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Aerobic Conditioning:
Building the Foundation
Aerobic conditioning are "comfortable" distance runs. These runs should last for 30 minutes to 2 hours. The length of your aerobic conditioning runs will be dictated by your racing distance, periodization goals, fitness level, experience, and health will determine and they will vary significantly throughout your cycles.
There are some differences to the pace at which this training should be done. These medium to long runs are generally effective at about 1:30 to 2:30 per mile slower than your 5K race pace which is 65% to 75% of your maximum heart rate (MHR). This pace is fine for those who are training for distances that are more aerobic in nature (5K or higher) In Better Training for Distance Runners, Martin and Coe advocate that a runners training for races that are heavily anaerobic in nature (e.g. 800m to 5K) should run at a pace that is on the edge of significant lactate production (i.e. 75% to 80% of MHR, or 1:00 slower than 5K race pace). They reason that the racing these events demands that the body tolerate fast paced running, a goal which should be present in all of your running-based training strategies. They further reason that valuable training time for these race distances is wasted on doing easy runs that are not as beneficial as a faster "steady state" run, which is still aerobic, but just not as comfortable.
Aerobic conditioning represents the foundation of any sound training program. The physiological effect result in an increase in the number of capillaries that can distribute oxygen to your muscles more efficiently and increases the use of oxygen by increasing the amount of oxidative enzymes within muscle cells. These runs also improve the body's ability to conserve muscle glycogen stores, strengthens tendons and connective tissue, and improve fast-twitch muscle fiber endurance capability.
Anaerobic Conditioning:
Raising the Threshold
One key to improved performances for distance runners is to get the body to tolerate increasing levels of lactic acid in the blood while running at a significantly faster pace than that of a steady state, aerobic conditioning run. Lactic acid is produced when we try to run a pace faster than the body can handle aerobically, usually faster than 80% of your MHR. Anaerobic conditioning sometimes called lactate threshold training. This type of training is done at a pace that is just under the point at which lactic acid is being produced at a faster rate than it can be removed from the bloodstream.
Lactate threshold running can be performed as either a continuous "tempo" run that is 15-30 minutes long, or a long intervals of 1000m to 2 miles in length with: 30 to 2 minutes rests. Depending on your training goals, you should carefully consider the weekly mileage devoted to threshold training. This type of training is performed at roughly 12 to 15 seconds slower per mile than your current 10K race pace and about 24 to 30 seconds slower than your current 5K race pace. This running speed is about an effort level of about 82 to 87 percent of maximum heart rate for beginning runners and about 87 to 92 percent of maximum heart rate for more experienced and/or advanced runners.
By performing 6-9 lactate threshold training sessions in a 2 to 3 month period, you will be able to (1) run farther at or near your lactate threshold running speed, (2) improve the speed at which your lactate threshold occurs, (3) run more comfortably at the same pace, and (4) improve your running efficiency at all race distances of 5K or longer.
You can increase the effectiveness of this kind of training by increasing total lactate threshold mileage, increasing your lactate threshold training speed by about 5 seconds per mile every weeks, reducing the length of the recovery jogs between intervals, or increasing the length of either the distance(s) run.
Aerobic Capacity Training:
Increasing Your V02 Max
The maximum amount of oxygen that you can take in, process and use to provide energy to your body is the aerobic capacity. The upper limit of your maximum aerobic capacity (AKA your VO2max) is for the most part, genetically pre-determined. However, most runners have not "maxed" out their functional aerobic capacities.
Fortunately, you can design your training to "max out" your aerobic capability. Medium-length repeats at your current 5k pace or 95-100 percent of MHR with equal amounts of rest between repeats will stimulate and increase your aerobic capacity. Runs of 2:00 to 6:00 in duration or about 600m to 2000m in distance with equal time or half the distance of the repeats jogging between efforts.
Another effective way of accomplishing the same objective is to do farklets. A farklet is a Swedish term that is loosely interpreted to mean "speed play" and that's what you will be doing. You do a farklet by varying the speeds at which you run, the length of time or distance of the speed increase, and how many of these surges that you want to perform. The great thing about farklets is that you can do them anywhere and you control the variables. These are valuable when doing aerobic capacity work as it adds variety to your favorite routes and keeps you from being on the track too much.
