CHAPTER 7

From Running to Racing: Training for the Advanced Runner

IF YOU WANT TO EXPLORE YOUR FULL RUNNING POTENTIAL, this is the chapter for you. Let’s be clear: This doesn’t just mean the speedster who breaks 40 minutes in a 10-K or the woman who’s always the fastest in her group. In running, we can only truly measure ourselves against ourselves. Every woman can work toward becoming her best running self within her own realm of capability. If that’s what you wish to do, this chapter is for you, whether your goal is to break a certain time in a 5-K or 10-K or just to see how fast you can go.

That said, this chapter concentrates mainly on runners who wish to race competitively. Beginning and recreational runners can and certainly do race, too, and I strongly recommend racing for runners of all levels, for its social and goal-setting benefits. This chapter will focus on runners who wish to race up to their potential. By that I mean that it’s important to you to see how fast you can get, how well you can do, to explore the boundaries of what’s possible for you as a runner.

Before you attempt the level of training outlined here, you need a strong base of training to physically prepare yourself for the more intense program. That means you should have at least a year of running experience behind you. You should also be at a plateau. In other words, you should have maximized your improvement within the intermediate running program in this book before moving up to this level. “As long as you are improving your racing with aerobic training—and when you’re starting out, you can continue to do so for several years—you should continue with that program,” says Lorraine Moller, a four-time Olympic marathoner and winner of the bronze medal in the 1992 Olympic Games. “It’s when you start to plateau that you should start to incorporate changes.” Bear in mind that even with an advanced workout program that includes track sessions and sustained hard runs, you won’t see your best results until you’ve been doing this training for several years.

Why race? Why take on the extra work and dedication that an advanced training program entails? After all, most of the sport’s general health benefits peak at the intermediate level of training—in which you work out about five times a week, between 30 minutes and an hour each day. Running more than that is not about health. It’s not even about superior fitness, which could be achieved with supplementary cross-training. No, the bottom line is that anyone who’s training at an advanced level is pursuing something more than health and fitness. She may be pursuing excellence. She may be testing herself. She may be investigating limits. She may be doing all of the above. Runners race to see what they are made of. Some runners feel that the training and racing process contains a microcosm of life’s challenges and that through the one they learn about the other.

Taking on the commitment to become the best you can be is a bold move. It entails hard work, time, dedication, triumphs, and setbacks. It almost certainly entails frustration and, just as certainly, delivers spectacular fulfillment. But specific results are never guaranteed. Most runners eventually find that it’s the journey, not the destination, that provides the greatest value. In the end, the ultimate reward does not reside in the number of minutes and seconds on a watch, but rather within that process of work, learning, and discipline.

BE YOUR BEST

The process of becoming the best runner—or the best at any other pursuit, for that matter—involves discipline, dedication, and mental fortitude. One of the benefits of pursuing serious training is that it helps develop these attributes, which can in turn come in handy in other areas of life.

In advanced training, you will need to run more miles, more intense workouts, and more days per week. You must push yourself constantly. That takes increased time and an increased energy expenditure from your body. In order to accomplish your goals, you’ll need to be smart, listen to your body, and make wise choices.

The more miles you put in, and the more intense your workouts, the more stress you place on your body. Runners who do large amounts of training are more susceptible to colds and flu, due to their strained immune systems. They are also more susceptible to injury. Obviously the goal is to minimize those troubles, which are counterproductive not only for running but in the rest of your life as well.

You can minimize negative effects by training smart. For advanced runners, that may be even more important than training hard. Most injuries can be avoided by following the rules of wise training. That means never increasing either quantity or quality too quickly and adjusting your schedule at early signs of overtraining or extreme fatigue. It also means giving proper attention to your body’s biomechanics. Because any misalignment will be exacerbated by greater training loads, it’s doubly important that you wear the proper shoes and replace them often when training at this level.

