Amanda and I were ready to go. Max, well…let’s just say our dog
knows how to power lounge.

Amanda and I first tackled the Mutts ‘n Masters 5K by accident two years ago. We were aiming for the 1 mile fun run, but since the turn-around point was not marked, nor were there any volunteers placed there, we kept going and ended up doing the 5K. At the time, I was dancing with an ongoing issue with my left Soleus repeatedly tearing (now fixed thanks to A.R.T. and daily stretching), so we were doing more walking than running. In fact, we were so slow that my wife was getting ready to send someone out to look for us…an indicator as to how the rest of my first season of racing would turn out.

We missed the race last year and came back fitter and stronger this year. Well, two of us at least, but more on that later.

They had a nice turn-out this time, but horrible organization. Honest to shit, there were only a half dozen people at the registration table and it took me 15 minutes to get my race number. I had to go to the opposite end of the table to pick up our timing chips, then go back again to the first lady and give her our race numbers. Very inefficient set up.

The race started late because people were still trying to get through the registration fiasco. Amanda, Max (the dog), and I were seeded in the second row at the starting line. Once the horn blew, we took off at a comfortable 9:00-ish pace. While we were treating this as a fun training run for her upcoming junior triathlon (held by race director extraordinaire Frank Lowery of Silverman fame), we still wanted to put in a respectable time.

Sacred pre-race tradition being handed down from the WF Tribe.

Once you get a bunch of people running with dogs in a group. You’re bound to have some entertainment. Within the first 30 seconds, a woman and her dog decided to part ways. She stayed on the road while the dog decided to go off course and whiz on a tree…ending up with both of them wrapped around a pole. About two minutes later, this asswipe who had two Miniature Schnauzers on retractable leashes let all of the way out, almost got the left toe of my Brooks stomped on his dog’s neck and the toe of my right Brooks planted squarely in his nut sack. His dogs were a good 10 feet in front of him running zig-zags. One made a beeline for Max and started nipping at him. During the ensuing melee between Max and Little Turd, Little Turd’s thin nylon leash got wrapped around Amanda’s ankle leaving her a nice burn mark.

Lesson: If you can’t keep your dogs under control and at heel, get off the fucking course.

Our strategy was to take a 30-second walk break every five minutes until we got to the turn-around. After that, we would push it straight through to the finish. However, I wanted to put some distance between us and Asswipe and the Little Turds, so we kept going.

Max is only in it for the race swag: a baggy
of dog biscuits.

The rest of the run was uneventful until we made the turn-around. At that point, we were still holding a 8:45-9:00/mile pace and feeling good. I noticed the leash was getting slacker and slacker and Max was falling behind. My four-year-old lab was feeling the effects of his life as a lounge lizard. We started to slow down a bit to an 11:00/mile pace and then, threw in a couple of one minute walk breaks to let Max catch his breath. My plan of breaking the tape in 30-minutes was gone.

Such is life.

What blew me away, however, was that we saw two people cheat on the course and take shortcuts. They weren’t even in contention for anything and they had the gall to cheat. Of course, being a dad, this was a great opportunity for me to talk to Amanda about integrity.

“Amanda…that guy that ran up the side hill and knocked off 300 meters from the course…he cheated, right?”

“Yes,” she huffed.

“He has no integrity. If he cheats at this, what else is he dishonest about? Would you give him your wallet to hold while you’re out running?”

“Heck no!”

“The only thing you truly have in life is your integrity and you’d better protect with everything you’ve got. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

As we neared the finish line, we had the other cheater in our sights. Even with cramps on both sides at this point, Amanda dug deep and wanted to make sure that integrity won the day. We sped up, passed her and kept going, crossing the finish line in a smidge over 35 minutes.

It never ceases to amaze what lesssons life can teach you. Even during a low key local 5K.

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Question: What led you to transition from SEAL to personal trainer?

MacLaren: What led me to a career as a personal trainer was actually a combination of experiences over the years. For starters I took notice in the SEAL Teams and other Special Forces units who got injured, and who didn’t, and what their training programs were. I look for patterns in everything I see, hear, and think, and there were such obvious differences as to what type of training program appeared to make a difference in performance in that environment.

After getting out of the Navy, I started to work in the gym that I belonged to more out of boredom than anything else. Initially I ended up working with your average amateur bodybuilders on contest stuff and I really hated that at the time because as much as I admire the consistency and effort of bodybuilders, it just wasn’t my interest personally. Personal training was really just getting going in those years and I was also really ignorant in so many areas of mechanics and performance so I just didn’t have the fun in the business that I do now. We did the best we could, but back then compared with the knowledge I have available today, I can take an athlete in a year to the place that it took me four or five years to get to back then. If you have the knowledge, training today is safer and faster than it ever has been before. Unfortunately the knowledge seldom makes it to the amateur or college athlete level. The old habits of exercise and physiology programs are slow to change so often times the training information that athletes come to me with is older than they are.

The area of study that most influenced my understanding of training was actually biological psychology. Bio-psych is the study of the chemistry of our psychology but even more than that it is the chemistry of everything that happens in our bodies. Neurons and other stuff may bore some people, but those areas of research always thrill me to learn more about. When I really began to study the chemistry of psychology, I adjusted much of my thought on how to train people for performance and to minimize injuries. The results were almost immediate and I began coaching and training clients and athletes to entirely new levels in just weeks. It was at this point that training began to get really fun for me and I have truly been in love with the field of performance and rehabilitation ever since. I never get tired of testing and evaluation biomechanics, V02, muscle balancing, and endurance levels. I could literally do it all day every day but I find most often that if people don’t hurt enough yet, they are often slow to change their programs and awareness.

Question: What has been your experience working with triathletes?

MacLaren: Yes I have worked with triathletes. Since Los Angeles is such a center for sports and athletics, they are always crossing my path. I have a little saying though when I work with triathletes: People in the gym are often ignorant of proper training methods but triathletes are obstinate!

A triathlete will have great information right in front of him and still continue to do the very same thing that he and his friends have always done. I will take ignorance in a client over obstinance anyday! I laugh every time I say it but it still rings true every time I’m sitting around a bunch of triathletes listening to them talk about being stuck on some plateau and hearing about their programs, so I am always happy to get out whatever tips and training methods that will help their speed and minimize injuries.

Question: With the triathletes and their obstinacies, what are they typically hung up on changing?

MacLaren: I actually shouldn’t talk about an entire group of people as being obstinate because it’s more of a joke than anything, but the point I was making is that often times when athletes get very, very involved in their sport and it requires a large time and effort commitment, it is easy to lose sight of the basics that create progress. I find this when working with fighters as well. So much time is spent in one environment that the foundation of mechanics and endurable strength can fall by the wayside and lead to a much greater increase in injury potential.

Question: What is it with endurance athletes and their aversion to strength training? How do you work to overcome their belief that all they need to do is more running, biking and swimming?

MacLaren: I think much of the aversion to strength training comes from a s simple lack of understanding of what is occurring during strength training. I definitely grew up in world where the gym and working with weights was sold as the way to get bigger. Stronger sure, but the magazines all sold strength training as the way to bodybuilding and conversely running in general was still thought to be a sport that involved mostly the lower body. It wasn’t until I started lifting weights at 18 years old that I realized how much faster I became as a runner when I started to incorporate weight training. If we consider that isolated resistance training is really about increasing efficient neurological function then strength training suddenly begins to make very good sense. Running coaches around the country now realize this even if they do not fully understand biomechanics and the left/right imbalance that is caused by the way our brain hemispheres function.

