New Year's Resolution: Run Easy in the Winter
The fall marathon season is over.
So is the fall racing season.
There are only a few low-key races in the next couple of months. And, as you read this article, you probably did not run as much as you hoped to because of the holidays. Perhaps, you even added a pound or two. Under these circumstances, many runners make a New Year's Resolution that they will get back into shape by going to the track and running hard.
This is exactly what we do not have our runners do in the MCRRC coaching program. Instead, we take advantage of the winter months to let our runners rest while building their strength and endurance. In fact, our runners have already been running easy for all of December. We try to keep our runners off the track until February (unless the runner has an important race scheduled before the end of March) and have them increase their weekly mileage by running easy. With the help of a heart monitor, most of their runs are done at 60-70 percent of maximum heart rate (1 to 2 minutes slower than 10K race pace). We also encourage our runners to run hills but not at a very hard pace. Their only speed work involves some aerobic intervals or fartlek runs, but these runs are done in 15-20 second bursts and under 80 percent of maximum heart rate. Come February, our runners will be mentally and physically ready to train on a schedule of anaerobic threshold runs and shorter intervals on the track.
If you do not believe that there are benefits to this training approach, I recommend that you read Dr. Philip Maffetone's article in the Winter edition of Footnotes (the newspaper of the Road Runners Clubs of America). Maffetone's article discusses the physical and psychological benefits of long blocks of aerobic training. This kind of aerobic base work gives you a mental break from racing and interval training. It also gives your body a chance to recover from any injuries and to avoid getting injured from running intervals in cold weather. It also enables you to develop discipline by forcing yourself to run easy. A bonus to this approach in the Washington, D.C., area is that it can be done regardless of the weather.
Congratulations to the following runners in the coaching program who qualified for the 1996 Boston Marathon: Anna Berdahl, Abigail Bushley, Don Carter, Renee Culbertson, Felicity Hawes, Michelle Harmon, Alice Hisamoto, Maia Munson, Jack Rafferty, Setsu Rosen, John Sissala, Kate Smith, and Steve Solbeck. Coaches Nancy Chapman, Janet Newburgh, Gary Resnick and Kirt West also have qualified for 1996 Boston.
Coach West is a licensed coach, affiliated with MCRRC, and available to coach motivated adult runners. A portion of his coaching fees for MCRRC members is returned to MCRRC. For further information about personal coaching opportunities, contact Coach West at kirtwest@comcast.net.
