Hi folks, it’s Kelvin here. We Run coaching for Leeds and surrounding areas, as well as online coaching. In this video, I’d like to talk about intensity.
The Common Misconception About Easy Runs
Something that I hear on a regular basis is people saying things like, “Runners run their easy runs too hard.”
I don’t see that very often, actually. Only runners training on really high volumes have to go super easy on easy runs. A lot of people who are training in the mid volumes can run easy runs a little bit stronger.
The Real Issue – Hard Runs Are Too Hard
What I do see is people doing their workouts, so interval sessions, way too hard. They are running the hard runs too hard.
I’d like to cover a little bit of history on this to share some thoughts on where I think this came from.
A Brief History of Training Intensity
In the 60s and 70s, and maybe into the early 80s, intensity distribution among runners, so training methodology among elite runners, was a model that we called polarised intensity distribution.
Runners did loads and loads of really easy running, and an amount of hard running. When they did the hard running, they did it really hard, and they did not do a lot in the middle.
As training methodologies and the science progressed, coaches and runners realised that more of a pyramidal approach works. That means doing more moderate running.
So, mostly easy, some moderate, and a little bit of hard.
Why Balance Matters in Training
The idea in training is to be able to complete your training week after week, month after month, year after year.
Knocking the edge off those harder sessions relieves quite a lot of stress on the body and gives us space to add more intensity in that moderate ground.
How Hard Should Your Workouts Feel?
If you are following a training plan and it has some intensity, maybe it is by time, like 10 times three minutes threshold, or 15 times one-minute hills, the session should be very completable.
You should be able to complete the session without it feeling too hard.
The stronger sessions should feel strong, the moderate sessions should feel moderate, and the easy sessions should feel easy.
When Should You Go All Out?
Make sure you are not doing every single hard session really hard. Those very hard sessions might come every four to six weeks.
Sometimes that is in the form of workouts, and for other runners, it might be when they race.
Final Thoughts
I hope this makes some sense. If you have any questions, please pop them in the comments below.
For now, happy running.