There is an inherent problem in using your sport itself as your training method. Running for example does very little to balance out your strength and it do even less for those areas of the body that support our running stride but are not directly utilized in our running itself. I often use the expression that running is not training its practice for your sport. The same would be true with cycling, it is practice for your sport and although we all accept the term training I like to differentiate between practicing my sport and actually breaking down the motions of my sport and training each individual muscle and nerve area with the objective of creating maximum efficiency when I go out for those runs or long rides.

I have a good friend who trains for triathlons pretty consistently and he is pretty good overall. This friend of mine and I go riding on occasion and although I ride about once every two months, lately I easily breeze by him in almost any environment. I should tell you that I am not a great cyclist by any means but the reason that he cannot compete with me is that he is simply not strong enough to use the mechanics of his bike to his advantage. Now project this concept forward to the run and imagine what his additional level of fatigue is doing to his performance on his run.

I have long since stopped offering advice or opinion to athletes unless specifically asked and even then only if I really feel that they can and will use the information I would offer them. I work with triathletes every year who have been out there killing themselves in their training programs and wondering why they are not getting faster. As soon as I get them in the gym it becomes so obvious that they are simply not strong enough and not bio-mechanically aware enough to perform anywhere near their potential. Whether they can understand this or not is simply up to them and I often suggest that they simply try it a new way for three weeks. If they don’t find that they are faster and better recovered then they are welcome to go back to their old way. Notice that I am not talking about months to improvement but weeks! That is the beauty of a scientific and highly efficient program, the response comes week to week.

I often joke (half seriously) that if you cannot look in the mirror and do an alternating dumbbell biceps curl and have both arms doing the exact same thing and taking the exact same path throughout the range then there is no point in even thinking about having great mechanics on the road. Next time you go to the gym take a look at people doing biceps curls and watch how many people have one arm coming straight up and one arm turning out to the right or left as they come up. That will tell you all you need to know about their mechanics because that imbalance is systemic and you will find it in their shoulders, hips, knees, and feet.

Our brains are not built for balance, they simply will not do it! We must always be breaking down motions to their most basic elements to even attempt to achieve some sense of balance in our strength, form and endurance but it will never happen completely and we will always have to be working in that direction. For every ounce of your body that is off balance there is that much energy being used to try to get it to go in the direction you want it to go in. Form is simply how much of your whole body is supporting you in doing exactly what you intended it to do and endurance is how long you can hold the most efficient positions throughout the range and over the distance.

Question: Looking around at many triathlons, there are quite a few body types and much to most people’s surprise, a fair share of overfat triathletes. Many entered the sport to lose body fat and even after a few seasons of hardcore endurance training, are still carrying around too much flab. Is it diet, type of exercise, or just plain ol’ genetics that keeps these individuals from losing the fat that would not only improve their performance, but make them look better in their Speedos?

MacLaren: I say this a lot. We can always out-eat our training program. The average human body can digest and utilize about 50 grams of carb per sitting, 30 grams of protein and about 30 percent of their meal in fat. If you have ever wondered why you hear that you should eat several smaller meals per day? This is it in a nutshell.

The body digest and utilizes food but it has limits as to how much and how often it will do it with a high degree of efficiency. So what happens when we eat 250 grams of carbs in one meal, or a big steak with 75 grams of protein in it? The bulk of the remaining carbs and protein is broken down, re-assembled and stored as fat. Bummer I know, but that is the way it is.

For the average person who eats the bulk of their calories every night after 6 p.m., they are killing the benefits of fat burning that they worked so hard for all day. This type of eating also tends to adversely affect performance so eating large meals kills your race times as well. Utilizing the science of eating is simply the difference between just showing up and setting a PR in your events.

All things being equal it’s the science of your training program and your nutrition program that will leave you injury free and performing at elite levels. Your genetics play a factor of course but they are what they are so some of you will find that at 10 percent bodyfat you look ripped, while others still have a bit of a belly at 10 percent and will need to bring it much lower, at least for a time, to have the ripped look you want. By the way, being ripped is not for everyone and at 6-12% bodyfat, most athletes will find their highest level of performance. That being said, there is no single magical fat percentage number. It will vary from athlete to athlete and VO2 Max, muscle mass, body structure, height, gender, injury history, and age. All of these factors play a part in how we perform at the end of the day.

This is a great question because it touches on several areas that are often debated at length in the fitness community. In the end, body fat is a math issue. Calories in and calories out over time equals body fat percentage. While there are heart rates and training time lines that have higher fat per calories burned than others, the overall concept is still calories in and calories out. There are several theories on body types and fat burning and how much fat a particular body type should have to perform at peak levels but there seems to be no doubt that carrying “excess” fat is in conflict with performing to an athlete’s potential. This would be particularly true in the running phase of a triathlon since we are actually lifting our weight off of the ground and that is the limiting factor in speed and endurance. The mechanics of the bike seem to neutralize some of the excess weight factor and this appears to be true in swimming as well that there is a buoyancy and energy processing factor in swimming and fat percentage of swimmers that does not appear to have the same negative effect that carrying excess fat on a run has. Notice here that I use the words, “appear” and “seems” because no matter how many tests are done in these areas, the findings are still theoretical and are not reproduced in every test group. In the end training is ALWAYS theoretical and I never assume that anything is actually known.

Fat on humans can show up in different ways. One athlete might carry more visible fat around the middle while another might carry more visible fat around the hips and thighs while at the same time having clearly defined abs. For each of these cases it can be a real challenge to eliminate those “problem areas”.

Over the years of testing VO2, AT, AET and RMR in all types of bodies and activity levels, I have found that there is somewhat of a pattern in fat deposits and VO2 max, but only in the most general sense. Most of the athletes I have tested with a VO2 Max over 60 Ml/Kg have had a pretty even fat distribution overall and this pattern does leave me thinking that plain old genetics play a very large factor in how we lose and gain fat. In the end we could always lose more fat if we simply did the math and ate and trained accordingly, but the end does not always justify the means.

For instance, I work with a female athlete who is just barely five feet tall. At 104 pounds she still has a hip and glute area fat percentage that is noticably higher than the rest of her body. I never like to see an endurance athlete down around this weight because in my view there is nothing but pain and injury coming for an athlete who is this close to 100 pounds. However, this client very much wanted to lose as much fat as possible in her “problem areas” so we did a bit of a test.

Bodyfat does not seem to come back in exactly the way it comes off and I have a feeling that this has something to do with the amount of time it took to develop the fat percentage to begin with but for the people who have a very hard time with certain areas, while being very lean in others, you will most likely have to go well past what is attractive to you overall to remove the fat in those hard to reach areas and then come slowly back up in fat percentage until you are satisfied with your overall look. What this means is several months of your friends saying things like, “Hey are you ok? Do you have an eating disorder?”

For most people this method is uncomfortable and can be detrimental to your race performance so I often suggest doing the best you can and paying great attention to your calories in/out and pro/carb/fat intake levels per meal and per day and practicing some acceptance of your body type. Not easy I know, but we all can’t be built like the Soloflex guy or gal.

Question: You coached Tom Jane, the actor from the movie “The Punisher,” through a remarkable physique transformation. Can you briefly describe where Tom started in terms of weight and body fat and where he ended up? What would an endurance athlete be able to learn from that case study?

