Below is a question from our Hanson’s Coaching Community Page on Facebook. This week’s question asks about Masters running and ways to adjust the schedule. Don S: How can non-elite-runners in their late fifties adapt the beginner program in the book to a five day a week marathon program after training with a three day […]

HCS Community Page:

4/28/16

From our closed Facebook Community:

Sasha: I would like to know if/how Hansons training addresses different pace work such as VO2Max, etc. The 5k-10k Pace work isn’t fast enough for VO2Max, and I’ve found great adaptions to occur at 3k Pace. Is that something that could be added, and is it added in custom training and/or amongst Hanson’s elite?

This is a question we get a fair amount. It’s also a source of misconception with our naysayers. With that, there’s a number of components that we should look at when answering the main question here.

What population are you working with?

With the majority of people we are working with they are going to get the vast majority of aerobic fitness by the peripheral benefits of easy to moderate running. Even marathon pace is a highly aerobic event. Plus, the majority of people who are using the program are taking their training to a new level and the addition of very fast running will only create an additional stress that they may or may not be able to recover from. As a coach with a program meant for large groups, it’s not a good addition to expect everyone to tolerate. To me, this is something that a coach working with an individual would add.

What is the goal of our training cycle?

The goal of our marathon program isn’t to improve your VO2max. It’s been shown time and time again that VO2max is not a good predictor of race performance, especially the marathon. So, in our case, VO2max will improve as a byproduct of the training, not because we emphasized it. You also have to look at where you fit that type of training. You won’t put it early in the segment as that can cause acidosis. It also doesn’t make sense because the body might not to be able to withstand that intensity, even in short bouts. I’m also not going to put it at the end, when I am trying to be as race specific as possible.

The 3-2 rule revisited

Even after what I just wrote in the last two sections, I do think there is a place for everything. If you have read the book and my posts, you know I don’t like people just racing marathon after marathon. We have what we call the 3-2 rule, which is simply three marathons to every two years. Now that is probably really painful for people to hear, and depending on the person, you may be able to sneak it up to 2 marathons per year. However, this is one of the main reasons why. If we are always in a marathon training mode, we either have to force training that might not be good timing (or force us to miss on the stuff we really need), or we take a dedicated segment every now and then and use it to challenge ourselves in a new way. This could be building our mileage, improving our top end speed, adding strength training. Personally, it doesn’t matter, as long as it’s not the same training over and over.

So with that said, would I add? Not in a general setting where I am already making a ton of assumptions about you. However, working on an individual level, we would work all facets of training into your big picture of training when we can put it in the appropriate place!

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HCS Community Page: 4/28/16 From our closed Facebook Community: Sasha: I would like to know if/how Hansons training addresses different pace work such as VO2Max, etc. The 5k-10k Pace work isn’t fast enough for VO2Max, and I’ve found great adaptions to occur at 3k Pace. Is that something that could be added, and is it […]

Mileage is always a big topic of discussion with runners, almost a badge of honor for some runners. For newer runners, the questions usually revolve around increasing mileage safely but quickly (sometimes just quickly) while with more advanced runners, the questions might be centered more around how much mileage is enough. What I’d like to do is offer up some thoughts on common “rules” and give you some ideas to think about when you start looking at your own training volume.

The most popular method of increasing mileage, by far, is the 10% rule

General Theory

The most popular method of increasing mileage, by far, is the 10% rule. A quick Google search on “increasing running mileage” will show you numerous articles. This has come under some criticism- just read those above mentioned articles. It certainly is a pretty conservative approach, especially with newbies and general low mileage runners. For instance, if you run 10 miles your first week of running, then this rule says that the most you can add is 1 mile. The practicality of that isn’t necessarily high. You might have a variance of 2-3 miles without even trying.

