Blog | Run Tampa

Hard Runs Hard, Easy Runs Easy

August 7, 2019 by Deb Voiles Leave a Comment

Article by Coach Karen Smith

This is a saying that has been repeated over the decades by many coaches as they try to explain to their athletes the importance of not running all their workouts fast or too fast.

The challenge is getting athletes to understand the purpose of different workouts within their training, why they do specific types of workouts and when they will get the most out of those workouts as they build towards target races. Then after these concepts are understood, the idea of what is fast, what is slow, what is hard and what is easy will become more applicable.

As we move towards the beginning of another start of incorporating track workouts into our training – speed work into fall, winter, and even spring race training it seemed like a good time to post some concepts and topics that will be discussed as part of the intermediate/advanced upcoming track workouts for Run Tampa.

First, every workout in your training should have a purpose. Now that doesn’t mean they can’t be relaxing or fun, but there should be a purpose. General purposes or objectives behind different types of training runs include:

Aerobic capacity and fitness
Endurance
Running Economy
Efficiency
Extensibility/sustainable speed
Fatigue resistance
Aerobic power
Speed
Mental toughness
Recovery

Some workouts have more than one purpose, but generally, in your training, they should be purposeful and timed to help you build into the strongest, most prepared runner you can be for whatever you are training for. So it is important that you know the purpose and how the instructions on how to run them help you achieve the intended purpose. If you have what I call an “extensibility” workout that is intended to help you practice sustaining a mid-distance run pace, but you run the assigned intervals as fast as you can and do not practice the pace as the workout was designed, you are not getting the benefit of the assigned workout objective.

Frequently runners, particularly group runners, spend too much time running designated easy runs in the grey zone … not really hard but definitely not easy.

Because it is counter-intuitive, it is hard for people who want to get faster to run slower, it is hard to get people to comply with this golden rule of “hard runs hard; easy runs easy.” It is often a battle between science/human physiology and ego. One of the hardest things for runners who want to compete against other runners or just themselves to learn is that you do not get faster by running all your workouts fast. Additionally, if you spend too much time in the grey zone, (faster than easy, but not quite hard), you are breaking down muscle which still requires recovery and increases chances for injury. One example of the grey zone is the exhausted-after-an-easy-run scenario. We have all had those runs. They are frequently long runs, where we convinced ourselves we were running easy, and may have been able to talk through most of the run but after we’re totally gassed. That is the grey zone. For my runners who love to do this, I can be frequently heard saying, “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” and “Make good choices.”

The reality of training for longer races particularly half marathons and full marathons is that 75-80% of your time running should be “easy”, longer running, building aerobic capacity and fitness, endurance, efficiency, mental toughness and recovery.

Let me share a useful analogy of running and finance. Most long runs and other easy runs can be interpreted as depositing money in the bank towards your goal or race. When you run your long runs easy, you are making a deposit, creating capacity, fitness, and durability, endurance which are key to distance racing. 20-25% of your training time should be hard runs, and those hard runs should have varying degrees of effort depending on the purpose of the workout. Hard runs improve your ability to adjust to a higher burn rate, both mentally, physically, and metabolically. Yes, running faster will help you get faster but it has a cost … it requires a withdrawal (i.e., recovery) from the bank to stay strong, healthy and to get gains (adaptations) from your efforts.

Grey zone running doesn’t usually cost as much as real “hard” running but it does have a cost and it is not making a deposit, so while doing some of it with purpose fits a balanced plan, doing too much of it will cause you to be over-drawn leading to injury, burnout or over-training complications. Furthermore, too much grey zone running when you should be running easy means you will frequently not be able to get the most out of your “hard” workout therefore further sub-optimizing your return on investments of running efforts.

As we move toward incorporating track/speed workouts into our plans, I encourage you to take a look at some of the online calculators or talk to Debbie or myself about paces and effort. For those of you looking to get faster, be conscious about your running, understand your effort and do not run every run competitively. Learn to let the person who wants to push the pace on a long easy run, go ahead. You are each making your own decision about your training.

Save your speed for when it will pay off, in speed workouts and races. And if you want to learn or just have the opportunity to push “hard” runs hard, there will be ample opportunity in the track workouts that will start on Tuesday’s at Al Lopez park with Coach Deb or with me (Coach Karen) Thursday’s after Labor Day at Coleman Middle school track. Here’s a link for more information about the track workout program for Run Tampa: https://www.runtampa.com/track-program/

5 Ways Runners Can Increase Hip Mobility

January 28, 2019 by Deb Voiles Leave a Comment

Few things will limit a fluid, effective running stride more than tight hips, but the good news is that, conversely, few things, when remedied, will greater impact your improvement.

Sadly, as we reach middle age, hip mobility becomes drastically reduced, but we can change that.

Tight hips mean smaller steps. Now, if you’ve worked with me, you know I emphasize smaller steps and higher cadence, BUT if your steps are limited by tight hips, that’s bad; that’s a whole different can of worms, and loosening up those hips will allow you to keep to a high cadence, while still swinging your upper legs farther apart. What I don’t want you to do is to reach out with your feet to achieve longer steps, and that’s what most runners do. That will result in overstriding and that will lead to other problems.

