Following your Running Programs Prescribed Pace
Why running faster than your running programs prescribed pace is not always better: Breaking the speed limit in your car is illegal, and if I had my way as a coach, I would make running faster than prescribed also illegal. In a runner’'s mind, faster is always better, and any run that is longer or harder than prescribed is considered an achievement. However, if you are following a good plan (which you obviously are), running faster and longer than prescribed may actually be detrimental to your goal race potential and your long-term progression. Each workout, whether it’'s intervals, hill training, or a recovery run, has a specific purpose. To maximize the effectiveness of each run and make the most out of each kilometre, it is important to adhere to the pace guidelines.
Let’'s go through a few common runs and explain why sticking to the pace is crucial: The tempo run is designed to improve a runner’'s lactate threshold. During easy running, your body breaks down sugars to fuel the muscles, creating lactic acid in the muscles. The lactic acid gets recycled back into the energy cycle, and wastenproducts are expelled. As you run faster, the body demands more energy, and the production of lactic acid increases. The point at which your body produces more lactic acid than it can reconvert into energy is referred to as your lactate threshold. A tempo run requires running slightly below your lactate threshold to train your body to increase its ability to reconvert lactate back into energy. Tempo runs enhance endurance and the ability to maintain a faster pace over longer races such as 10km and 21km. When you push too far beyond your lactate threshold pace, you prevent your body from effectively clearing the lactate. Instead of becoming more efficient by handling a moderate and consistent amount of lactate, your body is flooded, and it can’'t benefit from a prolonged period of lactate clearance. By speeding up, you don’'t achieve the benefits of the workout and may end up less fit than if you had stayed at the prescribed pace.
The recovery run is exactly as it sounds: a recovery from a hard workout. Micro muscle tears are present due to the forceful contractions when running at fast speeds. These tears cause muscle soreness, making training the following day difficult. The body heals these micro tears through the circulatory system, which delivers nutrients and oxygen to the repairing muscles. An easy recovery run increases blood flow to the muscles, helping clear waste products and delivering nutrients and oxygen. However, if you run too hard on an easy day, you inhibit the body’'s healing process between hard bouts of running. In fact, you create more micro tears than you are healing, which extends the time your body needs to repair itself. Keeping easy days easy promotes faster recovery, allowing you to be prepared for the next hard session.
The next category is VO2 Max or speed workouts. VO2 Max is the maximum amount of oxygen the body can utilize during exercise. Training at VO2 Max increases this limit, allowing for quicker leg turnover and improved top speed. Additionally, speed workouts increase leg muscle power and strength, reducing the energy required to run at a certain speed, which we call running economy. During VO2 Max workouts, you push your body to the max. Running near your top speed increases the likelihood of injury since the muscles are being contracted to their maximum under duress. Your training schedule should keep your VO2 Max workouts just under the red line to reduce the risk of injury and allow for consistent training. At The Complete Athlete, our training plans are intricate puzzle pieces that fit together different workouts, maximizing the available time to prepare you for your best performance on race day. Therefore, remember that running faster than prescribed paces may seem to advance your fitness, but in actuality it limits your progress and increases the likelihood of injury. Before you go for a run, ask yourself what the purpose of the run is. This will ensure you stay on course and give you the confidence you need to execute the plan as prescribed, even if it means obeying the speed limit.