Here is my hit list of this kind of work out;
Farklet: 6x2: 00 with 2:00 minutes rest
Farklet: Ladder of 90 sec, 3:00, 5:00, 3:00, 90 sec, equal time rest
8x600m at 5k pace, 300m rest
6x800m at >95%MHR
3-4x1600m at >95%MHR
2x2000m at >95%MHR
1x3000m at>95%MHR, 3:00 rest, 1x1600m at>95%
Adding 1 aerobic capacity workout per week in a 7- to 10-week period will produce noticeable improvements. Note that this is stressful training. You should slowly build up (adding one more of these workouts per 8 weeks) to no more than four of these workouts per week. To move along your training progress, the speed or length of your aerobic capacity repeats should be increased every fourth workout.
Anaerobic Capacity Training:
Teaching Your Body to Buffer Lactic Acid
To increase your body's capacity to buffer and tolerate lactic acid accumulation in the bloodstream you must develop and increase your anaerobic capacity. Remember that when the intensity of your running does not allow you to produce energy primarily through the intake of oxygen alone, the body is in it anaerobic energy system. The body is forced to get its energy from an inefficient breakdown of muscle glycogen, which results in the production of lactic acid. A high anaerobic capacity represents a high tolerance of lactic acid build-up. The ability to continue to run at your race pace while lactic acid is building up is critical to racing well.
So how do you do this? If you have ever done any track training then you probably already have done this kind of training. Short distance (30m-600m) intervals are your key. Running these short distances (hey, who says 600m is short!) with a brief rest (from 15 seconds to 2-3 minutes) either jogging or walking around in between efforts will teach the body to produce lactic acid "buffers" which reduce the negative effects of anaerobic running.
The thing to remember with this kind of work is that the rest is the important factor. For example, a favorite 'get in shape' work out for me is 4x4x200m, 30/30/3:00 (in Track Speak: 4 sets of 4 repetitions of 200 meters in 30 seconds each, with 30 seconds rest between reps and 3 minutes between sets). This feels equal to four 2 minute 800m runs with 3:00 rest, which is what it is designed to immulate. The 30 seconds of rest is not enough for recovery, so your body starts to accumulate lactic acid. As the work out progresses what (for me) began as an easily managed distance (200m) for 30 seconds becomes harder and harder toward the end of the workout, just like your races. And that's the point. When I am able to complete this work out, I know that I am in shape to run at least a sub 1:55 800m, thus this is my benchmark workout. I try to accomplish this by my 12th to 15th week of training (within the first mesocycle).
If there is anything in your training that allows you to take advantage of race-like simulation, then this is it. Anaerobic capacity training must be done so that you feel like you are giving race-like efforts toward the end. Make no mistake; this is very hard training that will take a lot out of you, both mentally and physically, if it is done correctly. The benefits are two folds; you learn how to maintain pace under severe lactic acid accumulation and you gain confidence and mental toughness, two very important elements of racing.
The following are samples of some of my favorite workouts for this:
3x10x100m, 90 percent effort/walk 100m/jog 400m
10x150, 50m run, 50m hard sprint, 50m all out/ walk back to strait
25x200m, 3k race pace/1.5x pace time (e.g. if in 32 then 48 seconds rest)
8x300m, 800m, add 1 to 2 seconds to 800m race pace/ 2x pace
8-10x400m, 3k race pace/1.5x pace
3x600m, add 2 to 800m race pace
You should see anaerobic capacity training benefits within 3 to 4 workouts. These workouts should not be done until there is a sizable amount of endurance work under your belt. This is because you need to establish and increase your aerobic base to its maximum levels before doing significant amount of this kind of work so that you can handle harder anaerobic capacity workouts. This does not mean that you should not start doing this kind of work, you should do at least one of these workouts per week, but as you work toward a peak you want to be able to do four or five of these workouts per week. The frequency depends on your periodization goals.
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