With Coach Kelvin, offering Online Running Coaching for We Run and the We Run Virtual Running Club, and 1:1 Running Coach for Leeds and surrounding areas.
Taking a Step Back: Zooming Out on Your Training
In this little video – actually, I thought I was going to do a couple of videos together, but I think it makes more sense to split them into two – I want to look at training through a very, very zoomed-out lens.
We often focus on the here and now – what we have to do today, this week, or maybe within an individual training block. But I want to look at a couple of concepts around training over a longer timescale.
The Goal: Increase Volume Until Limits Are Hit
What we’re essentially trying to do is increase volume. This is a very broad brush approach, but the idea is to increase volume until either:
- Structural capacity is reached – the runner starts to get niggles and injuries,
- Time budget is reached – the runner doesn’t have any more time to train, maybe it’s starting to eat into life or recovery time.
Focus of This Video: When Time Budget Is the Limit
In this video, I want to cover increasing volume until time budget is reached. So you’re not getting injured – you just don’t have any more time to train.
Then we decrease volume a little bit and add in some intensity – making sure that intensity is specific to the individual, their goals, and where they are on that journey.
Decreasing Volume, Increasing Intensity
We reduce the time the runner is out training, increase the intensity, and then grow both intensity and volume together until we get back to that time budget.
Now, for that same time budget, the runner is actually doing a little bit more volume—because adding intensity adds a little more speed, so they go a little bit further.
Is the Runner Progressing?
Then we need to take a bit of a look and see if that runner is progressing – if they’re getting faster. Because we always need a new training stimulus.
If we’re adding the same amount of intensity, doing the same amount of training, but keeping the speed the same, that runner will eventually plateau and then start to detrain.
The Next Stimulus: Faster Running
Once we’ve got the intensity distribution right, and the runner is training as much as they can within their time budget, the new stimulus becomes faster running.
That runner needs to make sure their paces for their runs are increasing over time. Obviously, we need to make sure they’re not increasing too quickly – otherwise, we’ll bump into structural capacity problems.
But increasing pace then becomes the new stimulus to progress further.
Wrapping Up
So that’s looking at training through a really zoomed-out approach. In my next video, I’m going to look at what to do when structural capacity is reached, rather than time budget.
I hope that makes some sort of sense. If you’ve got any questions, please pop them down in the comments below. And for now – happy running!
