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| Andrew Huston, the author, recorded a 3:54.97 in the 1500 this past weekend at the Louisiana Classics. |
A base, every distance runner in the history of the world knows the value doing over distance (meaning running for far longer than you're going to be racing, if you're an 800 guy, running a mile is not an over distance run). As my high school coach used to say, "You have to have a solid foundation to build a house." I don't know how much he knows about carpentry, but he knows a lot about distance running, so I tend to believe that you have to have something to build off of. A base makes you stronger so that your body can recover more quickly after you tear it down doing intervals. When you build a base, you're striving for aerobic efficiency which will make everything easier. Every good distance runner takes time to build a base and devotes a large part of the year, usually 3-4 months (sometimes more) to building a monster base and getting in killer shape. For a good program it is necessary to have a few components such as, a weekly long run, a fitness test, and a gradual increase in mileage. Your long run could serve a fitness test. You should also note that the fitness does not have to be hard, just go to a track or a measured course and run the same effort you did last week or two weeks ago and see if you've improved any. If you get creative you can incorporate the fitness into the long run by picking a section to test yourself on. Staying creative is important because it isn't very hard to get bored with running the same loop every morning, every day, people to run with have helped me out immensely with this.
THE LONG RUN
The long run is probably the most important of any fitness program, whether you're trying to build a base, get faster during track season, or just get in shape in general, you're going to need to do something long every week. If you're reading this you're probably a runner, so that means you'll probably be running long every week. If you're beginning running, start off with 40 minutes and work your way up. If you're more advanced or can handle more, then start off with 60-80 minutes and work your way up. The longest I've ever run for is 100 minutes and it was a blast (until it dark). Even if you're doing marathon training I'm not sure I would recommend doing more too much more than 2 hour long runs. The purpose of a long run is to increase your endurance. This happens because when you do something strenuous (like run for 90 minutes) you build new capillaries in your muscles, your VO2 is increased and your kidneys release EPO into your bloodstream to help you create more red blood cells which helps you move O2 more efficiently throughout your body. If you run longer, you will create more capillaries and produce more EPO. Right there should be enough to convince you to get out the door on Saturday or Sunday mornings to get in some good mileage. You can do your long run at any time, but the morning is suggested because it is cooler and you have the rest of the day to recuperate from it. I believe that one of the best things ever is to do a good, long run, eat a big breakfast, take a hot shower and then take a nap. It will probably be the best nap you've ever had.
FITNESS TESTING
It usually takes 4-6 weeks to see any real gains in endurance, so I would suggest doing a fitness test every 2-4 weeks. If you do a test every week, you probably won't see the increase as much as if you tested over a longer period of time and this could get discouraging. The reason you would want to test yourself is to see if you really are progressing the way you want to be progressing. Being able to test yourself also gives you the opportunity to make slight changes in your training. If you're progressing faster than you expected then you can do more, if you're going slower then you can back off. Ideally, the test should be a run that takes more than 30 minutes to complete; a 6-miler would be a pretty good fitness test in a base building period. Just get out there and put out the same effort that you did last test and see what the time is. That's the great thing about running; you can always use time as a barometer, because if the distance doesn't change then the time probably will.
GRADUAL INCREASE OF MILEAGE
Running miles is the only way to build a base. You could build a base off 20 mile weeks, but it would go a lot faster and you would get in a lot better shape if you 60 or more miles per week. Once again, if you're just starting out, it is probably a good idea to start off with 20 miles/week and increase from there. If you are more advanced starting at 40-50 MPW should be plenty. But, because no one knows the athlete like the athlete, it's really your call as to how much mileage you want to do. As far as upping the miles goes, increasing by 5-10 per week should get you where you want to be pretty quickly, unless you're chasing 150 MPW. But if you're going after that mark then I'm going to assume that you're pretty experienced and really don't need all of this advice.
Base training is a great way to increase your aerobic fitness which is very important for distance runners. However, it is important to keep some speed in your legs which is why you should try to incorporate some 100m strides into your program. Just think, if you do 8x100 strides, then you've added an extra half mile to your day and it's really not that hard. Strides are simply accelerating to a speed that is called "top relaxed", meaning the fastest you can run without straining, and holding it until you get to the 100 mark. Being distance runners, it will take at least 40-60m to get that speed up, which is why it is important to do more than two. If you're just starting out then 4 strides will probably be adequate, but as you add more miles you want to add more strides as well.
Hopefully if you're beginning or experienced you've either learned something new or had a new idea because of this. Next up is an article on proper nutrition for runners. Until then,
-Andrew Huston.