You’ll also have to make choices about how you commit your time and energy. “At a high fitness level, you’re going to have to work a whole lot more just to get a little more benefit,” says Jack Daniels, Ph.D., head distance coach at the Northern Arizona University Center for High Altitude Training, in Flagstaff, Arizona. It comes down to the principle of diminishing returns. Basically, you see your greatest improvement when you start running. At each subsequent level, you have to work harder for what will almost undoubtedly be a smaller increment of improvement. In order to reach your potential, you will train extraordinarily hard to shave what might amount to seconds or a minute off your time in a race. The question then arises whether the amount of work needed to get to the next level is worth it.

Because of all there is to gain in the pursuit of excellence, for plenty of women the answer is yes. But that answer will likely require some rearrangements in your personal life. The rest of the world isn’t set up to work around your tough training schedule. It might mean using up some of the free time you currently spend on other pursuits. It might necessitate shifting a work schedule around in order to meet with a training group.

When intrusions become tempting, remind yourself of your goals and the benefits you get from pushing yourself. View your commitment not as a sacrifice, but as an investment in yourself. Finally, allow yourself to break form every once in a while—to skip an easy run to go hiking with friends, for example. The change of pace will help keep you from going stale. As always, balance is key.

MASTERS OF BALANCE

Ask most coaches and elite runners what the single key to success in the sport is and they’ll answer, “Consistency.” Do the work day after day, month after month, year after year, and improvement is virtually guaranteed. Consistency has many enemies, however: injury, boredom, and lack of discipline among them. Consistency can even be a cannibal. Some of the most focused runners—those who will never, ever, under any circumstances miss a workout—are the ones who discipline themselves right into a debilitating injury, one that could have been avoided by taking a few days off early on.

Former world-class runner and coach Benji Durden, of Boulder, Colorado, believes that the truly great runners are masters of balance. “Ultimately, the best runners are the ones who are willing to work very hard but who have a little bit of a lazy streak in them,” he says. What he means is that these runners will be prone to take a day off when they feel worn out rather than pushing through fatigue even when their bodies cry out for them to back off.

Only you can determine your optimal balance between pushing and backing off, between consistency in training and necessary breaks. Master that formula and you’ve mastered running at the expert level.

So how on earth do you master the balance? Above all, it’s a function of time. The longer you’ve been running, the more information you’ll have gathered to make those decisions. You will have learned the difference between laziness and true exhaustion, between minor tweaks and serious pain in need of attention.

But it’s also a function of mindfulness. Some women can run for years and never learn to listen to their bodies. Others have an uncanny sense of how hard to push. You can develop this mindfulness just as you would build your muscles—by exercising it. That means paying attention when your body talks to you.

CLIMB TO YOUR PEAK

To race well, you need to understand peaking. You can maintain peak fitness only for a few weeks, so that’s when you want to race. Then you want to rest before building up again. Professional runners might plan to peak several times in a year—for example, for track season, for a fall road race, and then for indoor track over the winter. For most other runners, this science is a little too precise, so it’s more realistic to peak just once a year. Because most races are held in the period from spring to fall, and because the weather can create a challenge to training in the winter in much of the country, the seasons can help guide your program.

Start by choosing one major event in which you hope to run an optimal performance. This is the race you should peak for. You can and certainly should run other races along the way, but bear in mind that you might not be in your best shape, and therefore you might not run up to your capacity. You’ll probably want to “train through” these interim races, which means you won’t taper your training before them. Otherwise you won’t be able to train consistently enough to reach your peak. Interim races are useful to learn about your fitness at the time and to experiment with pacing and racing tactics.

If you’ve never raced before, choose a shorter race that you can easily tackle. A 5-K is a typical starting point, not only because you can go the distance but also because the shorter the race, the fewer mistakes can happen. If you go out too fast and find your pace woefully slowed, for example, you won’t have that far to run to finish the race. But if you attempt a half-marathon before you can correctly gauge your pacing, you could be in for a very long final 5 or 6 miles. Plan to run a few 5-Ks and 10-Ks before attempting the half-marathon.

