Run Like a Kid Again Using a Simple Sprint Strategy.
Key #1 BUILD: Chapter 3 - Sprint
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Chapter 3: Sprint
Now we're going to get into the fun stuff, how to run fast. Many people complain about low heart rate training because you're just slogging around all the time and not running fast. That really isn't the right way to do it.
We want to be able to run like a kid again. If you’ve ever watched kids run, they sprint, they don't jog along. They get up and they go. So we still want to be able to retain that movement pattern. There are 3 ways to do this.
Hill Tempos - During your normal daily runs, you can do what I call Hill Tempos, where if you're on any sort of hilly path, take advantage of the downs. Your heart rate normally goes up when you're going uphill, but drops when you're going downhill. Take advantage of that and just push the pace and keep your heart rate up on the downs and get a little speed workout in at the same time.
Sprint Sessions - The second way is to actually sprint every couple of weeks. I have a very simple sprint workout that won't leave you tired and sore the next day. This will activate those neuromuscular systems so that you have the ability to explode when you want to. Many people fail to gain speed because they don't incorporate ways to engage their neuromuscular system. True MAF training isn't just constantly jogging around slowly.
80/20 Training - The third way is to go into race-specific training, usually 10 to 12 weeks prior to your event. With 80/20 training, you do 80% of you sessions at or below MAF pace with 20% of sessions at race specific paces.
There's a better way to run faster without destroying yourself in the process. And the same thing goes with race training. A lot of these preprinted plans have some pretty tough interval workouts in them. You know, these come from track and field, and we're talking about endurance running here, and they're just unnecessary. And you shouldn't be doing them because you can improve your speed without damaging yourself on these track workouts. So, our goal is to go from labored running to being able to run like a kid again. And we'll be doing that through these three actions.
Sprint action #1
The first action step for the sprint section is pretty simple. While you're doing your base training daily runs, when you come to a downhill, go ahead and push it. Take a look at your watch and you'll see, as you go downhill, your heart rate will start to lower. So if your target is 125 and it's dropping down to say 121 or 118, you can go ahead and pick up the pace and keep an eye on your watch, build your pace so that your heart rate goes back up to that 125.
I know for me, there's a couple of longer downhills that I do occasionally, where I can really get my pace up for a good period of time by doing this and still be below my max heart rate. This is very simple to do and it adds a little change in your daily routine. Go out there and just push it every now and then!
Sprint action #2
In action step number two for sprinting, we're going to talk about adding an occasional sprint session. This is something you can do during your base training phase and even when you go into your race phase. This is such a simple workout and there are so many benefits from sprinting.
Sprinting jacks up your metabolic growth hormones and stimulates your neuromuscular system so that you activate those fast twitch muscles. This way, your brain knows how your body's supposed to react when you run fast, and like Mark Sisson, my mentor says, “Nothing cuts you up more than sprinting!”
The great thing is you only have to do it once every couple of weeks to get all the benefits. And the sprint workout is fairly short.
So let me go through it. First of all, you only want to do this workout on a day that you feel rested and have good energy. I like to do this barefoot on the grass, but you can do it on any level surface, like the infield of a track.
First, you need to warm up for about 15 minutes, run a mile or so at an easy pace to get everything circulated up and moving.
Then, do a series of four to six sprints that are only 10 seconds long, resting between one and two minutes in between each one. After you're warmed up, you're essentially going to go all out for 10 seconds.
Now you only really need to go about 80%, but you won't really know what that's like until you do a few of these. So when you first start out, just haul off and run and count to 10. Then stop and look at your watch to make sure you rest between one to two minutes. When rested, repeat the process.
The first time you do this, just do it three or four times, so you know what it feels like. And then when you're done, jog for 15 minutes or so to run it off. You'll feel really good after doing this. The best part of it is the next day. You're not going to notice that you even did a sprint workout the day before. As you feel comfortable, increase the sprints to 6 or even 8 times.
