Winter training that actually works!

By reducing the intensity of my training, I have finally started to improve my form!

OK, we hear this all the time. A mistake that many non-elite athletes do is to train too hard too often. Somehow, the idea that you have to train at a lower intensity to be able to improve your form seems counter intuitive. I have even written about this before, explaining sweet spot training, but I still wasn't able to implement it systematically myself. Neither had I fully understood what "too hard" means. Are we not supposed to push at maximum even during intervals?

Since December I have been very disciplined about threshold training, meaning that I don't let my heart rate go over my lactate threshold, even during intervals. And it has been giving results! Several things happened simultaneously in early December, which finally made me take serious action:

1. I started following Ingrid Kristiansen's blog and her weekly treadmill program for long distance runners.
2. I had a very eye-opening talk with my friend Mats about both vegan lifestyle and threshold training.
3. I was admiringly observing how my friend Cristian's form was improving recently, and I started asking him more detailed questions about threshold training, something that he has been advocating for a long time.

Treadmill running: You might remember from earlier posts that I really didn't use to be friends with the treadmill. I used to find it too boring, I used to get too hot, and I used to find it difficult to motivate myself to stay on a treadmill for longer than 3km. But all that has changed thanks to Ingrid's weekly treadmill recipe! Once a week she publishes a treadmill session, tailored to improve one's 10 km performance. The sessions started out short and easy, and gradually they have become longer and harder. All the time the idea is to stay below your threshold heart rate, perhaps except the last minutes. The speed changes all the time, and there are periods with lower speed to recover, which one can look forward to, which makes the whole thing manageable (though I would still not call it enjoyable). Ingrid is very strict about staying below threshold during training. It is during competition that you get to use your full capacity. I had heard this many times from my friend Eva, but had not been able to implement it carefully like now. Especially during winter, picking the day of the week with the worst weather for the treadmill session works perfectly.

 

Threshold intervals: Following the advice of Ingrid and Cristian, I also started watching my heart rate during interval sessions when training with friends. Normally I would try to go as fast as possible, and perhaps work hard to pass some friends, but now I am simply watching the heart rate, and the whole training session becomes much easier and more enjoyable. I also have so much more energy after a training session compared to what I used to. Recently, I have given priority to interval sessions with as long intervals as possible, as I feel that keeping my HR at threshold during longer intervals is more valuable. The 6 x 8 minute uphill intervals of Fjellgeitene have become a regular.

Does it work? The big question! I have been sticking to my plan, but all the time I have been wondering whether it was actually working. Since the treadmill intervals were getting harder and I could still keep them below threshold, I had a hope that my form was improving. But since I hadn't been running fast in a long time, I was wondering whether I would actually be able to run a race fast enough. So I tested myself this week: I participated in the Vinterkarusellen 10 km race, and I did my best time so far in that course! I kept an even pace throughout the course, and my heart rate was hardly above threshold!

What´s the deal? Ingrid explains this very nicely. The threshold HR is normally not easy to change. That's the heart rate at which your body starts producing too much lactic acid, and unless you are very untrained, there is not so much you can do about this HR level. But, by training just below or at this level, you constantly increase the speed that corresponds to this HR level. So with the same HR you start running faster and faster, which is in particular important for races that are 5 km or longer. And why not push it harder? When you train at higher intensity, you end up with a lot of lactic acid, which not only disturbs the quality of your training session, but too much lactic acid too often over a longer period seems to have a negative effect on your form. And mind you: it is only your hard sessions that should be at threshold HR. These should not be too many; you need a lot more sessions at lower intensity!

You might remember that I struggled a lot to get back my form and energy after Amsterdam marathon in October. I was getting quite frustrated that my training was not giving the effects that I was hoping for, and I was tired all the time. Finally, things are working again, and I have regained the energy to train and the will to compete. The danger is that when form improves and there is enough energy, it is easy to overdo it. I have done it myself, and I have seen so many friends do it, too. You start running too much, and then you get injured. So I am very careful to limit myself. At most five days and not more than 50 km per week (at least now during the winter). One day of complete rest (no other training either), and otherwise keep to strength training and restitution sessions on a bike.

If you are training regularly but not really improving your form, you might try reducing the intensity of your training. Many of my friends train at the same intensity as they race. I also used to do it. Unless you only run once or twice a week, it is the wrong way to do it. After a while you don't improve, and even worse, you wear your body down. If you don't know your threshold HR, you can take a lactate and oxygen test, or you can find a lot of advice online on how to get an approximate value.

I still have one more thing I am not doing right: the slow runs... I am still not able to do regular zone 1 runs, which all experts say are very important. They help us recover, they eventually increase our speed at this low HR, and they teach our body to burn fat rather than carbs during long races, which improves our endurance. So that's my homework for the coming weeks!

Train smarter, race faster!