Next, break your training into four segments: base building, strengthening, sharpening, and tapering.

Base building. Traditionally done during the winter, base building consists of easy distance running. You can certainly add some hilly runs and fartlek, but overall you should concentrate on logging miles. “This phase gives you a good opportunity for development of all the things that happen as a function of time spent running, as opposed to intensity,” says Dr. Daniels. Muscle cell adaptation, an increased capacity for your blood cells to deliver oxygen to your body, and other physiological improvements occur during this phase of long, slow distance.

Since building a base is the least exciting, least “glamorous” part of training, it often receives short shrift. Runners will run track sessions all winter, for example, or they won’t log enough miles because of cold weather. But the importance of this phase of training can’t be understated. Think of your base as the foundation on which you build the rest of your training program—the broader and stronger it is, the higher a peak you will ultimately be able to climb.

Strengthening. During this phase you build up your strength with longer intervals, tempo runs, and harder long runs. This stage typically takes place during the spring and can last several months. “At this point, you’re working on your running economy, improving lactate threshold and aerobic capacity,” Dr. Daniels says. These scientific terms may sound scary, but they’re crucial to understanding running performance.

Lactate threshold is the point at which lactic acid, a waste product created during exertion, builds up in your system faster than your muscles can flush it out. This happens when your cardiovascular system can’t process enough oxygen to get rid of it, a condition called anaerobic (“without air”) threshold. If you’ve ever run too fast too early in a workout and felt as if your legs had become wet noodles, you’ve felt the effects of surpassing your lactate threshold. By training near the threshold, you can extend it. These workouts are often referred to as tempo runs or as lactate or anaerobic threshold runs.

Aerobic capacity refers to your body’s ability to process oxygen. Not all the oxygen we inhale is used when we exercise. The amount used depends on your max VO₂, or maximum oxygen uptake, the amount of oxygen your body is able to deliver to your muscles during exercise. Though this figure is partly determined by genetics, training can help you maximize your potential aerobic capacity. Such training is typically done in track workouts in which you run close to or slightly faster than your usual 5-K pace.

Sharpening. As you approach your goal race and want to build speed, it’s time to start sharpening. Interval workouts focus on shorter distances, and workouts in general should develop your speed without leaving you overly fatigued. Your mileage might drop off slightly at this stage to speed leg recovery. Your body will be able to store reserves, and you’ll feel bouncy and ready for the race efforts to come.

Tapering. Depending on your race distance, 1 to 2 weeks before your race you should reduce your mileage drastically. This final reduction will allow any sore spots to heal and help your body store an optimal amount of fuel to use during the race. (For more on tapering before a race, see chapter 8).

These phases are not entirely exclusive of one another. You’ll still do easy distance runs during your strengthening phase, and you might still run a few strength workouts while you are sharpening. The point is that the overall focus of the training shifts over time.

After your big race, it’s not a bad idea to take a few weeks off to let your body recover and to give your mental concentration a break. Some runners swim or cross-train during this break, while others prefer to be completely sedentary. Once you start back, you’ll want to begin again at the base-building phase. (The sample training schedules start at the strengthening phase.)

OPTIMIZE YOUR TRAINING

Here’s a look at some of the most important considerations that should go into your running program at the race preparation level. These are things that you might not have worried about before, but when training this hard, they magnify in importance.

Flexibility

The harder you train, the more important it is to listen to your body and make the necessary changes. Our bodies talk to us all the time, but we don’t always pay attention. Try to recognize the difference between niggling soreness and pain. Do the same with the general tiredness from a busy schedule versus the exhaustion that signals overtraining.