So instead of those hard intervals on the track where you can't get out of bed the next day, this won't affect you that way if you do it correctly. I know many people who get into low heart rate training skip this, and it's just critical that you don't. It's fun. We don't have a lot of opportunities as older people to just haul off and take off like a kid. Give it a go!
Sprint action #3 – 80/20 training
In action step number three of sprint, lets talk a little bit about 80/20 training. In my program, ideally, you would to do three to six months base training, before you step into specific race training. If you run for fun, you can continue with your base training or mix it up a little bit with this 80/20 type training pattern. Matt Fitzgerald wrote a great book on 80/20 running, it's based upon what elite runners have found, that they spend 80% of their runs at a very easy pace and then only 20% at a moderate or higher intensity. So that works really good for us, where 80% of your training would be at or below your MAF heart rate and then 20% would be more race, specific training.
To be clear, 80/20 training means 80% of your weekly sessions are at or below your MAF training heart rate. So if you run 5 times a week, 4 of your runs would be MAF effort runs, and one of your runs would be a race specific training run.
What I recommend is if you have a training program from the internet for a 5k, 10k, half marathon, marathon, ultra-whatever, those are great to follow. But I would stay clear of any interval or track workouts, like doing four hundred, eight hundred interval sprints on a track. That's just unnecessary.
For “speed work”, you can continue to do your sprint workouts, as in the last section, or add in tempo runs and threshold runs. Tempo pace is more like your half marathon or marathon pace. Threshold pace is the hard pace of the two kinds of runs, which is just a little bit slower than your 5k or 10k pace. It's hard to keep up longer than 20 minutes or 30 minutes, but that's the higher pace that you'd go for instead of intervals.
It depends on what you're training on, you’ll want to spend part of your training mimicking your race pace so that you get used to doing that.
Take a look at one of those training plans, remove the interval track stuff, and then see where they have those tempo or threshold runs and then make sure that it balances out to only those workouts being only 20% of what your weekly training would be to get ready for that race.
Here's an example of what that could look like.
Monday, a 60-minute run, easy, which would be at MAF.
Tuesday, you would include some interval. That's just 30 seconds, hard, 30 seconds easy. And again, when we're talking about the hard, that's at your 10k pace.
Wednesday, take a rest day,
Thursday, another 60 minutes easy.
Friday, rest,
Saturday, two hours easy pace
Sunday rest way.
This is four hours of easy running plus one hour of higher intensity running, but it's split up in a variety of ways throughout the week.
So this way, you can modify one of those race training plans to meet your training needs without overdoing it and getting yourself hurt by doing improper race training.
Sprint Homework
Okay. It's homework time again. Take a chance to take off those shoes and sprint in the grass. Otherwise, you're just gonna forever keep plodding along. So now, let's get after it. This is easy to do and it's fun.
So here's your homework:
1. When you're out on your daily runs, take advantage of those downhills.
2. Pump it up a little bit and get into the habit of sprinting every two weeks. You don't necessarily want to write this in your program set in concrete because if you're not feeling it that morning, I don't want you doing the session. Just sprint when you feel good. Every two weeks to 10 days is a good time to fit in your sprint session.
3. If you're getting into specific race training, make sure you're doing 80% of your training at or below your MAF heart rate and 20% at a moderate or higher pace. And like I said, stay away from that track stuff. It's just not necessary.
Thanks for taking a look. I would appreciate some honest feedback on this chapter. This review is not about spotting typos. Instead, the most useful feedback is about stuff like:
Where do you get confused or lost or have an unanswered question.
Where do you disagree, or have different experiences.
Where you start to get bored and feel like skipping ahead or giving up.
Anything you find especially interesting or helpful.
You can leave comments below(paid member) or email them to me at: Herb@foreverrunner.com
Next Chapter: KEY #2 BURN - Switch your metabolism into a fat burning machine!