Over the years of coaching, I’ve experienced two distinct groups of runners—those that train hard and those that train smart. However, I’ve met very few runners who train hard and smart.
My typical client is a runner (or triathlete) who thrives on hard work. They’ll say things like, “If you need me to run longer, I can just wake up earlier.” or “Should we add an extra day to this training block”? Or maybe even, “Works been full on. I’ve been travelling a lot this last few weeks, and I was in the hospital all weekend because my son broke his arm while I was riding with him, so I struggled a bit on the 3hr run because I didn’t get out until 8 pm on Sunday.”
It’s these guys and girls who need to work smarter. They can get relatively quick results by applying my magical ABCS formula of aerobic base, consistency, and specific to their training. (Download the full formula 👉HERE👈
However, another group of runners comes to me because they’re looking for the next scientific “hack” to increase their training effectiveness. The “smart” runners. Generally, these runners have the most sporadic training history because they’ve cooked themselves trying to do some barefoot HIIT training while simultaneously going keto…. in the heat (it’s the new altitude, didn’t you know!). These guys and girls just need to train harder because regardless of how much you spent on your massage gun, it won’t turn an average of three runs every other week into a sub 3 hr marathon.
What I’ve seen get the best results is hard training done right. While it may be called training smart, it’s often straightforward. A big motivator to start this training blog was to show how there are no secrets to improving your running. You can scroll through my Strava and see that I don’t do anything special AND that I don’t do everything right all the time. However, on average, I’m ticking the right boxes each week - one or two race-specific sessions, one long run, and the rest easy-aerobic.
After seven weeks of training, I’m finally starting to feel fit. Over the weekend, I raced a 4 km cross-country and, despite horrible pacing (see image below), averaged 3:16 min/km (5:15 min/mi), a faster pace than my 5 km parkrun (road) from a couple of weeks ago. Plus, all of my Zone 2 runs are faster.
As a personality who fits into the first category of runners who need to train smarter, the “hard” part of training is chilling out when I’m tired.
Speaking of doing more 😒. I ran on my designated rest day, Monday, and felt better all week. I hadn’t planned to run, but I needed to drop a rental car at the airport and wouldn’t pay for a taxi for 5 km. I'm not sure if it’s a slippery slope, but I will start adding an optional easy run or ride on Monday if I have the energy.
Week Seven - Strava Link
📊10hrs total (TSS 606)
🏃7x Run = 7:45hrs (101km), 1341m 📈
🚵1x MTB = 1:32hr (25km)
Mon - Easy 5km
Wed - [AM] XC Specific Hill Reps (70min, 15km) - MTB XC Race - 90min, 25km
Fri - Easy trail 10km - 50min
Sat - WU - 4km XC (9th) - CD (18km)