Last week I wrote about big data and what it told us about training for the mid-packer. I also chimed in about how I felt the HMM style of marathon training fit in. The reality is the vast majority of people under train for the marathon. When I say under train, I am referring to training volume. If you are a mid packer running 30-40 miles per week, then my guess is that it involves a lot of weekend running and then a few runs scattered across the other 5 days of the week. If you are a mid packer looking to elevate your game, then I would encourage you to read my book Hansons Marathon Method. This will bump your mileage and give you a new threshold in training for marathon breakthroughs. This post may be beneficial too.

Following a more structured plan will do a lot for the regular runner, especially if in the 3:45 plus range in the marathon. However, that’s not what this post is about. Rather, let’s say that you’ve been training hard for a few marathons, maybe even used HMM a couple times. You’ve seen success, but now you are starting to level off. Adding even more weekly volume isn’t  really an option, so we have to find a way to get more out of our existing workouts and weekly volume.

Luckily, there are ways to do this and today we’ll talk about one of them. That’s the recovery times of your repeat workouts. Originally, I was going to talk about speed and strength workouts, but realized that this was a lot of information, so we’ll stick with the speed workouts today.

In the classic plans, speed workouts are done over the first weeks of the training plan performed at 5k to 10k pace. Now, I fully recognize that for the true speedsters out there that this may not qualify for true speed work in your world, but it is speedwork relative to the goal race distance. It’s more than plenty. When I prescribe, I tend to prescribe at 10k pace, but I know many of you will go with the faster end of the spectrum if given the option. What happens though, is that this ends up being a wide range of paces and so standard recovery given may not fit all needs.

Let’s look at 5k pace first.

This effort will be at an intensity near your VO2max for the faster runners, while closer to critical velocity (CV), for others. VO2max is the pace you can hold for up to 8 minutes while CV is the pace you can hold for about 30 minutes. Big difference, right? Two important thresholds, but two very different thresholds. To further complicate things, at 10k pace, depending on the runner, you might be working your CV or you may be closer to the lactate threshold (LT), the pace you can hold for an hour. This complicates the ideal recovery times.

You may be asking, what does the book say? For speed, you have 3 miles worth of fast work ranging from 12x400 meters to 3x1 mile and the recovery is 400 to 800 meters, depending on the length of the repeats. When you set the recovery to distance, you take out a major factor- the time that distance is covered. While it might be the right amount of time for some, you also have it being too much/little for others. However, when you are creating a plan that is meant to help a wide spectrum of people, things won’t be perfect for everyone. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be perfect and that is where this post comes in- showing you how to individualize.

There are general rules for recovery, depending on repeat length and pace. For instance, if you are working more of the VO2max end of the spectrum then the ratio is 1:1, 1:1.5, and 1:2. Simply, this is the rest to work ratio. If you are running repeats that take about two minutes, then recovery can be anywhere from an equal two minutes down to one minute. Personally, if you are pretty fit, I’d say that shorter repeats (400-800 in distance) that your recovery can be in the 1.5-2 range. The longer the repeat, the more recover and close to a 1:1 ratio.

The reasoning, you ask?

Well, it takes 90-120 seconds to reach VO2max per repeat. So, if you are doing 800’s with a long rest, then you are spending more time reaching VO2max- maybe close to the full repeat just to get to the stimulus you want. The basics of it all is that you want to run hard, but the recovery has to be balanced between short enough to maximize time spent at desired level, but not so short that you can’t sustain the pace.

Now, if you are on the LT side of things, then we approach the recovery differently. Since the intensity is less, recovery can be less. Think of it this way- we are moving away from an intensity that can only be sustained for 15-30 minutes to a pace that can be sustained for about an hour. Imagine going out at 5k pace for a half marathon! Phew. In any case, the recovery I always see is 90-120 seconds per LT repeat. However, in our case, shorter repeats like 400’s or 600’s don’t need even that and can be 45-60 seconds per repeat. I’d say anything under 3 minutes can be utilized. If referring to ratios, I’d say a 1:3 or a 1:4 ratio for LT repeats. The reasoning- well, again it comes down to accumulating time at the desired intensity.

