Forums >General Running>long run pace question
SMART Approach
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Safe Muscle Activation Recovery Technique
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I think that we all know that the only way to run faster is to train your body to run faster. You cannot do that without speed work and by not training your fast twitch muscles or your body to handle the stresses of faster race paces unless you are genetically endowed with natural speed, or you work hard to get your body in that shape.
Runners run
Hawt and sexy
I'm touching your pants.
It's simply not true that you have to do speedwork to get faster. If you're trying to shave those last couple of seconds off, sure, but over the long term you'll get better results from mileage and tempos.
My slow improvements come from treadmill training in the winter. Don't tell the regular MAFfers this, but once winter hits, and I am on the treadmill, I ditch the HRM for all but one run every 3 weeks. That run is my MAF test. That how I increase my pace. This time it has been a steady increase, but my overall mileage is down due to new commitments this year. My largest increases came from putting in 80-90 mile weeks like I was doing at this time last year. When I move back out to the road and don the HRM daily, the times will be more erratic again. If you really want to know more about how I train, start browsing the MAF/LHR trainer forum here and read the stickies available there. 40-50 mpw huge mileage? Not even close. That is a recovery week for some. And yes, my hips/knees were sore at first. My tendons needed to toughen up. If you are going to fast, they will get injured instead of toughening up. Speedwork should be seasonal for the most part. This greatly reduces the risk of injury and burnout. Pick one or two goal races. You really should not expect to be competitive for months at a time. It is an unreasonable stress to put on the body. Meh, whatever floats your boat I guess. MTA-You do not lose fitness by slowing down, you lose conditioning. There is a difference. Going back to a base phase does not mean you are taking a step backward. You are coming out of a race season and building onto what you have work so hard to obtain. It is true you will not be race ready, but you are not suddenly unfit either.
What was the secret, they wanted to know; in a thousand different ways they wanted to know The Secret. And not one of them was prepared, truly prepared to believe that it had not so much to do with chemicals and zippy mental tricks as with that most unprofound and sometimes heart-rending process of removing, molecule by molecule, the very tough rubber that comprised the bottoms of his training shoes. The Trial of Miles, Miles of Trials. How could they be expected to understand that? -John Parker