When you find clues that you’re heading down a destructive path, take action. Take a few days off, have a massage, get a good night’s sleep. Don’t be so obsessive that you won’t miss a workout. If you begin a hard workout, such as a track session or tempo run, and find that you’re “dead”—you can’t stay focused, or you’re just physically exhausted—take the day off or go for an easy jog instead. It’s far better to be proactive than to miss weeks or months down the line once you’ve driven yourself too hard. Bear in mind that you can’t make up for lost time. Don’t try to cram in missed workouts or put hard workouts back-to-back after taking time off. If you skip a hard workout, try to do it the next day if you have several easy days scheduled after that; otherwise, skip it altogether.

When to Push

Some coaches ask runners to “give their all” every day in training. They are liable to wind up with runners who have nothing left to give on race day.

“There is racing energy and there is training energy,” says Lorraine Moller, “and you don’t want to use racing energy up in training. There’s only one time when you should use that kind of energy, and that’s in a race.” Though it’s important to run hard in track sessions and tempo runs, you shouldn’t run to exhaustion. That energy is in limited supply, and as Moller says, it should be conserved for racing. A good rule of thumb is that you should be able to run your last repeat in track sessions as fast as your first one. If you’re getting slower with each repeat, you’re running too hard. Likewise, in tempo runs, when you finish, you should feel able to continue running at the same pace if you had to. If you complete the workout and collapse at the finish line, you’re using up your race energy.

A Mental Edge

It’s important to ensure that your program builds your confidence, and not the opposite. Some women thrive on hard training; others wind up feeling demoralized and insecure about their abilities. To reach your potential, you must begin every workout and race with utter faith in your coaching and training.

If your program isn’t inspiring this kind of confidence, think of ways to change it. That might mean finding a new coach, new training partners, or a different location. Details count, too. Run your quality workouts—the interval sessions, tempo runs, fartlek, and long runs—at a pace that is reasonable for you (as outlined in chapter 6). Don’t overextend yourself to train with a group that competes beyond your current ability. Don’t ruin your workout by either slowing down or speeding up based on how somebody else is running. Make sure you’re getting enough rest between hard workouts. All these little things add up, either building into a ladder of successes that will give you confidence for your race or slowly eroding your belief in your abilities. Ultimately, you are responsible for this process, so don’t be afraid to take control of it and make changes in your training if necessary.

Days Off

You’ll benefit from days of complete rest. Typically, that means taking 1 day off each 7 to 10 days. A rest will allow your legs to more fully recover for upcoming hard efforts. It can also fend off injuries that might be creeping up. If you’re the obsessive type, you can use your off day as a cross-training day, but choose an exercise such as swimming that doesn’t tax the legs with impact.

Two-a-Days

The purpose of running twice a day is to add miles with a minimum amount of stress on your legs. For example, let’s say that you’re already running 6 afternoons a week, up to an hour each day, with a long run on weekends, and you want to gradually increase your miles. Instead of going even longer than an hour, add a short run in the morning on 1 day. Start at 20 minutes and build up to 30 minutes. You’ll find that doing so is a lot easier—physically and mentally—than a long, 90-minute run in the middle of the week. When you are comfortable with your additional run on 1 day, you can increase to 2 or 3 days of “doubling.”

While there is an argument for running twice a day, most women will find that the added time required (changing clothes, showering, not to mention child-care and work concerns) mean it’s just not worthwhile. And certainly only professional runners should run twice a day more than a few times a week.

If you’ve been training at an advanced level for several years and feel you really want to try two-a-days, limit them to your hard workout days during the week. (If you double on other days, you’ll be making your recovery days too difficult.) Add 20 to 40 minutes of easy distance for your second run. Make sure that you have at least 6 hours between runs, preferably more. Finally, take care to eat enough on these days; otherwise, you stand a chance of running out of energy on your second outing. After your morning run, eat a substantial meal right away. That will leave enough time to digest your food before your second run.

Effort and Recovery

The harder you run, the more recovery you need. Hard workouts are the bread and butter of an expert runner. These are the days when the real training is accomplished. But without recovery days, hard workouts are worthless: There must be easy runs in order for the training effect to be felt.