MacLaren: Thomas was an interesting client in that I begain working with him with only nine weeks to go before the beginning of his film shoot. He had been training for some months but just not in the way I would have recommended for his body type and the role he was about to play.

The first week was a bit of a challenge since we did not know each other and I am not sure how thrilled Thomas was at being assigned a trainer since he had one already and with only nine weeks to go to lose five inches on the waistline and add inches to arms, chest and back. I enjoy this type of work and I often joke that I am the “emergency trainer” when your race or film is coming up rapidly and you are just not getting what you want in your current situation, but it is extremely difficult on the client or athlete because a major body transformation in nine weeks is very difficult on a body. Thomas and I did a few workouts together and as always, we faced the “well my other trainer says” conversations which is normal and my answer is always very simple: “I am not here to tell you that your other trainer is incorrect, I am simply going to tell you what I suggest and why and you will do what makes the best sense to you.”

When a safe, but average, program turns into a scientific and highly effective program the results are week-to-week so you will know immediately that you have changed your program for the better. Thomas walked into the gym on week two with an entirely new idea now of what potential was in him that was just not being released on his other program. That next Monday, Thomas turned on like a light switch and became the most intense workout machine that I have ever seen. This is where it really got fun for me in that I now had a client who I could work out the most minute details of his training and diet and he would be follow them to the letter. I joked often at the time that not even NASA had the science in their programs that Thomas Jane had in his and week to week the results showed.

Two weeks later the guys from Marvel comics called and said, “My God John, what are you guys doing to make such a change in two weeks?”

The real problem was that we were going for maximum fat loss while trying to avoid losing major amounts of muscle mass and there are limits to how much fat a body can lose per week without seriously increasing muscle loss and those limits are set by 100,000-plus years of evolution so we are stuck with them. They can be manipulated somewhat but not changed. Because of this Thomas lifted in a very isolated, heavy, almost bodybuilder, type program on a four-day week. You will hear many bodybuilders tout the 6-day per week heavy lifting program, but if you are dieting and lifting in a non-anabolic enhanced program, I wouldn’t suggest 3-on-1-off for your lifting program.

So what’s the moral of the story that athletes might take from all of this? One, your success will not be found alone. I find this to be true in all of life. At least find a partner in your training program but research and develop all areas of your training program.

Two, never accept or expect that your training program is good enough. All programs are worth constant examination and because it worked for your buddy does not have any bearing on how it will work for you.

Three, you always have 10-30 percent more in you than you currently realize. I can take almost any athlete on the planet and find a 10-30 percent improvement in performance if they have the will power and can follow a program. There is ALWAYS a way to get more out of a body. I was at dinner not too long ago with the CEO of very large health product company and he is very much into triathlons. I listened to him talk about his training program and he is obviously a hard working and talented athlete. When he finished I told him to consider just spending two weeks with me because I would be interested to watch his increase in performance. I actually offered it at no charge because the value in increasing his awareness, given his position and influence, would have potentially benefited countless athletes and that is worth far more to me than money.

I watched his eyes glaze over and the story of how he really wanted to stick with what he was doing because of this or that reason and I was again reminded that you can’t give information away to certain people and that everyone has their own timeline for gathering that information.

To contact John MacLaren to find out more about his programs, you can reach him at john@maclarenmethod.com or at www.getfitla.com.

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So what does physique transformation have to do with endurance athletes? Well, MacLaren is also a former U.S. Navy SEAL.

Got your attention now?

For those who don’t know, SEALs are those amphibious special warfare operators who are put through what is considered the most grueling military training in the world. Attrition rate through their Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL program is often near 80 percent. They do a lot of swimming, running and calisthenics as part of their conditioning…which leads to many a male triathlete fantasizing that he has what it takes to be a SEAL.

I talked to John to find out what it does truly take to be a SEAL as well as his work with triathletes and how his unique background influences his coaching philosophy.

*******

Question: Let’s go back to the beginning to set the stage. What was your athletic background growing up?

MacLaren: As a kid I was so skinny that I could watch my heart beat! I spent most of my time in sports running 5K and 10K races and cross country skiing in the winter in New Hampshire. I remember my dad buying me a shirt when I was 12 or so and on the back it said, “I may be slow but I’m ahead of you.” It was a joke of course but I never could wear it in a race for fear that someone would run on by me out of pure motivation and annoyance brought on by reading my shirt!

I loved running and if I even had a spare 25 minutes I would throw on some shoes and run for 20 minutes. In high school I spent my time in track and cross country and I was pretty fast but even in those days you had to break a 4-minute mile if you were going to be anyone in high school or college. I just could never get past that 4:03 and 4:04 barrier. I ran 10Ks for one of the Navy Teams when I first went into the Navy but very rapidly I found out about SEAL Training and couldn’t resist heading in that direction.

Question: Since you were a track and cross country runner, and admittedly skinny, how did you go about developing the strength you needed to make it through BUD/S?

MacLaren: When I first began working out I don’t think I could have put 10 pounds on the bar to do a bench press. I was at my first duty station in the Navy and I had a good friend who was a competitive bodybuilder down there and one day I confided in him how sick and tired I was of being so skinny. He said very simply, “I’ll bet you have never worked out before.”

I said, “Yes I have. It just sucks!”

But his response was that if I worked out for more than 30 days in the gym I wouldn’t ever stop and he was right. Thirty days later I was hooked and running my fastest 10K times ever for the Navy team. What I didn’t realize at that time was how much my lack of strength and upper body conditioning was slowing me down. By the time I got to BUD/S a year later, I had a great strength foundation for that age and it made all the difference in training.

Question: How would you compare the physical training you did in the SEALs to that of an age group triathlete?

MacLaren: BUD/s training and triathlon training, hmmmm this is an interesting question. SEAL Team training is more about the individual than it is about the training itself. I have known a ton of pretty tough and endurable guys in my life and it often surprises me how many of them drop out of BUD/s training in the first several weeks. Certainly they were physically capable as they often were your football stars, triathletes or a variety of other assorted sports fiends. But still they bail because it is just not them and if you ask them, which I have, they will give you a variety of reasons as to why they found it too difficult. So it would appear that they have many reasons, but in the end I wrap it all up under the umbrella of lack of desire for that type of lifestyle. In a nutshell a body can do amazing things and our mind has to constantly decide what it will allow it to do. The body will last far longer than the mind will allow itself to go in most cases and when it doesn’t, the body just cramps up or passes out and that is that.

To speak to triathletes specifically in relationship to their training and BUD/S training, there are some major differences. First off, BUD/S has an underlying mission of keeping you cold, wet and miserable as long as it can and as often as it can. Whenever I have trained for triathlons I was typically riding my really sexy bike, or spending an hour or two in the water at a time or off on a run staring at smoking hot chicks on the Strand, so overall it was just more fun to train for triathlons. Not to say that triathlon training is easy because as you all know, it isn’t. It’s just that the objectives and the whole theme of BUD/s training are different than the objective and theme of training for tri sport races.

I will say that, in my opinion, being a good runner can make BUD/S training so much more livable and that is great news for the triathletes who might consider BUD/S. BUD/S training is just a lesson in pain for the guys out there who would rather have bamboo shoots driven under their nails than go for a 5-mile run. You never have to run fast for more than 4 or 5 miles in BUD/S and although we did it in jungle boots, if you like running races then most of your group training runs are cake for you while they are misery for those low V02 max non-runners around you.

