Mileage vs. Intensity

Recently I have seen a wide variety of training methods used by those around me.  I have close friends who live off a steady diet of mileage making sure they get out everyday running at least 5 miles and always have 1 or 2 runs over 10 miles each week.  While I have others that will train three to four days a week  but at a much higher intensity usually with the week broken up into 2 longer runs and speed work.  Both of these training methods are drastically different yet I have seen success in both. 

This brought up the question of whether one is better than the other.  A question I inadvertently answer regularly when asked what the best way to get faster or run farther is.  The answer is actually very simple. It all depends on the person.  No two people are alike therefore the same training is unlikely to work for two different people.  I find that when I review someone’s history and see gaps and lots of short 2-3 mile runs with speed work I have an easy answer.  When I look at a history that has consistent mileage whether it be 10 miles a week or 100 with limited specialized training I have an easy answer.  It is an easy answer in these situations because usually these athletes have been consistently training this way for months or years.  There for the majority of the time the answer is do what you haven’t been doing.  Add more steady running if you’re training at a higher intensity.  Add more intensity if your always pounding away at the same steady aerobic pace. 

The question becomes more difficult when you have someone who has a combination of the two training history’s mentioned above.  This is when more work needs to be done to figure out if a low mileage high intensity plan is best for the athlete, or a high mileage lower intensity plan is better. It all depends on the person.  It is in a way trial and error to find which method suits an athlete best.  One thing is common among both and that is consistency is the key.  Whether you’re doing high mileage or low mileage a consistent training plan will take you much further than a 3 day a week plan as mentioned above.  For example say we have an athlete running 20 miles per week (mpw) over 3 days, say with a speed work day of 5 miles and easy day of 6 miles and long run of 9 miles.  If this same athlete where to stay at 20mpw but change their plan to a 5 day plan set up like

Sun:  7, long run Mon: 3, easy Tue: 3, easy Wed: 3, speed work/tempo Thur: off Fri: 4, easy Sat: off

This would be a much better training plan in my mind which would lead to better running and faster times.  This is because with a 3 day a week training plan there is only 3 days of muscle stimulus a week to tell your body to grow stronger.  In the modified plan there are 5 days of stimulus.  Though the daily totals are lower there is a greater stimulus being presented to the body because of the 5 day cycle.  This consistent stimulus and growth leads to an increase in efficiency because the body adapts to having to perform on a daily basis.

So whether you do 3 miles a day at a high intensity or 10 a day at low intensity the real key is that you do it consistently day in and day out to see performance increases.  Once this is accomplished is when fine tuning and specialized training should truly come into play.

As a side note when I say high mileage slow and low mileage high intensity this is different for everyone.  High mileage for one may be 20 miles a week while its 100 for another.  Same for Intensity, high intensity to my self is around the 5:10-15 per mile or faster range while say for my father it is at the 8-9 minute per mile range. So there is no standard for intensity levels or high mileage. It should always be based off your know ability.

What do you think about the mileage vs intesity debate? Does one yield better result than the other in your mind?

Loon Mountain Race

This weekend I participated in the final mountain race in the New England series that I’ll be doing this year.  The Loon mountain race is by far the most difficult race of the entire series, it is flat out brutal.  When registering the course map that was displayed on a screen said there was a 26% average grade from what I remember and it definitely felt like that.  The real kicker in this race though is the infamous upper walking boss which boasts a ridiculous 40% grade over 1000 meter.  Did I mention this course is brutal? Typically the race drops down again after the boss and then climbs up to the gondola for the finish.  This year due to the race being the women’s US mountain team qualifier the race finished at the top of upper walking boss. 

On the women’s side the race was stacked with some super tough ladies vying for the coveted team spots.  They race went out quick for them and they hammered up the mountain.  From the start though the team seemed to be some what decided, at least from what I could tell from the photos. A huge congratulation’s to the four women who made the team this year.  Morgan Arritola, Melody Fairchild, Brandy Erholtz, and Stevie Kremer.

