010) courtesy of ENTRYTIME
- www.entrytime.com
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