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Another theory comes from the ever famous Daniels Running Formula which Dr Daniels writes about adding no more than one mile per run per week. For instance, if you run 4 times per week, then add no more than 4 miles the next week. This proposal is seemingly scalable, as many competitive runners will run 10 plus runs in a week and that would probably be about a 10% increase in mileage. So, for lower mirage runners, the amount you can increase may be more like 15-20%. This makes sense because adding even a small amount of total weekly mileage in low volume runners will tend to be higher than the very conservative 10% rule.

What’s best way to approach? Well, for lower mileage runners the 10% rule is probably to conservative. To be honest, at that rate of increase, you’ll spend all summer just trying to get to a decent weekly volume. For higher mileage runners, there’s probably not going to be much difference between the two philosophies. And, for these folks, your concerns probably lie in other areas- which we will discuss later. The following are things that I would consider when deciding on your approach.  

Things to consider when discussing volume/mileage

Maximize your current level before making a jump. It takes 4-6 weeks for the body to adjust to a new training stress, so don’t jump to another training stress until you’ve gained what you can out of the current training stress. If you can still adapt at a lower training level, then why not? Otherwise, you have the risk of jumping up too much too quickly and getting injured.

One of the most common issues I see with beginning runners or runners trying to make a big jump in training is that they were feeling great and then, BOOM! They got a tendonitis or a stress fracture. What we tend to neglect is that our cardiorespiratory fitness can increase quite rapidly, within a couple weeks. However, things like bone and tendon take much longer to catch up. So, if we jump up too much, despite the increase in fitness, we end up sidelined. That is why I say to not really jump up a little bit every week, rather increase a moderate amount every 4ish weeks and then stay there. It won’t be as slow of a buildup as the 10% rule, but not so fast that the body can’t adjust. Running more mileage is only good if you can do it consistently!

2.  Focus on endurance before intensity: In general fitness we look at the acronym FITT which represents frequency of exercise, intensity of exercise, amount of time exercising, and type of exercise.  When we begin increasing mileage, we are potentially adjusting all four of these variables. If we add a day to our routine, we automatically are adding more time that we are engaging in a certain type of exerci...

Mileage is always a big topic of discussion with runners, almost a badge of honor for some runners. For newer runners, the questions usually revolve around increasing mileage safely but quickly (sometimes just quickly) while with more advanced runners, the questions might be centered more around how much mileage is enough. What I’d like to […]

How many of you can touch your toes? Without bending at the knee? Some of you can, folks like me are at about mid shin. (C’mon, I have long legs!) Are the people who are more flexible going to be better runners? Maybe, but maybe not. The key here is being flexible enough. The person who is less flexible still may be flexible enough to complete the task at hand. That is essentially the idea of being functionally flexible. More so, we have come to recognize that the fastest of runners aren’t always the most flexible, either. It has to do with elasticity and running economy- not the point of this post.

What is the point is that doing things like we did in gym class isn’t necessarily going to determine our ability as a runner, or even our likelihood of getting injured due to our “inflexibility.” What I want to show you is a series of tests that you can do that will help determine a) what type of flexibility you have for running and b) if that flexibility needs to be worked on. Establishing this point can then allow us to have discussions about how to stretch and increase our flexibility vs. stretching for the sake of stretching.

All of the following is based off of Jay Dicharry and his book, Anatomy for Runners. If you are into self-help, this is a great resource for you. He essentially has put together a series of tests you can do to see where you are at, in terms of needing to fix issues or identify potential injury sites.

Test 1: Ankle Dorsiflexion

Dorsiflexion is when the top of the foot and front of the shin is flexed. So this can be from you actively flexing your foot towards the sky or from the flexion occurring from your foot landing on the ground when running and the weight of that action causing the flexion. Why having enough flexion is important is because it can directly relate to your ability to cushion your own bodyweight, as well as dictate your stride length. Lacking the right amount of ankle flexibility will shorten your stride length and make your stride more “bouncy.” Effectively, you’ll be less efficient and more likely to have some sort of lower leg injury.