Many triathletes in days of old had a tendency to be notoriously weak in the upper body area (and lower actually) and while that trend seems to be shifting since some triathletes have discovered the wonders of weight training. It takes a fair amount of pull-up and upper body strength to make it through BUD/S. You will tend to carry up to 80 pounds or so on your back and be out there blazing trails all day or night until your shoulders bleed or somebody quits and after a while in training nobody quits anymore so you just bleed.

So, that being said, do I think most triathletes could make it through BUD/S?

Hell no! Most everyone wouldn’t make it through the program and that’s just plain old statistical data based on years of watching every kind of individual go through the program. Most people quit, simple as that. It’s not that I think BUD/S is hard, and in fact I don’t think anything you are in the mood to train for or accomplish is hard, but that’s just the way I think and not everyone would agree with me. I have to imagine that training for and winning the Ironman is hard but yet people do it every year and a lot of other people finish well so it’s obviously not too hard for them in their minds. I have a general belief that anything a few thousand people on the planet can do, I should be able to do if I am interested in it. I was interested in BUD/S training so I did it.

As far as me competing in an Ironman? I am only interested in watching the race and am truly an almost professional level spectator. So watch for me cheering you on out there!

To be continued on Wednesday…

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Shortly after the race, I came across a car accident that involved a fully engulfed charter bus filled with nuns and orphans. Apparently they were on their way to help rescue some puppies at the local animal shelter. Being the noble individual I am, I stopped, asked if they could kindly get their burning asses out of my way because I had a pressing date with a bath tub and a few bags of ice.

Ever since then, I’ve been plagued by mysterious illnesses and locust infestations that have kept me occupied and made getting this wrap-up, well, wrapped up. Also figure in that there’s not much to report on a running race. Not very exciting stuff, but here goes:

The race that was not a race
I don’t particularly care for marathons and have no burning desire to do one as part of my “List of 100 Things I Want to Do Before I Croak.” However, since I was training for the Mt. Taylor Winter Quadrathlon at the time, I decided having a half marathon on my dance card midway between my last triathlon and the Quad would be a good event to keep me honest in my training efforts. For those of you unfamiliar with the Quad, 16 of the 42 miles are done as a run, nordic ski and snowshoe, so running fitness is a key component.

I signed up for the half marathon and wasn’t the least bit concerned about a finishing time. I just planned to stay in Zone 2 or below and use the race as a training day. To achieve that, I would run four minutes then walk one minute and repeat throughout the race.

That plan was thrown out the door the moment I arrived just in time for the fireworks display and starting gun. (Note to those of you wanting to enter this race: Parking is fucked. The freeway offramps are blocked and access to Las Vegas Boulevard, where the majority of the race is held, is non-existent. I saw people bailing out of cars on the offramp and hopping chain link fences a mile from the race.)

As I’m sure is the case with most marathons, it took several minutes for the back of the pack to move en masse to the finish line. However, all was cool as they had an Elvis impersonator belting out some classics to keep us all entertained.

Once I crossed the start line and started running, I noticed a young gal moving up from behind and keeping pace with me. She kept looking over and finally ran up alongside me.

“Are you doing the full or the half?”

“Just the half,” I replied.

“So am I. How long do you think you’ll take to finish.”

I paused. “You know, I haven’t a clue.”

“C’mon! How long do you think?”

“Well, I’m figuring somewhere between three to three-and-a-half hours.”

I can’t even figure out how to type the sound she made when she rolled her eyes. It was something like a guffaw. She went from the polite “can we be best friends?” to instant she-bitch and ran off.

Runners are a weird bunch.

Remember I said that I was going to run/walk? To make a long story short, I blew that off in short order. I was feeling so good, I just kept running…and running. I told myself I would take my first one minute walk break at the 20-minute mark…then 30-minute. Finally, I forced myself to walk for two minutes at the one hour mark.

From that point forward, I would keep running at an easy pace and then treat the last three miles of the race as an all-out 5K effort. Just to see how I would respond.

Here’s where it gets interesting
Leading up to the race, my longest distance was eight miles. Once. The rest of my infrequent runs were of the 30-45-minute variety where I would cover only two-three miles because I was “building my base.” In other words, turtle slow.

Even though I ran the race with only two, two-minute walk breaks, I kept pace with a Dr. Seuss and her Elvi Clan the entire flipping race. Dr. Seuss was the head cheerleader and coach for a half dozen young women who were in their first half marathon. She had them on a strict run-walk break schedule of about six minutes running, one minute walking.

Note the key difference: I ran, they ran/walked. We crossed the finish line together. That should tell you something about the benefits of the run/walk methodology.

Once I hit the 10-mile marker, I decided to put on the burners and see what I could do the last three miles.

Look at the HR data below to see what happened starting at mile 10.

Abso-friggin-lutely nothing in terms of speed. I felt like I was moving faster, yet the blue line (speed) tells all. My heart rate (the red line), however, went through the roof. I stayed in the 190s for the last three miles. For the increased stress on my body, I gained nada.

To me, that is quite a fascinating little bit of scientific research. What it means in the big picture to me, other than I need to run more, remains a mystery.

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On Monday, I wrote about a semi-fictional scenario where a runner is about to be attacked by some local dumbasses. In that article, I introduced Condition Orange, which is one of the four colors of Col. Jeff Cooper’s Color Code of Preparedness, now commonly referred to as the Color Code of Awareness.

What is the Code? In short, it describes various states of mental awareness to your environment. You’ll find the term bandied about in the self-defense community as preludes to a fight. In my 24 years as a martial artist I’ve come across several versions of the Code, but, before I show you why you should give a shit as an endurance athlete, let me share Cooper’s original version with you.

Cooper’s Color Code of Preparedness

• Condition White: In White you are unprepared and unready to take lethal action. If you are attacked in White you will probably die unless your adversary is totally inept.
• Condition Yellow: In Yellow you bring yourself to the understanding that your life may be in danger and that you may have to do something about it.
• Condition Orange: In Orange you have determined upon a specific adversary and are prepared to take action which may result in his death, but you are not in a lethal mode.
• Condition Red: In Red you are in a lethal mode and will shoot if circumstances warrant.

Hak’s Color Code of Awareness
I don’t take credit for what is to follow. It is an amalgamation of concepts I’ve learned from my instructors, colleagues, students and direct experience. Let’s see how we can adapt the Code to the endurance athlete from Monday’s story.

• Condition White (Duh?): This is the condition most of us live in 80 percent of the time. Were you ever so engrossed in a book or TV program that you tuned out the outside world? That is Condition White. You don’t have a friggin’ clue what’s going on around you. You are focused on the endless inner chatter of your brain. This is the driver yakking on his cell phone who sideswipes the car next to him because he didn’t see it move into the lane. It’s the woman fumbling with her car keys, worrying about her to-do list, not noticing the guy walking up behind her in the parking lot. It’s our endurance athlete zoning out to her iPod, mostly unaware of her immediate environment. The only place to be in Condition White is in your own home.

• Condition Yellow (Relaxed Awareness): This is the condition where we should be. You are not paranoid that the mailman is going to go, well, postal on you. You simply pay attention to your environment. You note to youself, “Hey, there’s the mailman.” Sounds simple, right? It’s very difficult to do in practice. Later on, I’ll share some exercises that should help you develope this situational awareness. For our driver, he’s put his cell phone away and is noticing the traffic in a 360-circle of awareness and his relationship to that traffic…vehicular and pedestrian.Our parking lot lady has her car key already in hand and notices that there is a guy loitering two rows down from her car.The runner has unplugged from her iPod and is continuously scanning her environment. From Monday’s story, she notices the white sedan drive by, slow down and park ahead of her.My friends, when you walk out your front door, you’d better be in Condition Yellow.

