Performance coach and author
of Peak Performance and The Science of Running, Steve
Magness, is known for sharing his wisdom with runners
on his Twitter feed. In his most recent thread, he focuses
on the basics, reminding runners what truly matters when
it comes to getting fitter and faster. Runners who are
looking to snag a new PB should check out his nine rules
of thumb for getting faster below and start applying them
to their training.
Rule 1: consistency is the most important
aspect of your training
You can’t rush progress. The only
way to improve at running (and most things, really) is
consistently working on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly
basis to achieve your goals. As Magness says, you can’t
skip steps. You also have to work in amounts that allow
you to stay healthy — sure, running 100 kilometres
a week might help you progress faster, but if you can’t
dedicate enough to time recovery in order to handle that
volume, you’ll just end up injured and set yourself
back.
Rule #2: Keep your hard days hard and
your easy days easy
Many runners make the mistake of doing
all of their mileage at relatively the same effort, which
is often too hard for an easy day and too easy for a hard
day. Your hard days need to be hard enough that you force
your body to adapt to the effort, and your easy days need
to be easy enough to absorb that training effect.
Rule #3: be intentional with your data
measurements
A lot of runners love looking at their
running data. If you’re like most, you’ve
probably started to adjust your training to see changes
in those metrics, so whichever you choose, you want to
make sure it’s actually leading you in the right
direction. This is why Magness says you need to be intentional
about which metrics you use. For example, many runners
like to look at their total weekly mileage and focus on
increasing that number, but maybe that’s not what
you need. Depending on your level and the race you’re
training for, you might be better off monitoring your
heart rate metrics to change the intensity of your workouts,
rather than the distance.
Rule #4: listen to your body
As Magness points out, your body is constantly
giving you feedback, which gives you insight about how
well you’re recovering, how hard you’re working
and even what you should or shouldn’t be doing during
training. The better you are at picking up on and listening
to these signals, the better you’ll be at understanding
what your body needs and avoiding injuries.
Rule #5: recovery is important
Fitness improvements don’t happen
during workouts, they happen when you’re recovering
between bouts of hard work. For this reason, recovery
is just as important (if not more important) than your
actual training, and runners who don’t emphasize
recovery often end up over-trained. If you’re not
fully recovering between hard workouts, space them out.
For example, you could try a 10-day training week if you
need more recovery time.
Rule #6: know what you’re trying
to improve
There are many different types of runs
and workouts, and each one is meant to improve one specific
aspect of your fitness. There is no “perfect”
or magical workout that’ll dramatically improve
your running performance. When you’re designing
a training plan, make sure you know what you’re
trying to improve during each session, and design the
workout accordingly.
Rule #7: find the right balance
To excel at any race distance, you need
to find the right balance between speed and endurance.
Exactly what that looks like depends on the athlete and
the race. A 5K, for example, requires much more speed,
while a marathon is heavily on the endurance side. Each
distance, however, requires a bit of both. Find what your
balance needs to be and adjust your training accordingly.
Rule #8: one step at a time
As we said earlier, you can’t rush
fitness. Magness encourages runners to wait until their
bodies are ready to take the next logical step, and only
make changes when your body has had a chance to absorb
your training. For many runners, this can be a slow, sometimes
frustrating process, and having the patience to progress
logically and safely can be difficult, but it will ultimately
make you a stronger runner than you would have been otherwise.
Rule #9: Manage your effort
Or, as Magness puts it, “win more
workouts than you lose.” It’s sometimes hard
to find the right balance between just-hard-enough and
too hard. If you’re walking away from every workout
feeling trashed, you’re probably either over-doing
it during workouts, or under-recovering between sessions
so that you’re note actually ready to do the workout.
Frank Shorter said
it best:
2 hard workouts and a long run, plus as much volume as
you can handle. Do that for years.
Bonus: two more training rules of thumb
So what does this actually look like in training? Magness
sums it up with two rules runners can follow when designing
training programs:
First, focus on extremes: runs plenty
of easy mileage, along with plenty of short, fast work
that won’t tire you out (like 100s). Practice staying
relaxed while running fast.
Next, work toward the middle: keep your easy runs easy,
but use a variety of intensities to achieve different
training adaptations.
Training can get complicated, but it doesn’t
have to be. As an athlete, you can get most of the way
simply by nailing the basics, and you can leave the more
complicated stuff up to a good coach.
Read
Magness's detailed tweets included in the article here |
219.jpg)