However, we do want your upper legs to swing freely from your pelvis. This is the movement that becomes restricted with age.

The two things to remedies are stretching and strengthening. Talk to any physical therapist. They always encourage stretching tight, problematic areas, but in the next breadth, they tell you that the other half of the solution is strengthening weak muscles. Often, we think a muscle is tight, but the problem is that it’s too weak to do what we’re asking it to do.

To increase hip mobility:

Run hills. Incorporate hills into at least one workout each week. A good alternative, if you have no convenient hills are pedestrian overpasses and bridges. Failing that, climb stairs, progressing to climbing two at a time.
Practice stretches specifically designed to open up the hips. Some may be virtually impossible, now, but over time, as your hips start to loosen up, you’ll be able to do more.
Take yoga classes. These will virtually always include poses known as hip openers, and most communities you can find classes geared specifically for runners.
Strengthen the right muscles to allow you to move correctly. Sometimes, for whatever reason, a muscles gets, basically, turned off. This causes limited mobility and means that other muscles become overworked. Strengthen your hip flexors and glutes. Weak glutes often lead to hip flexor tightness.
Foam roll and get regular sports massages.

Below are links to videos and articles that will be helpful, but be careful and move through these, gradually. It’s not at all unusual for the exercises and stretches to improve your movement to actually cause discomfort or a backache the next day. For that reason, progress slowly. If something causes more discomfort than you’d expect from a new stretch, back off and work around that particular stretch until you’ve seen improvement from other stretches and exercises. You know your body and its limitations. Be gradual and ask yourself “Is this going to be okay for me to do with my body?” The movements in the list below are not in any way extreme, but that doesn’t mean they’re right for everybody. I can’t know if you have back or spine issues that would make any of these unsafe for you. Just be careful. These are all generally accepted as good exercises to improve hip mobility. As with anything, increase these movements, gradually, adding one more every few days, and never stretch to the point of pain. That is a bad idea. Just stretch until you feel a gentle pull.

Hip/back Helpful for people who are quad dominant or who sit for hours each day. Good for tight hips, patellor/femoral (runner’s knee) pain.

Hip Stretches from Runner’s World

Hip Flexor Stretch

Hip Stretches for Runners

Hip mobility

Fixing tight hips

10 Reasons Half Marathon is the Optimal Race Distance

February 27, 2018 by Deb Voiles Leave a Comment

Half marathon training doesn’t need to take over your life.
Therefore, easier on the family/marriage.
It doesn’t take as many weeks/months of training to be ready. If you’re already running 30 miles a week, you can be ready in only two months, if, you’ve done one – or a marathon – before.
A half marathon is better for you. While there are plenty of great reasons to do a marathon, a shorter race, such as a half, is actually much better for your body.
Fueling and energy usage are not nearly as important because of the shorter duration of a half.
Not nearly as stressful on the body, which means injury is much less likely.
Better for a destination race because you’re more likely to feel like you can do some sightseeing the day before or day after.
Since it’s less stressful on the body, you can do them more often.
The long run isn’t nearly as long.
Faster recovery because not as intense.

Change is Hard, but Sometimes It Leads to a Better Place

March 22, 2017 by Deb Voiles Leave a Comment

As you may or may not know, Run Tampa’s club president in 2015-2016, Carla Nolan, and our event director, David Yancey resigned, simultaneously last week with zero notice. Since I didn’t have any warning, I had to hussle to get everything covered and maintained. No worries, though. I started Run Tampa many years ago, first starting this website, then I started hosting group runs, then I started coaching, then I started the club and newsletter. Back then, I did everything, including hosting every group run, all the coaching, managing destination races, arranging parties, this website and the Facebook group. It was a full-time job, and I devoted almost all my time to it until the club grew to 350 members. I then brought on Coach Maria Williams, and later, a board.

They did an amazing job for a year and grew the club to 450 members, but then things started to change. I won’t pretend I understand what lead to their abrupt departure; I likely will never know, but I’ve set my sights on returning Run Tampa to my original vision, as it got into a bit of a detour during the years when I had stepped aside. Some may not have understood why I brought on a board when I so loved the company I had built and the club I had started that brought so many wonderful people into my life. I now realize many of the original members left during that time.

I had devoted 5 solid years to growing Run Tampa, and while that was fulfilling, it wasn’t a living, and in 2014, I realized if I wasn’t ready to retire from earning a living, I needed to put someone else in charge of Run Tampa. That would give me some time to devote to Mojo for Running, my podcast. Plus, my dad was dying, and I was dealing with other personal crises as well. I could not continue to lead during those years.

I took a dozen of the most active members to dinner and explained that in order to have time to develop Mojo for Running and have time for my family, I needed to either make Run Tampa just a Facebook community or bring on a board to do what I’d been doing. Everyone, was vehement that I must keep the club, and a few volunteered to be on the board. They assumed I’d be chairman of the board, but I said, no, that if I did that, I’d never really have much more time. I knew I had to completely turn it over to a board.