Fortunately, we can test this pretty easily. Here’s how:

* Sit down in a chair with both knee at a 90 degree angle and foot flat on the floor.

* Slide in chair so that knees are just past the toes.

* If you can’t keep your heels on the ground then we now that your achilles tendon is too tight.

That’s all you need to worry about right now. We’ll discuss what to actually do about it in our Flexibility discussion.

Test 2: Dorsiflexion of big toe(s)

The ability for the big toe to have flexion is important for our foot strike as well. If we can’t flex the big toe, then chances are that our plantar fascia is too tight. Anyone who has had “the fasciitis” knows that it isn’t pleasant. It also can limit our form too, as having a big toe that can’t flex means that you affect your push off with your gait. This can affect stride length, as well.

How to test:

* Stay in same position that you ended up in for test #1.

* Keep the ball of your foot on the floor and try to raise just your big toe to a 30 degree angle.

* If you can’t, or the ball of the foot comes off the floor, then the plantar fascia is probably too tight.

Test 3: Hip extension

Hip extension, or when your foot is unsupported and swinging behind your during the running cycle, is vital to running form and running economy. Much like with ankle dorsiflexion, if this is limited, you are limiting the natural length of your stride.

How to test:

* Kneel down on one knee, preferably inside a door jamb. Be positioned so that the femur (quad) of the kneeled leg is vertical. As is the shin of the opposite leg.

* With back against the door jamb, you should have a natural curve along your lower back. Try to flatten this against the door jamb.

In the first part of this series, we really discussed more subjective parameters. How you feel you train and recover, and what you think your strength and weaknesses are. In this second part, I’d like to discuss more measurable variables- like what your VO2max is, how fast you can run at your VO2max, your running specific strength and flexibility, and even your current running form. I don’t want to take away from the data that we collected in the first part, as that serves a very useful purpose. This is just serving a different purpose. The first set of data shows us how we may need to plan for your training. The data in this part of the assessment gives us baseline values, as well as a clear starting point to what we should spend extra time on to help make us a better and less injury prone runner.

VO2max:

If you can get your VO2max tested in a lab type setting, then it’s not a bad idea. You can collect a lot of useful data. However, from my experience, it’s fairly tough to find a good place to have one conducted with fairly decent equipment. If you can find one, it’s probably going to be a couple hundred bucks. So, if you an alternative to a treadmill test, then we have something that may be of use. The following test is from Dr. Joe Vigil, distance coach guru. It is interpretation of the Balke-Ware test.

Modified Balke-Ware

The best place to perform this test is a local track on a decent day (light wind/moderate temps). You want to be fairly warmed up for this test, so do your normal warmup routine. You are essentially turning this into a 15 minute race. Then you will be solving for this equation:

VO2max = 0.178 × ([m ÷ 15] – 150) + 33.3

* On the track, run as fast as you can for 15 minutes, covering as much distance as possible.

* You have to plan accordingly for this, as there is definitely some strategy. The goal is to be running the fastest over the last few minutes of the test.

* For runners that are over 25 minute 5k runners, I would start out at about 10k pace for the first 7 minutes, then 5k pace for the next 5 minutes and then as hard as you can for the last 3 minutes.

* For runners under that are under 25 minute 5k runners, I would start out at a pace between 5k and 10k pace for the first 8- minutes. From 8-13 minutes at about 5k pace, and then finish the last two minutes all out.

* There is definitely a learning curve to this. You may do a trial run and then try it again a week later.

* The main reason we are using your local track as our testing spot is for a couple reasons.

* It’s easier to pace throughout the test.

* It’s a lot easier to track and convert your distance. Although if you are using a GPS unit and on a flat surface, you can manage this too.

In any case, we want to convert the distance to meters. A mile is equal to 1609 m. If you’ve run 2.5 miles, multiply 2.5 by 1609 to get 4022 m. On the track, each lap is equal to 400 meters, which makes it nice to simply count your laps and add your remaining distance of your last lap started.