Going into the race I wasn’t nervous but intimidated after reading the course description on the race website.  Add to that that the past week of training was basically nothing with a 10 mile day Tuesday, 7.5 on Friday, and 5 on Sunday.  Definitely not the kind of week that builds confidence that you’ll race well.  With that in mind I just went for it.  The race went out stupid fast with people blasting away out of the dirt parking lot the race started in to the start of the climbing.  Once the course started climbing it there were really only 3 spots that didn’t climb.  After the half mile there was a mellow down hill then around mile 3 there was a flattish single digit grade section, and finally as you pass the gondola there was a super steep downhill that mellowed out as carried us to the start of the boss.  Other than these sections it was climbing the whole 5 brutal miles up hill. Up to mile 3 I was feeling great in this race spreading my energy well.  After that it all ended the final 2 miles absolutely destroyed me.  Mile 4 was hard climbing up grassy ski slopes.  The start of five had that brutal drop off from the gondola and the downhill stretch which sufficiently beat up my legs before making the turn onto the walking boss.  Not having seen the upper walking boss before the moment all I could muster was “holy sh@#”.  Then the climb began.  1000 meters of power hiking and attempting to run up a wall.  When I finally finished it was official this WAS the hardest race I have ever run.  With that said I can’t complain about the outcome.  With a pitiful week of training prior to the race and no experience on an all up hill race I mustered out a 15^th place finish in sub 50min.  Would I have preferred a faster time? You bet, but I’ll take what I can, and come back next year much better prepared for the series as a whole with much more climbing in my training. 

This was another great race in the series with great organization and tons of prizes and raffle for all the participants. The amount of stuff being given away after the race was amazing with a Gopro hero 2 being raffled off, and then local food, tee shirts, hats, trail running books, gift certificates, water bottles and probably many other items being given away through race number drawings.  I came in 15^th and walked away from this race with a Scott water bottle as an entry gift, then got drawn in a give away receiving a t- shirt, reusable metal water bottle, and a free pair of Scott running shoes of my pick which I can’t wait to test out.  All in all this was a great last race for my New England mountain series.  There is still Ascutney left so if you interested sign up and try it out.

www.endurancestrengthspeed.blogspot.com

www.acidoticracing.com/LMR.html

www.club.penguincycles.com/AscutneyRun.pdf

Cranmore Hill Climb Recap

The most recent race I’ve run as part of the USATF Mountain series was the Cranmore Hill Climb.  This race was my first introduction to mountain racing last year and though it destroyed me, I also fell in love with the challenge of these races the second I crossed the line in 2011.  Aside from the awesome all around atmosphere that comes with this race the course changes a little every year to keep it interesting.  In 2011 it was a 3 loop course covering the same loop 3 times.  This year’s race was two completely separate loops the first was one of the 2011 loops while the second was a brutal ascent up to the top of the mountain.  As said the organizers of this race know how to put on an awesome race.  Registration is quick and easy.  Everyone is super friendly and the atmosphere is amazing.  This year the race featured Italian runner Marco De Gasperi the 6 time world mountain running champion who was the clear race favorite on this day. 

The gun went off sending us on our way and as expected Gasperi and Kevin Tilton an extremely fast local runner took off.  I went out a little quick coming through the first lap in 6^th place but was being closely followed by Dave Dunham.  Dunham and I have gone back and forth with him getting me at Sleepy Hollow and myself beating him at Wachusett.  Today I knew he had the edge since he can climb like nobodies business.  I held him of for about a quarter of the second major climb until he came roaring by.  It took everything I had to try and keep him in my sites on this long climb but he managed to slowly pull away.  The final big climb up to the top really killed me which allowed Dunham to get out of reach on the downhill but with a decent lead on the runner behind me I knew as long as I held my place to the top I could hold my place on the downhill.  A quick loop around a barrel at the top and a quick look at the view while doing so brought a little life back into me.  So down I went. All I had to do was just lay on the gas down while being careful not to take any huge falls that would take me out of it and all would be well.  Shortly later I was crossing the finish line.  The second loops climbing absolutely destroyed me in this race.  It was super steep to the top and one of the photographers who directed me half way up at a fork when I almost went the wrong direction said it best “Either way sucks!”  He was right in a super fun kind of way.

The race was a blast there was an awesome gathering as usual after the race for the awards.  As expected Marco De Gasperi took the win with the top New England guys close behind.  To top off a good day I managed to take first for my age group.  To celebrate it was off to Moat mountain brewery for burgers and suds before the ride home.  This is a race I love because one it absolutely kicks my a#@ and two because it was my introduction to this new obsession of mine to run up big hills.  Next up is the Loon mountain race which I am very nervous for because it is 5 miles all up hill, hopefully a recent 10 mile loop up and over Mt. Chocorua will help me out to not suffer to bad.  All you New England trail runners if your looking for some fun there are two races left in the series with Loon and Ascutney mountain challenge which I will unfortunately not be able to attend.

www.whitemountainmilers.com/cranmore

www.whitemountainmilers.com

www.usatfne.org/trail

Sleepy Hollow Race Report

On mothers day I had the pleasure of running the first annual sleepy hollow mountain race which was held in Huntington Vermont.  The race was being put on by Kasie Enman who is the 2011 World Mountain Running champion so going in it was obvious the course was going to be challenging. The race acted as the first race of the USATF New England Mountain Running Series.

