Slow’s the Way to Go Joe – Part 1

Predicting someone’s ability to run anything from 800m to a half marathon is really easy. A little more difficult is determining what someone may ultimately be capable of – if they are young enough to still have their best years ahead of them, is a little more challenging. However predicting what they are capable of in a marathon or the run in an IM, now that’s a whole different ball of wax! Add to this that the majority of athletes just do NOT have the patience or time to train to their actual capabilities, but still expect their potential to show up on race day, rather than their training status only. Add to this in the longer events, the tight tolerances allowed in the weather, nutritional, hydration and pacing departments and it’s no wonder so many people “fail” to achieve to their expectations. In triathlon, especially IM another huge challenge is the discipline required to ride easily enough to have an optimal run.
This brings one to the blog’s case in point – training “slowly” enough, or within the ranges that ultimately give you the greatest shot at achieving your potential. Joe Friel’s brilliant work has brought us a model that has helped thousands of athletes to train as close to correctly as modern research suggests we should. One problem thought: many athletes, especially here at altitude, are unable to run slowly enough to stay in these 1st 2 zones! It’s a different matter on the bike where riding on a flat road with 110PSI in your tubular is akin to the efficiency of a seagull in flight. In the pool also the fact that you are in a low gravity-impacted environment and you are using less musculature makes it so much easier to train in the lower zones.
The 2nd conundrum to the part-time athlete – WE DON’T HAVE THE SHEER MASS OF TIME REQUIRED TO BUILD OUR EFFICIENCY THAT SLOWLY TO GAIN THIS BROAD BASED FITNESS WHICH CREATES THE CAPACITY TO BE ABLE TO TRAIN AT THE HIGHER MORE SPECIFIC LEVELS THAT GIVES US A GREATER SHOT AT ACHIEVING OUR FULL POTENTIAL.
Compare this to an elite sprinter who can do 2 x 200m in a workout and access so much of her power that she is exhausted and the workout’s effectively done! An elite marathon runner would run 2 maximum effort 200’s and with a short recovery be able to run 8 more! Trouble is the distance runner will have run those 200’s in 29-30 seconds (which is fast – 3:53mile pace), but a sprinter of equal sprinting ability may have run those 200’s in around 24 sec and that’s 3:13 mile pace!!
3rdly, the challenge of the amateur becomes detraining while training! The runner must go so slowly that other components actually start to atrophy. Peripherally there IS such a thing as running too slowly; stride rate may decrease and subsequently loading increases with all its attendant negative consequences. You know how you feel after a long run with a friend who is much slower than you! Also, proper recovery in terms of time is tough for the average athlete – what a pro can do in a week, the average person of the same age needs at least 10 days to complete with sufficient recovery. A good pro microcycle is about 10 days, while a good age grouper would do well on a 14 day microcycle and the older athlete something like 17 – 21 days!