• Condition Orange (Possible Uh-Oh Ahead): Here is where life has the potential to get very interesting for you. Something, or someone, has now popped up on your radar as having the capability of causing you grief. It may never happen, but it’s presenting enough of a concern that you start focusing your attention in its direction.The driver notices an oncoming car nudging out in the median to make a turn in front of him. Is that car a potential threat? You betcha.As our parking lot lady walks to her car, she notices the loiterer starts walking on what appears to be an intercept course. Does he want to give her a car detailing coupon or stick a knife in her face and grab her wallet? Either way, he is now a person of interest.The iPod runner sees four men exit the white sedan and start walking her way. They could care less about her or they may have something more sinister in mind.With Condition Orange, you’ve gone from active observation (Condition Yellow) to focused attention. This is a great time to start running “what if” scenarios in your mind. What if the car pulls a left turn in front of me? I should move over a lane to give myself some more space. What if the parking lot guy is after me? I’ll make a hard right turn and head toward another row to see if he follows me. What if the guys from the white sedan are up to no good? I’ll cross the street to see if they alter their direction.By running these scenarios before they happen, you will have options. If someone does A, then I do B. It’s not if someone does A, I’m a fucked over deer in the headlights with my last thought on Earth being “This can’t be happening to me.”
• Condition Red (This is Going to Hurt): It is now enevitable that you, and/or your new friend, is going to get fucked up. Do you walk away from the incident with your honor intact or do you get a county-paid trip to the morgue? The car that looked like it was going to make a left turn in front of you does. The guy following you in the parking lot follows your change of direction and picks up his pace. Likewise, the white car gang crosses the street to follow you. This is the point where you take evasive action or if you’re ballsy, and can back it up, postive offensive action.

• Condition Black (Can I Survive?): You are now in the thick of the fight. The starting gun has fired. Our driver has hit the car that pulled out in front of him. The parking lot lady is fighting off the mugger. The iPod runner is putting her Nikes to good use and is hauling ass away from the bad guys who are in hot pursuit. Or, perhaps she is putting her C2 to good use or is using her BGBG stick to unleash holy hell on anyone scumbag within arm’s reach. No matter what it is, you want to do your best to never, ever, be in Condition Black. Ever.

The time it takes to go from Condition White to Condition Black could be the snap of a finger or minutes. You just never know. I do know that it takes longer to move from Condition White and orient yourself to what’s going on in your world. This is why I, along with others, advocate flipping on your Condition Yellow switch anytime you leave your home.

You can see how these ramped up states of awareness can not only help you avoid trouble in the first place, they also help speed up your decision-making ability in times of a crisis. Hell, the Color Code of Awareness doesn’t even need to be used for self-defense. Use it to identify hazards on the mountain bike trail or the next time you sit behind the wheel of a car.

A special message for the Pink Pony Brigade
I realize that there are some folks who have bothered to read this far and think I’m full of paranoid shit. You’ve probably never been threatened in your life (by human, animal or inanimate object) and believe the world would a better place if everyone had a pink pony. If so, then please explain that to Meredith Emerson, this Scottish teenage jogger, this Kansas runner, or this jogger from Bloomington (note that these are all recent).

Better yet, why not take Richard Gillmore out for a cup of coffee and a moonlight jog to discuss how his “problems” could be resolved by a pink pony.

After the Virginia Tech shootings last year, one of our local academics went on the air to say we should focus our resources on why the crazies commit crimes. Focusing on defending ourselves or improving security was a waste of time to this genius.

To the Pink Pony Brigade and the academic thinkers who live in the fifth Color Code Condition, Condition Brown (head up their ass), perhaps the “black box” concept might be a useful analogy.

Let’s say you have a black box and on top of that black box is a switch. Every time you flip that switch, the box will zap you with 20 volts.

What’s in the box? Maybe it’s a battery-powered motor. Perhaps a nuclear generator. Could even be one of the Invisible Mole People running around in Saran-Wrap slippers on a tiny piece of shag carpet to zap you with a mega-dose of static electricity.

It doesn’t matter what’s inside does it? Throw the switch and you get shocked.

Let’s use your imagination and transfer that analogy to someone trying to cause you harm. What’s inside this person? Is he the product of a broken home? A member of a disenfranchised community? Or did he simply forget to take his medication the day he decided your iPod was more valuable than your life?

Again, does it matter?

The point is this: Unless you turn off that switch, you’re going to get hurt.

How to improve your awareness
My goal is not to scare the piss out of you with gloom and doom scenarios and have you believing that there are rapists behind every bush on your running trail. There aren’t.

But, sometimes one freak might be lurking there waiting for you to obviously jog as you zone out to your iPod.

Your best bet is to learn to be in Condition Yellow. Again, don’t be afraid of the Bogey Man. Just avoid Condition Brown and acknowledge that he exists. Our job is not to fix his problems, but to keep him from mingling his fucked up world from messing with our happy one.

Here’s a simple exercise to get you started:

1. While you’re sitting here reading this, stop and listen. If you’re at work, listen for the conversations going on down the hall. Who’s talking? Can you hear the hum of the flourescent lights or your computer fan? What can you smell? Stop reading this and do it right now. What did you notice?
2. When you leave your house, or work, and walk to your car, notice who else is in the parking lot. What are they doing? Do they notice you are there? Bonus points if you can identify any bird by sound.

Mentally note everything…and move on. Don’t fixate. Just scan and move.

Martial arts instructor extraordinaire, ninjitsu practioner, Black Belt Hall of Fame inductee, and of course, fellow Miami University alumnus, Stephen Hayes, used to encourage his students to increase their environmental awareness with a series of morning drills. Every day for one week, you use one sense (hearing, touch, smell, taste and sight) to check out your immediate environment. Upon waking, don’t move. Just lay in bed with your eyes closed and listen for a few minutes to the world around you. It’s amazing what you will hear.

The next week, use your sense of taste. Don’t lick the bedpost, but just lay there and open your mouth. Taste the air.

It’s a fascinating exercise.

Note to the remaining members of the Pink Pony Brigade who are still with me: Click the Stephen Hayes link and note who he is sitting next to in the photo. Yes, my hippy friends, even the Dalai Lama needs protection from his fellow mankind.

Find your edge and dance upon it.

p.s. I’m setting up an interview with a personal protection guru to see if we can get some valuable advice to share with you on your outdoor journeys. My goal is not to teach you the dim mak death touch, but to use some common sense that you may not be carrying with you all of the time.

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• Education about physical fitness terms, exercises, and health
• A Simple Step-by-Step Plan to start the journey at home
• A Community of like-minded women
• A focus on a lifelong commitment

Cindy is a mom to two toddlers, wife to a fantastic husband and a reemerging runner!