Most serious runners will do either two or three hard workouts per week. Newer runners will want to start at two hard efforts and perhaps eventually build up to three. Older runners typically come upon a time when they have to drop from the three workouts they’re used to down to two. What really determines this number is the number of recovery days your body requires between hard efforts. If you do a track session on Tuesday and an easy run on Wednesday, for example, you’ll need to be fairly well recovered to do a tempo run on Thursday. If you haven’t recovered enough, you might need 2 or even 3 easy days between these efforts. The sample schedules on pages 81 to 83 show what a training program may look like at the beginning and advanced competitive levels.

The principle of effort and recovery applies not only on a daily basis but also over the long haul. Just as you need recovery days, you should have recovery weeks as well. For every 3 to 5 weeks of hard training, you should cut your mileage and your quality back for 1 week. This proactive approach can keep you from overtraining, injury, and burnout.

Quality versus Quantity

Although I’ve alluded to this in many places throughout this book, it bears spelling out especially for runners who are training at an advanced level. Doing the right training is more important than doing the most training. Increasing your weekly mileage is not a certain recipe for success. Some runners do successfully run 80, 90, or 100 miles a week over long periods of time, but they are rarities who seem to be genetically blessed with the ability to avoid injury or illness. And there’s no guarantee that they’re running any faster; they might even be hurting their performance with chronically tired legs.

For runners who are not competing professionally, most performance gains can be maximized at a level of 40 to 60 miles a week. Even some elite runners succeed on far fewer miles than their peers who boast of large numbers in their running logs. So don’t feel pressured to run more miles because your friends or training partners are doing so. If you are able to improve on less work, consider yourself lucky.

THE WORKOUTS

The quality workouts you’ll be running in this training program are meant to prepare you for the effort of racing. You’ll concentrate on both strength and speed.

The other runs during the week should be considered recovery workouts and run at an easy pace. This means that you shouldn’t worry at all about time on these runs. Go with whatever effort feels comfortable to your body.

Long Runs

Before starting on this program, you should already have built your long run up to about an hour in duration. Now you’ll work on increasing that time and distance. For the 5-K, the 10-K, and even the half-marathon, 90 minutes is the maximum time necessary for this workout. (For marathon training, see chapter 9.) Incrementally extend your long run by 5 to 10 minutes each week until you reach 90 minutes.

When you’re comfortable with this amount of time on your feet, mix some intensity into your long run. Whenever you pick up the pace in your long run, do it gradually—anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds per mile faster than your easy pace. You don’t want to be sprinting when you still have 45 minutes to go. Here are some long run variations you can try:

Surges. Pick up the pace slightly for short periods of time in the middle of your run. Warm up by going easy for at least the first 20 minutes. Then surge for a total of 15 to 25 minutes of harder running. The surges can be loosely structured (“I’ll pick it up until the next big tree”) or timed segments of planned duration. Between surges, return to your standard pace. Start with shorter surges the first time you attempt this, and build up to several minutes. Play with variety, for example, running up and down a ladder of surges of different duration—say, 2 minutes, 4 minutes, 6 minutes, 4 minutes, and 2 minutes.

Segments. Divide your long run into longer segments, running the middle or latter portion at a faster pace. For example, run 30 minutes at your usual pace, 30 minutes slightly faster, then 30 minutes back at your usual pace. Or divide the run into 20-minute chunks, gradually picking up the pace with each one. With these segments, the shift in pace should be very slight, or you’ll find yourself unable to complete the workout. As you’ll discover for yourself, you’ll not only be training yourself to run at a faster pace, but you’ll also be getting an invaluable lesson in pacing and in your body’s tolerance of different speeds.

The fast long run. Of course, one way to increase the intensity of the long run is to run the entire workout faster. This can be a very demanding workout and generally should not be done more than a few times in a training season. Start conservatively to ensure that you can complete the workout strongly, picking up the pace rather than slowing down over the course of the run.