I arrived at Sleepy Hollow Inn the night before the race and set up my tent in the field right by the start.  After setting up camp I took a quick run out to the course.  The course definitely didn’t disappoint in the toughness department.  In addition to the unrelenting climbs over the 3 loops totaling six mile, there was shoe eating mud for the entire first two loops making for some hard yet fun running.  On the steep down it was more like water skiing than running because of the mud and on the ups it was like one step forward two steps back.  None the less is was an awesome course laid out on cross country ski trails. Most of the running was on wide grassy and muddy trails with some awesome sections of single track tossed in to mix it up.  In the first 1/3^rd of the race we topped out to the high point of the course and hit some brutal climbs in doing so.  This was especially true in the second huge climb of the race which felt like I was going up for a good 15 minutes. 

The hills in this race definitely killed me as I way underestimated what I needed to be doing in training to be ready for them.  Not being able to climb the way I was hoping the game plan quickly changed to just get up the hills and hall ass on the downs to make up ground.  This definitely worked to keep me somewhat in the race but I paid the price in the last couple miles of the race as my legs where completely shot.  Trying to sprint in at the finish was an absolute no go.  All in all, the race kicked my but, I had a blast the whole way though.  I didn’t run nearly as well as I had hoped for, but can definitely say a huge overlook in what it would take to be prepared for the hills and some very sloppy conditions caused the not so spectacular performance.  I also can’t complain too much coming in 12^th place in a time of 43:36 in my second ever mountain race.

The race was awesome either way. Did I say that already?  It was great being able to camp in the field at the start, and it was very well organized with some great food at the end. I especially liked the fact that maple syrup was given out as awards, that was cool seeing as we where in Vermont.  Everything was efficient and you can definitely tell some very hard work was done on the course to get it ready.  I actually ran into Kasie on the course the day before working on it with a group. Sorry this isn’t a long or overly detailed report, I didn’t want to bore people.  On a side note outside of the race the Ben and Jerry’s factory is only 20 minutes from the race.  You better believe I made a stop there for a tour and some ice cream on the ride home.  There is no food I love more than Ben and Jerry’s.

http://sleepyhollowmtnrace.wordpress.com

A dose of nutrition and running!

Whats been going on as of late
Hey everyone.  Long time no talk.  I've been training hard for the Cranmore hill climb this weekend which is also the sole qualifying race for the USA Mountain Running Team. That means I'll be lining up next to the best mountain runners in the country  to challenge the mountain.  I'm unbelievably excited and feel ready as I ever could be, Bring on the hills!

Western States 100 this weekend!
In addition to the USA Mountain championships this weekend the race that started ultra running is also this weekend, the Western States 100 Miler.  For those of you that don't know this is the first 100 mile endurance event to ever be raced.  Last year the field was stacked, course records where shattered, and we saw some of the best head to head racing over 100 miles ever (yes I said head to head racing over 100 miles, crazy). This year promised to be just as competitive with many of the same runners once again lining up.  Here are a couple links to introduce you to this amazing race.  The first is a video trailer of last years race which is amazing.  The second is the event web site for some history of the race. Enjoy!

Video Trailer

Western States 100 website

A little bit of nutrition for you
A short while back a friend of mine posted this article on his own blog and I have been meaning to post it up for all of you.  This is a short article on the nutritional value of egg's.  It is full of great information about where the true nutrition of an egg comes from.  With all the diet information out there today it seems to be the general consensus among most that to lose weight you just cut out calories, the less you eat the more you lose.  Well this is one thing I can't stand.  Not only is it completely false for the most part(yes initially you'll lose weight but in the long run its a bad idea, and no one wants to lose weight just for a couple weeks or months).  With this mentality nutrition is completely ignored which is much much more important than loosing a few pounds.  One food that takes a big hit from the diet craze is eggs.  So check out the article and let me know what you think in the comment section below.  Mean while I'm going to go cook up some eggs.

The Article

Endurance = Strength = Speed
Happy Training,
Matt