I often receive looks of horror or disbelief from Moms when I say, “I’m running again and it feels great.” Running? Good? How? When? I grew up playing basketball and volleyball. I never considered myself a runner. My painful memories of running came in the form of short, fast sprints called “suicides” on the basketball court. Cindy, put on running shoes and go for a multi-mile run?! I would have said, “You’re crazy!” Now, running is part of my lifestyle. I ran the Marine Corps Marathon in 1998 and finished. For me, time didn’t matter. Running became a part of my life. I found the thrill in finishing a mile, two, three and more. Then I had babies. I quit putting aside time to run. I became the overwhelmed mom of two, focused on doing everything for everyone else. What can a mom do to catch a few moments to herself? Head outdoors, breathe in the fresh air and run. Running is a fantastic stress reliever and an opportunity to reflect on life or the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy.

Are you new to running? Did you give up running when you had your babies? Running is flexible and fits into a mom’s busy schedule better than many forms of exercise. The benefits include personal time (Yes, It’s Important!), health, mental and emotional improvements. Are you uncertain where to begin? With a few considerations, you can start a fantastic, uplifting journey in running. Let’s take a look at a five important things you can do to begin running:

1. Dress the Part
Shoes are the most important investment you make for running. Purchase a pair that fits well, lets your feet breathe, and supports your arches. Wear comfortable clothes. If you’re bring baby along, invest in a running stroller. There are a wide range of strollers available to keep baby comfortable as your running partner.

2. Start Slow
I had to resume my journey toward running by walking first. By consistently setting aside time to workout, walking lead to running. Are you anxious to start running right away? To avoid overextending your current level of fitness, take advantage of the many free programs available on the Internet. The American Running Association Walk to Run program in 12 weeks is a great way to reintroduce running into your life. I’ve heard good things about the Couch to 5K Program. Feel free to make your own time line. For instance, start by walking 10 minutes, run 1 minute, walk 10. There are no set rules on running. Pace yourself. Don’t go out and run 30 minutes when you haven’t been outside since the baby was born! Add running in small, manageable increments and running will seamlessly become part of your lifestyle.

3. Drop the Guilt
Moms are notorious for feeling guilty about everything. We are very hard on ourselves. How are you suppose to set aside time for yourself when there is so much to do for everyone else. This is a mindset that causes unhappiness among a large population of moms. I’ll be frank. You need to leave the guilt behind, stop second guessing your choices, and find ways to become your own cheerleader. Check out Go Workout Mom for ways to incorporate fitness into your life. If you miss a day or two of working out, that’s okay. Don’t add the extra burden of guilt to your stress filled shoulders for days that don’t work out as planned.

4. Where to Run
The beauty of running is that it doesn’t require a gym membership or set schedule. You can run anywhere. Parks all over the country have paths and scenery to enjoy. Your neighborhood right outside your door has many different streets you can explore and you can change up the route to add variety. Your own living room or yard can be an outlet for running. Granted, it might be boring to run in place or around the house thirty or forty times, but it’s still running!

5. When to Run
When you set aside time for yourself, not if you set aside time, will depend on YOU! I know you’re going to challenge this notion, but you must make a date with yourself to exercise. Exercise is important to your physical and mental well-being. Is your child your running partner? Is it easier to get up 30 minutes earlier in the morning? Are there neighbors that will watch the baby for 30 minutes or family near by to watch baby a bit? Part of finding time for yourself is also finding your support base. You’re not alone in the world and there are many people you know that love your baby or babies in short bursts of time! They want to help you, and you need to let them.

My Own Journey
It took me close to two years to finally realize how important exercise was to my well-being. I fell into the trap of devoting all my time to raising babies, coordinating play dates, attempting to keep an immaculate house, and having dinner on the table every night. I lost all my personal time. I was miserable.

In the last several months of devoting thirty minutes to an hour of my time to exercise, I have felt a large difference in my life. I still struggle to get out most days of the week, but I’m not getting down on myself for missing days here and there. I’m happier and more energetic. I’m not as fast I used to be but that doesn’t bother me. I enjoy the release of tension and the feeling of accomplishment in running around the block or on a treadmill. I find more bounce in my daily routines and a more positive outlook in life. In a couple of weeks, I’ll be running in the I Run for the Party 5K. My first competition run since I had babies 2 years ago. What’s your first running goal? How do you plan on celebrating? My accomplishment is going to be followed by the cold beers at the end of the finish line. Yes, I know that it’s not healthy, but it’s a great incentive builder! The race also supports great charities: Autism Society of Middle Tennessee and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Setting aside time for yourself should not be plagued with guilt for leaving your children or spending less time with your children. The quality of time spent with your children is just as important as the quantity of time. Your well-being and happiness is necessary for the whole family. You are your children’s role model. Your demonstration of a healthy lifestyle and happiness will mold their experiences and desires to be healthy and physically fit.

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Editor’s Note: Strength training is an enigma to many endurance athletes. A barbell is a four-letter word to many and the squat rack is nothing more than a fancy contraption upon which to do Pilates.

Today, I’m welcoming the first of several guest authors on a variety of subjects that will expand our learning and, hopefully, improve our performance as multisport athletes.

hak

To some, resistance training is the Rodney Dangerfield of the running community; it gets no respect. To others, it’s like Tom Cruise; runners think it might be useful, but it just doesn’t make any sense to them. And then, there are those to whom resistance training is like Abraham Lincoln; it’s freed them from being slaves to ineffective programming. As a performance enhancement specialist who has a lot of endurance athletes under my tutelage, I’d like to take this opportunity to bring the Rodney and Tom runners in the crowd up to speed. With that in mind, let’s look at the five most prominent myths present in the running community with respect to resistance training.

In my opinion, one of the most educational
fat-loss programs on the market.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “This Cressey guy is just another meathead who doesn’t run telling me what to do. We’ve had lots of pigheaded guys like this over the years, and none of them understood us.”

Myth #1: Runners don’t need to resistance train.
I figured I’d start with the most obvious of the bunch. I had been under the impression that now that we’ve done a ton of resistance training research over the past 20 years that this wasn’t still a myth at all. Then, just last month, one of my marathoner clients brought in a copy of a popular running magazine; it included a “debate” that featured two experts arguing over whether or not runners needed to lift weights.

Huh?

This is what some people within the running community have taken from over two decades of dedicated resistance training research from some of the most brilliant scientists in the world? I thought back to the hundreds of hours I’d spent working in the human performance laboratory at the University of Connecticut as I worked for my master’s degree; time and time again, our research had proven unequivocally that resistance training was important for making and keeping people healthy, strong, fast, and lean. Had all our efforts been in vain? At that moment, if someone had told me that the Easter Bunny isn’t real, I might have lost it altogether.

Just to recap: we know resistance training is good for general health, as it:

1. Enhances endocrine and immune function (which are compromised by endurance training)
2. Maintains muscle mass (also negatively affected by endurance training)
3. Improves functional capacity in spite of aging by maintaining maximal strength and power (both of which decrease with prolonged endurance training)
4. Builds bone density (something many runners lack due to poor dietary practices, but desperately need in light of the high risk of stress fractures)
5. Enables us to more rapidly correct muscle imbalances, as evidenced by the fact that resistance training is the cornerstone of any good physical therapy program (and I’ve never met a runner without imbalances)

So, I think that the answer is somewhat clear. It’s quite obvious that runners are a superhuman race that is not subject to the normal laws of physiology like the rest of us.

In case you’re not picking up on my sarcasm, please go splash some cold water on your face and knock back a bit of Gatorade to get some glucose to your brain. Then, reread those five points from above (which are just the tip of the iceberg, for the record). Ask yourself:

1. Do I have an endocrine system?
2. Do I have an immune system?
3. Will I get old? Do I do things that require strength and power?
4. Do I have bones?
5. Do I have muscle imbalances?