Tempo Runs

Also called lactate threshold or anaerobic threshold runs, these workouts are as close as you’ll come to simulating competitive conditions. You’ll be running at a certain tempo—namely, close to your racing pace—for a prolonged period of time. Ideally, these runs are conducted a little bit slower than your anaerobic threshold, in which lactic acid accumulates in your muscles faster than your body can flush it away.

If you’ve ever suffered the dreaded “leaden legs” or “bear on the back” feeling after starting out too fast on a run, you know what it means to surpass your anaerobic threshold. By running just under that threshold, your body develops its ability to process lactic acid more efficiently, which essentially raises your threshold and allows you to run harder. In addition to these physiological benefits, tempo runs also help you develop a sense of pacing as well as a confidence in your ability to maintain a strenuous pace for longer duration.

Tempo runs can last for a predetermined amount of time or distance. It’s best to start with a short time or distance and move up from there. For 5-K and 10-K races, you’ll eventually want to build up to a 3- or 4-mile tempo run. For half-marathons, these runs might reach 6 miles. Always plan to warm up before and cool down after your tempo run with an easy 2-mile or 15-minute jog. Look for a relatively flat place to do this workout; changes in terrain defeat the purpose of your attempt to keep a consistent pace. Gently rolling hills are acceptable, especially if you know you’ll be racing on hills. Run the same course each week in order to track your times.

Your pace should be somewhat slower than your 10-K race pace. It should feel brisk but not exhausting. My former coach used to describe it as “fresh” pace: a point at which you could talk if you absolutely had to, but you really don’t want to. Ideally, your pace should remain the same throughout the duration of each tempo run. When you bump up the distance of the tempo run, don’t be surprised to see your pace drop accordingly. As you grow fitter, however, you should be able to increase the distance you can run while maintaining your goal pace.

Track Sessions

Track workouts are similar in form to fartlek workouts, in that they alternate hard efforts with a recovery pace. But track workouts add the dimension of regimentation: You’ll be on a perfectly flat, measured surface. That’s why these workouts are invaluable for learning a sense of pacing. They also make it easier to compare times from one repeat to the next, in order to gauge consistency, and from one session to another, in order to gauge your fitness and performance levels.

Track sessions are typically called interval workouts. They consist of repeated hard efforts of a specific distance (commonly called repeats) alternated with periods of rest (known as intervals). The lengths of the repeats and intervals vary depending on the purpose of the workout and where the workout falls within the overall training schedule. The track sessions in this chapter’s training schedules consist of distances ranging from 200 meters to 1000 meters (2½ laps around a typical 400-meter track).

Run your track repeats around or slightly faster than your goal 5-K race pace. You’ll want to become comfortable running at this pace, and become familiar with the effort so that you can duplicate this pace in a race. Either jog very slowly or walk during your rest interval, but don’t sit or lie down; that will leave you stiff for your next repeat and won’t allow your system to flush out lactic acid efficiently. A 400-meter jog should be sufficient rest for repeats of 400 meters and up. A 200-meter jog should suffice when you are doing repeats of only 200 meters.

The point of these sessions is not to replicate a race effort. “People think that the minute you put your feet on the track you have to go as hard as you possibly can, preferably until you puke,” jokes five-time Olympic Trials Marathon qualifier Maureen Roben. She cautions that most runners could stand to run these workouts more conservatively, especially the ones who are always struggling to complete a given session. You should aim to complete your final repeat as fast or faster than your first. If you find yourself fading throughout the session, you’re starting out too fast.

Start your track workouts with a warmup of about 2 miles of easy jogging. Stretch thoroughly, and then do some strides to get your body prepared to move at a faster pace. A good method is to choose a straightaway on the track and do “pickups,” starting out slowly and gradually picking up the pace until you are striding at around your 5-K pace by the end of the 100-meter stretch. At that point, slow down, stop, rest, and repeat. Do six to eight of these before the track session. Finally, always finish with a sufficient cooldown. Jog slowly for about 2 miles after your repeats. This will help reduce any muscle soreness that might set in the next day.

