Gary’s Fitness Blog

I have now watched the NOVA - Marathon Challenge program twice.  My personal opinion is that the documentary is way better than the Spirit of the Marathon Documentary that was done about the Chicago Marathon trainees.

That may be due to the face that I’m a little bit of a science freak when it comes to the training involved in  marathon training.  The NOVA special doesn’t go into a lot of detail, but they do address certain training issues:  injuries, VO2 Max, Body Composition and a little about nutrition during long runs.

Here are some key take home messages that I’d like to point out and my view:

1.  Long Runs

I’ve discussed this many times in the past.  I recently wrote an article that I called, “A look at the long run and marathon training.”  And my first podcast, “The long run in a marathon program.  The double long strategy,” addresses my thoughts on how to approach a long run.

One of the interesting discussions was when the exercise physiologist and nutritionist from Tufts said that by the time you get to the “long” runs you have already developed the physiological changes and the soft tissue changes, the long runs are primarily beneficial for the psychological outcomes.

That is a point that I like to make and my point-of-view is that the downside of injury (for most runners) is greater than the psychological uplift a person may generate.

Just a reminder that there is no magic to a 20 mile run.

2.  Weight Loss / Body Composition

They analyzed the body composition of the runners before and after their marathon training programs.  What they found was that only one of the runners changed their body weight or body composition during the program.

This is hard to believe for many people, especially when you consider the amount of exercise they added to their lifestyles.  The take home message (which they made) is that we often over-estimate the caloric expenditure of the activity we participate in.

Thus, if we want to get into a weight management situation or lose some weight, nutrition is a very important (if not the most important) variable in that program.  This can be hard for an exercise physiologist and personal trainer to admit because I want to believe that exercise is the most important key to any lifestyle… but there are limitations.

A better message is that there needs to be a combination of exercise and non-disordered-eating.  One thing that I see often (and see in myself), is a belief that with all the exercise that comes with running a marathon or training for an Ironman, a person can eat whatever they want.  That mentality leads to disordered eating.

Exercise Session –> Eat what mind wants –> Non-Optimal Food Choices

This is one thing that I am currently working on.  I know that when I’m in full capacity training I have little mental energy and strength to combat poor nutritional habits.  Last summer it got a little crazy as I trained for Ironman Wisconsin.  Now that I’m not in full capacity training, I see myself being able to change some of those habits.  Still more changes that need be made.

3.  The other side of body composition.
The other side to their body composition discovery was that the one person that did have changes also included a bootcamp training program in addition to their marathon program.

This is a good lesson because it helps us realize that even within an exercise program, there needs to be a balance between strength training, flexibility training, and cardiovascular training.  Many endurance athletes can become addicted to the “runner’s high” and neglect other aspects that would benefit their health (again, I am as guilty as anyone).

4.  The injury issues:

There seemed to be a lot of injury issues that the runners were dealing with.  One of the most important lessons that I’m continually learning is the value of specific strength training and flexibility training as a hedge against injury in a beginner / novice marathon program.

You can go back and read the posts I’ve had on strength training and patellofemoral pain.  Many lessons learned there.

The long run is usually viewed as the center piece of a marathon training program. In the current pop running culture, this means that most marathon training programs work towards the “20 miler”.

This is a topic that I have discussed many times in the past, with many different people, and I thought now was the time to get all my ideas out there to share with fellow runners.

Why I don’t like the “20 mile” Destination for marathon training:

1. I don’t like the concept of placing so much importance on a single 20 mile run. Why? In many running programs that I see, runners end up putting so much value on the long run that it ends up taking away from the value and training stimulus they could get by having a solid week of running. (Which means running regularly throughout the week too.)

This doesn’t mean that every runner using these programs puts too much emphasis on the long run, but psychologically it can become a trap. If you decide that the weekend long run is the most important workout of the week, it can be tempting when “life happens” to justify missing a couple runs during the week, as long as you “accomplished” the long run.

This is a trap that often leads to, in the worst case - injury, in the best case - less developed fitness due to less overall training stimulus.

This idea becomes even more magnified if a training program leads towards the 20 miler and a runner develops the belief that they are ready to run the marathon, using the 20 miler accomplishment as their only indicator.

I’m not the only one who takes this approach. Jack Daniels, in his book, Daniels’ Running Formula suggests that the longest run you do be under 2.5 hours. The risk-to-reward ratio (injury risk/physiological reward) beyond that point is often not worth it. I remember Bobby McGee taking a similar stance.

Solution: as a runner begins a marathon training program, set the initial goal to accomplish “x” number of weeks running 3 days and building to 5 days a week before taking on any run over 2 hours. “x” depends on your timeframe, but a typical 18 or 20 week program should give you at least 6 weeks to build up to 4 runs at 40mins+ or 5 runs at 30mins+.

2. Does it pass the common sense test to do more than 50% of your running in one day? It doesn’t, but many marathon runners that I see or read about do just that.

When a runner is doing less than 40 miles per week, that is what they are doing when they build to a 20 mile long run.

Again in Daniel’s book he suggests that the long run be no more than 25% of your total weekly mileage. Therefore to have a long run of 20 miles, a runner must be doing a minimum of 80 miles a week. That kind of mileage is not all that common for the average age-grouper hoping to finish a marathon.