They agreed, and we formed a C Corp so they could be entirely in charge of the club’s finances. We agreed they’d pay me a 10% licensing fee, and I would still manage the website which would remain completely separate, except that I would still devote 90% of the marketing the website provided to the club and to Maria’s coaching, and I would have the payment buttons for the club and the coaching hosted on the site, although they would be connected directly to the club’s account. Everyone thought it was a good arrangement.

Our agreement was that we would recognize the board as a complete success when I could be in a position of either attending group runs and board meetings or not, that it would be a success when I could completely depend on them to run everything and I would be able to be like a club member. I even had hoped to travel with my husband. After all, I could manage the website from anywhere. All the board members were in complete agreement and super enthusiastic.

As time passed, it wasn’t easy for me to see the direction of the club change, but I wasn’t in a position to take over again, myself, and because the membership was still growing, I felt like Run Tampa was still serving the running community, even if it wasn’t serving the same population. So I stepped further and further back.

Different runners have different goals, and while I was gone, the club became much more competitive, much more focused on marathon training and racing. Nothing wrong with that except that it wasn’t ideal for the people who didn’t want such an intense atmosphere, and eventually, because sometimes those training for marathons trained at different locations, that created a rift in the group.

It’s been a year, now, an interesting one. Before they split off, I knew I didn’t enjoy the group runs as much; even I felt like an outsider, but I was unaware there were so many who felt the same. When I looked at the membership list, I realized that the majority of my friends had left and others attended only sporadically.

I can happily report, now, that the club is returned to its original family feel, comfortable and welcoming to runners of all levels, focused more on camaraderie and support for one another than anything else. While we have all speeds and abilities, people training for Boston and winning races, we are also a home for people running their first miles, all feel like they belong.

I’ve returned to coaching, and it’s been rewarding to have people return who’d been in my program years ago. At this time I feel like the future is unlimited for Run Tampa, and once again, my favorite times are the ones I spend running alongside the amazing members of the club, introducing them and witnessing the birth of great friendships. It makes my heart full, and I feel incredibly fortunate that I found my way back, even if it wasn’t according to plan, to lead this group again.

I so appreciate all the people who’ve stuck by me and helped me return Run Tampa to its beginnings. I’m super proud of it, and I know you are as well because you are Run Tampa. It’s populated, now with great old friends and equally great new ones, united around a common love of running.

If You Want to Become a Runner, Read On

August 21, 2015 by Deb Voiles Leave a Comment

I hear it all the time: “I’m not a runner. I would if I could, but I can’t run.”

I said that, too, and I believed it to be true because every time I ran I struggled with an intense cramp in my side. I was sure I’d never be able to run. Turned out I was wrong. That was over 200 races and 44 years ago.

I discovered several critical secrets that enabled me to succeed, and they will do the same for you.

Whether you are a new mom with baby weight to lose, which is what got me started, or you’re middle-aged or older (I’m 61, by the way) or overweight or super out of shape, you can still do this.

A 92-year old woman, Harriette Thompson, recently set the record for being the oldest woman to run a marathon, and she STARTED running at age 76! Not that I expect all runners to set their sites on a marathon; I’m just making a point.

For me, the obstacle was that side cramp, but for more people the issue is knee pain, trouble with breathing or motivation.

When people tell me they “Can’t run,” they put great emphasis on the word “can’t.” Those people will experience the greatest pleasure, a few weeks from now, when they can say, “I am a runner.”

Don’t compare yourself to the runners you see in magazines or flying down Bayshore. They were beginners once too. Focus on running just a few steps. If you can run 10 steps and you run 15 steps next week and 20 steps the next week, you’ll eventually do a 5k.

Of course, my program is a bit more sophisticated than that. You’ll learn correct form from day 1, and I’ll have you doing a pattern of walking alternated with running, starting with only a mile for the true beginners. Those who’ve already been doing a walk/run will have a different workout. Each person’s training is geared to the individual.

Here are the secrets to success:

Start at the right point for you, for your current physical condition and experience level.
Learn correct form from day 1. Often, this alone will prevent achy knees or other discomforts that you may have experienced before.
Strengthen the muscles to reinforce good form and prevent injury.
Progress at a rate appropriate for your fitness level. It’s not a race to see how fast you can become a runner.
Slow down. Most people just starting out, even when running only a few steps at a time, go too fast.
Learn what not to do.

Here is a key, maybe the key: There is nothing wrong with baby steps. Nothing. Start small, gradually; that’s fine. That’s great. It means you’re much more likely to succeed. Go into this with a careful plan and a caring, knowledgeable coach by your side, me, and you will succeed, but standing still will get you nowhere. Do this with me. You will never look back.

After one workout, you’ll be thinking, “I can do this” and you’ll be right. You’ll never have to worry about motivation because you will enjoy the workouts. You’ll know you’re on the road to achieving your goal.

Hard Runs Hard, Easy Runs Easy

5 Ways Runners Can Increase Hip Mobility

10 Reasons Half Marathon is the Optimal Race Distance

Change is Hard, but Sometimes It Leads to a Better Place

If You Want to Become a Runner, Read On

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