Too Much Running

Here’s one of the most perplexing contradictions about running: More isn’t always better. Yes, you must put in more miles and run more intensely to get faster. But there is such a thing as running too much. Insiders call it overtraining.

When you overtrain, you feel sluggish. Your times slow down, no matter how consistent your workouts are. Training partners with whom you ordinarily keep up pass you by easily. When this happens, most women’s logical response is to train harder. Wrong answer.

Overtraining can create a nasty little cycle that leads to frustration and debilitation. The last thing that serious runners want to admit is that they might have limits, so overtraining often goes unrecognized. Coaches and training partners can be helpful in spotting the signs.

Pay attention to the following symptoms of overtraining:

  Chronic fatigue

  Trouble sleeping

  Elevated heart rate

  Slowing times

  Loss of appetite

  Irritability

  Lack of motivation

  Frequent illnesses (typically cold and flu)

Overtraining should not be taken lightly. Some runners who overdo it become chronically tired and ill. It can take months for your body to recover when it’s been pushed past the point of healthy training.

Although formal evidence is lacking, many runners and coaches believe that there is even a point of no return, from which runners who have pushed too hard for too long can no longer return to their former strength. “You see a lot of people who should have made it but didn’t because they pushed themselves too hard and weren’t patient enough to progress,” says Ann Boyd, an elite runner and coach in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “They have success for a short while, but then they disappear from the racing scene and never come back to that level.” Shelly Steely, a four-time World Championship cross-country team member who coaches women, agrees. She says that overtraining is the number one pitfall of serious runners of all levels. “Everyone who starts training consistently sees some improvement, so then they think that more work must be even better,” Steely says. “Then, when faced with a little injury or exhaustion, they’re already hooked, so they can’t imagine taking a day off.”

Steely urges her runners to realize that with such behavior, they have the opposite effect of their intentions. “They are, in fact, not investing in long-term consistency at all,” she cautions.

If you suspect that you have been overdoing it recently, take a week or two off to allow for a full recovery. Get extra sleep, eat well, and do something other than running if you feel the need to exercise. If you’ve been pushing too hard for a long period of time—say, for a few months or more—you might want to take several weeks to a month off and run only easy distances until you recover. The payoff will be worthwhile: a stronger, healthier, more resilient you.

Now Is a Good Time to …

  Hook up with a team or a group of friends for hard workouts. For most people, intense training sessions seem easier and more enjoyable when they’re run with others. Some friendly competition can also push you to work harder.

  Begin keeping a training log if you’re not already doing so. A record of your workouts will help you determine what works and what doesn’t work for you. Besides your workouts, you might want to record what you eat, how you sleep, any stressful events, when you buy new running shoes, and anything else that might affect your training.

  Run a race for time. Set a realistic goal based on your past performances. Choose a race at least 2 months out, and then follow an appropriate training schedule for your training level. For an optimal performance based on a full peaking schedule, you’ll want to have 4 to 6 months. If you already have a sufficient base of easy miles, you can begin at the strengthening phase outlined in this chapter’s workouts. Regardless of whether you hit your goal, remain positive and choose another target race. Analyze what went right and wrong in the race and how you can improve your training for the next time around.

  Consider consulting with a coach. He or she can help determine your individual strengths and weaknesses and can tailor a training program just for you. At this level, it can be very beneficial to have someone who can serve as a sounding board.

  Invest in racing shoes. If you’re training this hard, you deserve to have every advantage when you compete.

  Evaluate your diet—again. It’s crucial to get enough calories and the right kind. As women grow more serious about their running, they often start to cut corners on their diets to keep their weight as low as possible. Consider seeing a nutritionist at your local health club to see whether you are eating adequately for your training level.