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, I would seriously recommend that you consult a psychologist instead of a running coach, as you’re obviously dealing with a serious case of denial.

Runners are just like the rest of us. You may wear shorter shorts, but you still put them on one leg at a time. You need resistance training.

And, if the general health benefits aren’t enough, consider these research findings:

• A University of Alabama meta-analysis of the endurance training scientific literature revealed that 10 weeks of resistance training in trained distance runners improves running economy by 8-10% (1). For the mathematicians in the crowd, that’s about 20-24 minutes off a four-hour marathon, and likely more if you’re not a well-trained endurance athlete in the first place.
• French researchers found that the addition of two weight-training sessions per week for 14 weeks significantly increased maximal strength and running economy while maintaining peak power in triathletes. Meanwhile, the control group which only did endurance training gained no maximal strength or running economy, and their peak power actually decreased (who do you think would win that all-out sprint at the finish line?). And, interestingly, the combined endurance with resistance training group saw greater increases in VO2max over the course of the intervention (2).
• Scientists at the Research Institute for Olympic Sports at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland found that replacing 32% of regular endurance training volume with explosive resistance training for nine weeks improved 5km times, running economy, VO2max, maximal 20m speed, and performance on a 5-jump test. With the exception of VO2max, none of these measures improved in the control group that just did endurance training (3). How do you think they felt knowing that a good 1/3 of their entire training volume was largely unnecessary, and would have been better spent on other initiatives?
• University of Illinois researchers found that addition of three resistance training sessions for ten weeks improved short-term endurance performance by 11% and 13% during cycling and running, respectively. Additionally, the researchers noted that long-term cycling to exhaustion at 80% VO2max increased from 71 to 85 min after the addition of strength training. (4)

The take-home message is that running is more than just VO2max, anaerobic threshold, and a good pair of sneakers; it’s also about localized muscular endurance and nervous system efficiency. And, you can’t have strength endurance unless you’ve got strength. Build a solid foundation and you’ll be a complete runner.

Myth #2: Machines are just as good as free weights.
Next time you’re running, I want you to ask yourself how many times you’ve been seated and moving in a fixed plane of motion while you run. If the answer isn’t a resounding NEVER, then you probably ought to get your head examined.

Resistance training isn’t just about “feeling the burn” in your muscles; it’s about grooving connections between the muscles and the nervous system that tells them what to do. When you plop down on a machine and work through a fixed line of motion, you’re allowing your nervous system to get lazy, so to speak; it doesn’t have to recruit any stabilizing muscles to ensure that you move efficiently. Machines turn you into a”motor moron” and ingrain muscle imbalances that can negatively affect your running efficiency and lead to injury. Let’s take a look at an example to illustrate my point.

When you do a dumbbell lunge, your body has to generate force in single-leg stance and in order to generate force optimally, you need to have what is called “frontal plane stability.” With the lunge, this refers predominantly to the ability of the adductors (inner thigh muscles) and abductors (outer thigh/butt muscles) to co-contract, working together stabilize your thigh so that you don’t tip over. By doing a lunge correctly, we can teach these muscles to balance each other out properly, and in doing so, improve running efficiency and prevent problems such as lateral knee pain, anterior hip pain, and lower back pain (just to name a few).

A look at the status quo, however, shows that most women will try to train their adductors and abductors with those inner and outer thigh machines that you’d only expect to see on a trip to the obstetrician. Unfortunately, the adductors and abductors NEVER work in isolation like this, and they never work in a fixed line of motion. The adductors and abductors donâ’t just move the thighs in and out; they also have subtle effects on rotation of the femur, so when we’re “stuck” into one plane of motion, we promote dysfunction.

Factor in that the lunge also trains the hamstrings, glutes, quadriceps, and core stabilizers extensively at the same time, and you’ll realize that it isn’t only safer than these machines; it’s also offers more bang for your buck. Why do five different exercises when you can get even better results with just one?

Myth #3: Yoga and Pilates count as resistance training.
This was another great information tidbit a client brought in after a conversation with an endurance training coach who is actually quite popular locally. I have to say that I was really surprised when I heard:

He said that we need to resistance train, but it didn’t matter if we used free weights, used machines, or took yoga or Pilates classes.

After I finished choking on the gum I was chewing, I explained the concept of progressive overload to my client.

When we resistance train, it’s important that we, over time, gradually increase the load that is imposed on our system; otherwise, our body doesn’t really have any reason to adapt in a manner that will be favorable to use getting stronger, faster, or leaner.

Now, how do we make a class that is body weight-only harder? I’ve never seen anyone wear a weighted vest to yoga class, so as Mike Boyle has pointed out, gaining weight is your only option. After all, the most overweight people always sweat the most during yoga, right?

Obviously, I’m being facetious but I’m proud to say that it’s with good reason (although I’ll probably never date a yoga or Pilates instructor after this article). When you lift with free weights, you always have the option to provide progressive overload to your system; there is no “ceiling” effect when you get proficient handling your body weight.

Myth #4: Super-slow training is valuable.
About a year ago, I had a phone conversation with a noted triathlete coach who had previously worked with one of my clients, Jon (who completed his first Ironman this past July). When I took over Jon’s training, he was a mediocre endurance athlete with a VO2max of 50.6 ml/kg/min., with anaerobic threshold occurring at 60% of VO2max (laboratory test).

After six months of training with me, Jon’s VO2max had improved to 73.1 ml/kg/min, and his anaerobic threshold didn’t occur until an impressive 80% (anaerobic threshold is now generally believed to be the best predictor of endurance performance; the higher the percentage, the better). It’s also important to note that during this time, Jon’s max heart rate remained constant; normally, it decreases when an endurance athlete does a lot of longer duration steady-state training. When this coach got wind of the results, he just had to know how the heck we had gotten such staggering results. My response was essentially:

“We got him to go faster instead of longer, incorporating more threshold runs and sprint work. And, probably more importantly, I told him he had to stop lifting like a sissy. He got a lot stronger and more explosive on compound free-weight movements, and it clearly made a big difference.”

His response: “Wait, you mean you don’t use super-slow training? Free weights are dangerous! Endurance athletes aren’t conditioned to handle high-speeds and heavy lifting!”

I had to cover the mouthpiece on the phone because I was laughing out loud. For the next 10 minutes, I explained to this coach that the last time I checked, the most successful endurance athletes I’ve known are the ones who go the fastest for a set distance not the ones who can run the longest. Anybody can go forever; just look at the people who jog at a snail’s pace for years and years and never look or perform any differently.

Jon got out of his comfort zone by moving faster, desensitizing himself to zones above his normal race pace, and perhaps most importantly, by taking his training serious with heavy and explosive resistance training. Super-slow training has no place in this picture.

In layman’s terms, if you train an athlete slowly, that athlete will be slow in competition; specificity of training is more important than we think. If you want to run a marathon, you don’t do all your training on a bicycle, do you? Of course not! It wouldn’t be specific for you!

In scientific jargon, super-slow training doesn’t work due to a phenomenon called “asynchronous recruitment.” We all have slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fibers, and it’s to our advantage to activate as many of them as possible when we resistance train in order to truly reap the benefits that our nervous system and muscles can offer. As you may already know, slow twitch fibers are always recruited first; your body won’t also call upon the fast twitch fibers in your muscles unless it really needs help with a challenging task…like the last few reps on a set of five squats.

