Great article. Even for me, I'm seeing gains coming off of an injury, just building up slowly to 40 mpw right now--and holding it. Nothing but EZ volume and getting stronger. The workouts come later...A lot of runners make the huge mistake of jumping up volume too soon, or doing too much speed, etc.
Running by feel is the way to go too, at least with base mileage. Maffetone HR has the *right* idea but he's obsessive about numbers and going too slow blows up your form. I'd rather run higher in the 9:xx bracket and get that HR down to 120-130 over time, so you can cruise at that speed, and yet not compromise form and also not be gray-zoning it in the 8:00-8:59 range. But if you stick to just HR only it will take most runners ages to get from 10:xx to 12:xx down to a reasonable level where your HR is where it is supposed to be. I'd rather be running 9:xxs in the 145-150 bracket for some time and then as I get fitter the HR drops. That way I can still volume-load and crush workouts, yet my EZ days don't take hours b/c 9:00-9:20 EZ is a lot faster and easier to handle mentally than 11:00...it starts cutting into other parts of your day.
Also the Japanese treat every run as a progression. I'm kinda learning to do the same thing--go as slow as 10:3x on the opening mile and notch down faster as my muscles warm up. Then even if it's not a workout day I'm finishing my EZ run at 9:1x pace but also my average HR is below 145...
I'm a huge admirer of Japanese distance running and do think they know something we don't about running fast marathons. But it's interesting to me that in my lifetime US men have won one more Olympic marathon medal than Jaoanese men have done, 4 to 3.
Great article. Even for me, I'm seeing gains coming off of an injury, just building up slowly to 40 mpw right now--and holding it. Nothing but EZ volume and getting stronger. The workouts come later...A lot of runners make the huge mistake of jumping up volume too soon, or doing too much speed, etc.
Running by feel is the way to go too, at least with base mileage. Maffetone HR has the *right* idea but he's obsessive about numbers and going too slow blows up your form. I'd rather run higher in the 9:xx bracket and get that HR down to 120-130 over time, so you can cruise at that speed, and yet not compromise form and also not be gray-zoning it in the 8:00-8:59 range. But if you stick to just HR only it will take most runners ages to get from 10:xx to 12:xx down to a reasonable level where your HR is where it is supposed to be. I'd rather be running 9:xxs in the 145-150 bracket for some time and then as I get fitter the HR drops. That way I can still volume-load and crush workouts, yet my EZ days don't take hours b/c 9:00-9:20 EZ is a lot faster and easier to handle mentally than 11:00...it starts cutting into other parts of your day.
Also the Japanese treat every run as a progression. I'm kinda learning to do the same thing--go as slow as 10:3x on the opening mile and notch down faster as my muscles warm up. Then even if it's not a workout day I'm finishing my EZ run at 9:1x pace but also my average HR is below 145...
I'm a huge admirer of Japanese distance running and do think they know something we don't about running fast marathons. But it's interesting to me that in my lifetime US men have won one more Olympic marathon medal than Jaoanese men have done, 4 to 3.