  Be sure that you’re getting enough sleep. Now is not the time to stress yourself in other areas of your life. If you’re in the midst of a busy work schedule or have particularly tough family demands, you may want to reschedule your heavy training for another time.

  Get sports massages. Tired, sore muscles can benefit from therapeutic massage. Consider scheduling a regular session, anywhere from once a month to once a week.

  Have your form analyzed. Sports-medicine centers and sports physicians offer form analysis, which can help ensure that you run as efficiently as possible. If you don’t know where to get one in your area, your local running club or running specialty store can help. Or you can simply have a friend make a video of you while you run and then watch the recording at home. While you watch, look at your feet to make sure they’re not rolling in or toeing out. See if your arms are crossing too far over your chest. Are your shoulders hunched? Is your head poked forward?

Race preparations

The first two workout schedules presented here will prepare you for either a 5-K or a 10-K race.

Use the Beginning Competitor Training Schedule if you want to race more seriously but have been running at an intermediate level for only a year or so. This will allow you to gradually increase the intensity of your workouts. Try this schedule in the spring, after a winter of building your base at an intermediate level, as you train for your first serious 5-K or 10-K.

Use the Advanced Competitor Training Schedule once you have spent a racing season completing the Beginning Competitor Schedule. Rebuild your base over the winter, and implement the advanced schedule in the spring.

The last workout schedule is for training for a half-marathon. Plan to race some 5-Ks and 10-Ks before you attempt this distance.

THE NEXT STEP

As you progress, you may want to continue to notch up your training. If you do, always be aware of the issues raised at the beginning of the chapter. Improvement at this level will require a great amount of effort. Your risk of overtraining and injury increases. Be careful to monitor your body at all times and back off when warning signs hit.

The rules of training won’t change much over the course of time. You can use the same workout program presented here whether you’ve been running hard for a few years or for 10; the only difference is that your speed will change with your level of fitness. The level of effort should remain the same.

If you wish to continue to compete in races of up to a half-marathon, your overall mileage needn’t increase greatly. You may wish to do some doubles, adding some easy miles in a second run on your tempo-run days and track days. You can add a few more repeats to your track workouts, but in general the quality portion of each of these workouts should never amount to more than 10 percent of your total weekly mileage. Concentrate on quality rather than quantity, aiming to become faster in the same workouts than you were the year before. Remember, more isn’t always better. Many world-class runners do the same workout programs year in and year out with good results.

TRAINING LOG

I once found myself engaged in office chitchat with a woman who was curious about my running. She was asking me to explain my—at that time—slavish devotion to my workout schedule and my obsession with racing.

After I spoke for a minute or so about what I perceived as the benefit of those things, she replied, “Well, I run for the love of the sport.” Within that sideways retort was a smug commentary: Hers, it was implied, was a purer version of running, having nothing to do with the unyielding world of times, miles, and goals. Competition, it was implied, was a dirty word.

How odd, I thought. Because I, too, ran for the love of the sport. So I tried to explain. I tried to explain what I found so beautiful about a simple footrace, the oldest game in the world. I tried to explain that for me, the love of the sport at that point in time included the test to see how far I could push myself. That it was in fact the very thing I sought from the sport: to know that I had gone as far as I could possibly go. That I sought refuge in the one corner of my life that was cut-and-dried: a time on a watch, a number on a page. So simple, so unquestionable, compared with the editorial mumbo jumbo of the rest of my life.

Now that I’m no longer training at that level, I miss the feeling of being at my absolute physical peak. I miss feeling that I could run through a mountain if I had to, because that’s how tough I felt I was. (Boy, that was a long time ago!) I love my running today, but in a vastly different way, as a mother loves each child utterly for her own unique gifts. That’s a beautiful aspect of this sport: It is what you make it. The recreational runner is no greater or less than the competitive woman, and vice versa. And there should be no apology required for either pursuit.