Once we’re a bit experienced with resistance training, in order to recruit fast twitch fibers (which can actually be converted to slow twitch fibers to enhance endurance performance), we need to train with at least 70 percent of our maximal strength on a particular exercise in order to build strength with classic repetition work. The more experienced one gets, the higher this percentage goes; really experienced lifters won’t get stronger below 85-90 percent, in fact.

With super-slow, we’re stuck with a protocol that forces us to use less weights because we have to do a lot of reps…and at a very slow tempo. This load falls short of the crucial 70 percent mark, and definitely far short of the 85-90 percent mark. And, believe it or not, we don’t even getting all our slow twitch fibers contributing! Instead, through asynchronous recruitment, certain fibers simply “turn on” and “turn off” during the set; the weight is so light that they can actually take breaks while their “helpers” pick up the slack in the meantime. I’m not making this stuff up!

Don’t forget that super-slow is traditionally performed on machines, too, and we already know that machines are about as useful to an athlete as a Derek Jeter Fan Club membership would be for a Red Sox fan.

Myth #5: Runners should avoid heavy weights and dynamic lifts.
Once we get endurance athletes lifting weights, we always have to deal with the contention that because they’re endurance athletes, they should only do higher-rep sets because they just need to train muscular endurance. Originally, that works fine, as you’re really just learning the exercises and conditioning the tissues for what is ahead.

Unfortunately, as the athlete gets more experienced with resistance training, it becomes readily apparent that not all reps are created equal.

There are three ways that we can develop tension in our muscles (basically the goal of any resistance training exercise):

1. The Repetition Method
   This is the classic approach most gym-goers use. Do a bunch of reps, and as you fatigue, the muscle tension accumulates; the last few reps are what make the big difference.
2. The Maximal Effort Method
   This is an approach where the load utilized is heavier, so the tension is automatically applied to the muscles. You just have to work against it. This method which uses rep ranges of 1-6 is great for building muscular strength and teaching your nervous system to recruit more muscle fibers.
3. The Dynamic Effort Method
   This approach uses non-maximal loads, but the focus is on lifting the weight as fast as possible. Jump squats are a good example of dynamic effort training, which teaches the nervous system to recruit muscles faster. Additionally, some dynamic effort training can teach your tendons to store more elastic energy (like plyometrics). If your tendons work more efficiently, your running style is more relaxed, reflexive, and “springy,” as you don’t have to “muscle” every stride.With all this said, it should become clear that you can’t pursue the maximal or dynamic effort methods with sets of 12-15; you have to use different rep ranges and loading parameters if you want a truly effective resistance training program.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Won’t I gain body fat if I cut back my running volume and replace it with resistance training?

A: No! Contrary to popular belief, resistance training is extremely valuable for burning fat…primarily due to something known as “Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption” (EPOC). This is just a fancy way of saying that after any exercise session, our metabolisms are elevated significantly. Research has shown that EPOC directly related to how intense our exercise sessions are; the more intense the effort, the more metabolic “debt” we accumulate. For this reason, activities like sprinting and weight-training…both of which are much more intense than steady-state jogging…have a ton of merit in battling the bulge. Amazingly, a single bout of resistance training can elevate the metabolism for more than 48 hours…and favorably affect endocrine and immune status in a manner that is conducive to fat loss. If you want to be lean, you have to lift weights!

Additionally, you rarely see ultra-endurance athletes with very low body fat percentages…and it’s largely because all the mileage they do leads to higher levels of cortisol and lower levels of testosterone in the body. This endocrine fluctuation leads to a loss of muscle mass (which burns a lot of calories) and an increased tendency to store body fat.

Fortunately, resistance training has been shown to have favorable effect on testosterone levels chronically (good for men and women, trust me). By keeping your hormonal status in check by including some resistance training, runners can get faster and leaner!

Q: I have limited time to train; wouldn’t I be better off just running if time is limited?

A: Obviously, this would depend on how you define “limited,” but it’s been my experience that runners can always make  time to run, but will only try to find time to resistance-train. Generally speaking, you can bang out a run here and there without much time preparation, so it’s best to schedule your 2-3 resistance training sessions ahead of time. Additionally, in some cases, you can incorporate some body weight resistance training exercises as part of your warm-up…but this certainly won’t cover all your needs.

Also, don’t forget the study I cited earlier about the group of endurance athletes who saw appreciable gains in performance by replacing 32 percent of their running volume with resistance training. If you run six days a week, try moving to four runs and two lifting sessions and watch your times improve dramatically.

Anyway, my feeling is that from a body composition, health, and performance standpoint, you need to make time for two lifting sessions per week regardless of how much you run.

Q: Won’t resistance training will interfere with my running?

A: Great question, and the answer is no, provided you schedule your running sessions appropriately. Ideally, you would lift on days that you don’t run, or pair your lifts up with your tempo (sprint) sessions in order to “consolidate” your most intense training and allow for better recovery.

There is some research to show that running efficiency is impaired slightly for up to eight hours post-exercise, but you should be fine if you lift and run on separate days. I always prefer that my athletes lift before they run, though; you always want to do your speed and power work before you move on to endurance training.

Q: Won’t resistance training make my muscles bigger? I don’t want all that weight holding me down!

A: Endurance training by its very nature is not conducive to muscle growth (especially in a female population with lower testosterone levels). The sheer volume of exercise makes it difficult to get in enough calories to support muscle mass gains, so the effects of resistance training are largely confined to muscle density (tone), strength, and overall efficiency rather than actual increases in muscle size. If it was so easy to get “bulky,” there would be a lot more bulky people walking around!

Closing Thoughts
All this information won’t be of any use if it isn’t put into action, so now is the time to either modify how you’re lifting, or start lifting in the first place. At the very least, you need to complement your endurance training with two resistance-training sessions per week…and preferably three.

Just as running is more fun with a partner, so is lifting, so find a few buddies to hit the gym with you. In our facility, time and time again, we’ve seen athletes make much better progress when they’re training in small groups and pushing each other to get better. Plus, for those of you who might be a bit intimidated at the thought of joining a gym, some training partners can do a lot to ease your worries.

At your fingertips, you have an opportunity to dramatically improve performance, overall health, and the way your body looks and feels. There’s no time like the present to turn that opportunity into a reality.

About the Author
Eric Cressey is a strength and conditioning specialist and president of Cressey Performance, located just outside of Boston, MA. The author of The Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual and over 150 published articles, Cressey also co-produced the Magnificent Mobility DVD and Building the Efficient Athlete DVD set. Cressey has worked with athletes from youth sports to the collegiate, professional and Olympic levels. Sign up for his free newsletter at www.EricCressey.com.

References

1. Jung AP. The impact of resistance training on distance running performance. Sports Med. 2003;33(7):539-52.
2. Millet, GP, Jaouen, B, Borrani, F, Candau, R. Effects of concurrent endurance and strength training on running economy and .VO(2) kinetics. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2002 Aug;34(8):1351-9.
3. Paavolainen, L, Hakkinen, K, Hamalainen, I, Nummela, A, Ruski, H. Explosive-strength training improves 5-km running time by improving running economy and muscle power. J Appl Physiol. 1999 May;86(5):1527-33.
4. Hickson, R. C., B. A. Dvorak, E. M. Gorostiaga, T. T. Kurowski, and C. Foster. Potential for strength and endurance training to amplify endurance performance. J. Appl. Physiol. 65: 2285-2290, 1988.

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