An approach that I have reviewed several times that I like a lot (probably because it is how I like to train people too) is the way the the Hansons train their runners (their age-groupers, not their elite… that would destroy all of us).

In their approach, the longest run that a beginner or advanced runner does is 16 miles. (I know your are screaming in revolt as you just read that.) The advanced runner will see more training stimulus throughout the program, but the longest run distances are the same.

What a refreshing display of understanding an average runners needs and ability. Someday I would love to get some closer looks and discussions with the Hanson-Brooks guys, but from the outside looking in, I like what I see.

Solution:

So you are freaking out about not running longer than 16 miles prior to your marathon day - that’s normal. But it is normal due to the fact that the 20 miler has become ingrained into every running groups mindset around this country, not because there is a physiological or training stimulus significance to that distance.

I personally don’t have a 16 mile limit in many of the programs I help with, I schedule the longest run at 2.5 hours and allow a little more if the runner is running well, consistent and injury free.

So how do we address the psychology behind “being ready”?

The Double Long Run Weekends.

I have to admit this is not my idea originally. It was a style of training that a professor I had at UNL (Nebraska-Lincoln) put me through (in late 2000) when I went to her for a solution to my 2 previous failed attempts at running a quality marathon.

The basic Idea: is to alternate weekends, doing a longer run on week one, then two medium long runs on Saturday / Sunday of week two. Then repeat that pattern throughout your training program. An example might look like this:

week 1 - Saturday: 12 miles / rest
week 2 - Saturday: 8 miles / Sunday: 8 miles
week 3 - Saturday: 14 miles / rest
week 4 - Saturday: 10 miles / Sunday: 10 miles

That is a basic example, it would be changed based upon athlete, scheduling, along with other variables that could impact the schedule, such as races. I personally prefer to use time goals than mileage goals, but the same pattern would apply with either method.

What I found was that this pattern allowed me to be incredibly more consistent in my running. I would spend less time recovering from the mega long runs. I also found I could easily handle more total running stimulus in a week compared to situations when I was trying to stay fresh for the weekend long run.

Those two things improved my running greatly - consistency and greater overall training stimulus.

How to approach the Double Long Weekend?

These weekends can be tough sometimes, but they can also provide a great deal of training stimulus and self-confidence. Here are some tips that I like to share about those weekends:

1. Saturday’s run should be relaxed and comfortable. I rarely get excited about how fast or slow the runs are, because the main goal is to feel strong. Many times the Saturday run will be finished with the runner feeling a little anxious about not having done enough. Especially when they have reached a point where 10 mile runs could be done each day they run.

2. Make sure you allow your legs to recover after Saturday’s run. Proper post run nutrition, stretching, cold baths are all good ideas.

3. Sunday’s run should be done at an intensity slightly higher than Saturday’s run (but much less than the Tuesday,Thursday runs during the week.) Ideally, the runs would be completed at a pace that is 45 seconds to 1:15 per mile slower than the goal marathon pace.

This depends upon the runner’s current fitness though! Don’t run those times if they are picked out of the air, know that your fitness is prepared for them.*

4. Make the back half of the Sunday run the most intense of all the weekends efforts. Often this will happen naturally as the legs fatigue, but a very fit runner may need to push that portion of the run in order get the training effort up. (Still should be around 45 seconds off marathon pace.)

Using these double long runs in this manner, especially approaching the Sunday run this way should give the runner confidence in their ability to run the marathon’s 26.2 mile distance. It can also be a huge learning experience to feel the legs achy and tired prior to Sunday’s run and still being able to finish the distance or duration.

As mentioned, this structure also allows recovery to occur faster and decreases the risk of injury when compared to the single long run days.

Expanding this concept (even to triathlon).

This idea can be taken one step further for the more advanced runner. An example that I can share is my approach to our (Nikki and my) run programs leading up to Ironman Wisconsin last September.

Knowing that putting in a long run didn’t fit the schedule or our ability to maintain regular workouts in the other sports, we built up to a “broken marathon”. This was different for the two of us as we were different in our running needs.

My program built to this series: 12.6 am run / 6.8 pm run (included some tempo) / 6.4 am run. That got me to 25.8 miles with a little tempo built into it within a 30 hour period.

Nikki’s program built to this series: day 1: 10miles, day 2: 10miles, day 3: 6miles. That got her to 26 miles within a 48ish hour time period as the day one run was an evening run and the day 3 run was a morning run.

Keep in mind that this isn’t a prescription to copy, just an example as to how the idea of stacking runs in a 24/36/48 hour time period could be done. This method was easy enough on my body that I was able to get in an hour recovery swim during the evening of the second day.

(As a sidenote, the longest run I did in the Ironman build was 15 miles.)

Final Thoughts on Approaching your Long Run.

The long run is an important piece to any marathon program, but don’t be fooled into the dogma that the long run has to follow the staircase to 20 miles. It might just be the worst thing you could do for your training, because training and racing become difficult if not impossible when you are nursing an injury.

Try a double long weekend… you just might see your running improve like I did.

* This deserves another post that I hope to get to soon, but for now you can read Daniels’ Running Formula or search google for “VDot running”.