* Take the number in meters and convert it to meters per minute by dividing it by 15. In our scenario, 4022 ÷ 15 = 268 m/min.

* From that 268 m/min, the first 150 m = 33.3 ml/kg/min. This is our baseline VO2.

* The remaining 118 m (in our example) is then multiplied by 178 and added to the base of 33.3. Note: If you don’t have a speed of greater than 150 m/min, then take the difference between your speed and 150, multiply by 0.178, and subtract that number from the base of 33.3.

Using our example:

4022 m run in 15 minutes = 268 m/min.

118 × 0.178 = 21.0

21.0 + 33.3 = 54.3 ml/kg/min or VO2 max

This means that your current aerobic fitness is 54.3. What we really want to do here is compare our value to both our running peers,

In the first part of this series, we really discussed more subjective parameters. How you feel you train and

One of the more common questions that I receive revolves around the recovery, and why we prescribe “so much” time off. We even get a number of emails asking how we can tailor the program to fit multiple marathons in over the span of a month, or two. There’s a number of reasons why we don’t really devise plans to fit the later request and the reasoning is mainly because of the first issue- the need for recovery. What I’d like to do is go over some of the basics of what actually happens to us during the marathon and why we really do need to put a focus on that recovery process.

First of all, let’s get right to the biggest misconception out there: lactic acid. The pain or discomfort that you are feeling is not lactic acid overflowing your bloodstream. You weren’t running hard enough to produce massive amounts of lactic acid and what you were producing was recycled in the liver during the run back into glucose. So, anything that was in your bloodstream was gone within several minutes of finishing. By the time you race over 35 km (18.8 miles) you’re intensity isn’t high enough to produce large amounts of lactic acid.

So, instead of lactic acid, I want us to think about what our main culprits for marathon fatigue will be. We know that a few things happen from a metabolic and physiological standpoint. We know that we become dehydrated, glycogen depleted, and that there is actual damage done to our muscle fibers. Dehydration and glycogen depletion has been covered extensively here and elsewhere, so I’d like to shift our focus to muscle fiber damage.

In 1985, Warhol et al. looked at skeletal muscle injury and subsequent repair in 40 amateur runners upon completion of a marathon. Of these 40 runners, the majority trained at an average of 36-70 km per week of training, which is equivalent to about 40 miles per week. Unfortunately, it was not stated how long these athletes trained for this race. What was found was that those who slowed down more than 15% from their first 5k of the race to the last 5k of the race, showed significantly more muscle damage than those who maintained their speed. This is probably not anything revolutionary to most people. I think we all expect that there be muscle damage immediately following a 26 mile run. However, this study then looked at muscle damage over the next several weeks to guage how well the muscles responded. Another study by Coso and colleagues looked at blood markers in 40 marathon finishers immediately following competition an again over a period of several weeks. Here’s a quick look at the results:

* Immediately after race: extreme cases showed 25% of fibers were significantly, while some showed only very light damage.

* 1 week after race: beginning to heal from acute injury. Most glycogen had been replaced. Many “empty” cells were found meaning they were basically dead cells.

* 1 month after race: most damage was resolved and glycogen was abundant in fibers.

* 8-10 weeks post-race: Still signs of some damage in some subjects.

What can we take away from this? One, that recovery is highly individual. While we didn’t know the experience level of these athletes, I would bet that there is a high correlation between training level and subsequent muscle damage. Regardless, most runners will still need to allow for muscle glycogen replenishment for several days to a week and will have at least light damage on a cellular level.

With that said, my guidelines for returning to running would be as follows:

* If you just completed your first marathon, followed a beginner or low mileage program, or faded severely in your marathon attempt, then I would take a minimum of two weeks off running.

* If you used a low mileage advanced program (

* If you finished relatively even throughout the race AND are a higher mileage runner, then I would still advise 7-10 days of no running.