If you were running, say 1k repeats at 4 minutes a pop, with a 4 minute recovery, then you would be essentially starting from scratch every repeat and severely limit the amount of time you spent at the desired intensity.

If we did 5x1k at that pace that’s 20 minutes of hard running, but how much was really spent at or near LT? 10, 12, 14 minutes? Now, if you shorten the recovery, you spend less time getting back to LT but recover enough to continue the paces then maybe out of that 20 minutes of hard running, we bump that up to 18+minutes at our desired intensity. A lot more bang for your buck! Not only do you increase the efficiency of the workout, you actually decrease the time needed for the workout. If you are an early am runner, how does having an extra 10 minutes sound? Maybe you’d even stretch! Yeah right, who’s kidding who? (JK!)

Ok coach, that all sounds great, but how do you know when you are in the right time frame?

The easiest way to determine is if you can still maintain the pacing. This may be true for both the fast repeat and the jog interval. If your jog repeats fall off a little during VO2max efforts, that’s one thing- I mean I am asking you to run pretty hard! However, for if you are more on the LT side of things, then the repeat intensity is low enough and the distance short enough that your recovery jogs shouldn’t fall off a cliff by the last few.

To reiterate, these suggestions on adjusting recovery times aren’t a must have for everyone. If you are new to the HMM style, then I’ll warn you- it’s not a cake walk plan.

There’s no need to make it tougher and you’ll see so much improvement as written.

However, if you are an old pro at the method and want to shake things up a bit, then this is a simple way to do it without adding more volume or more workouts. This is a great way to break through a plateau.

Lastly...

if you have the plan, or any plan of mine in Final Surge and are using the structured workouts, then you can easily adjust the recovery times on your workout. You can simply log in, go to the Beta platform and select your day. Then click the workout builder and edit the recovery. You can change the distance to match what fits your needs or ger exact and switch the recovery to time based. Eazy Peazy!

Next time we’ll have to talk about strength workouts and recovery times. Make sure you check out our plans at Final Surge! If you like our content and wanna help support, please consider becoming a Patreon. There are some perks for becoming a Patreon. If anything, please share this far and wide to help spread the word.

Ok, so I have to admit that I was awfully intrigued with Amby Burfoot’s new article for Podium Runner. I was very curious to see what insights there’d be into the world of marathon training for recreational runners, or as they were called mid packers. And then someone asked if I’d share my thoughts on this and compare it to my own thoughts on training, so it was a win-win.

Now, before I jump into this, I want to set the tone a bit. A few years ago, Outside Magazine published a bunch of Strava data on marathon performance and training. While it was interesting, I was left with more questions than when I started. Ultimately, I asked myself the question,

“Just because this is what people do, does it mean they should?”

I left really believing that most people could run a lot faster if they just trained a little differently, but hey, that’s my job, right? That’s my responsibility to show that messaging and show how my athletes do it! I do really feel that if recreational runners learned how to train, or at least take ideas from what elites do and modify to their situation, then we’d see improvement in marathon times across the spectrum. Anyway, I simply point out that data shows that US marathon times have declined steadily for decades. Yes, more people are running, so there are multiples of more people running now than in the ’70s and ’80s, but the trends have continued to decline for the last 10 years. So, data shows us what people are doing, but it doesn’t mean it’s the most successful way of doing it.

Alright, Mr. Burfoot gives 5 main points as to what the data suggests people should be doing and I want to address these points one by one. I’d like to give what the data shows and then my take. Right off the bat, though, I am left wondering why I should take his word for it, since he claims that the math is complicated and we should just trust him- that’s always an invitation to not trust something!

Point 1: Training more, even at a slow pace can make you faster.

I agree 100% with this and easy to moderate running is the basis of our programs. It’s not junk miles and anyone who tells you it is, doesn’t understand this principle. Easy running is the foundation that your house is built on. The better/bigger the foundation, the more solid the construction and the bigger the house that can be built. Easy running supports the demands of hard running!

Point 2: Fast training builds your endurance more effectively than slow training.

It depends. If I am training for a marathon, is my time going to be more affected by doing small amounts of training that are really fast or bigger volumes of training that includes lots of longer runs at easier paces? I think part of the problem here is that endurance isn’t defined. The truth is, a combination of these two variables would probably the most complete way of doing things.

In terms of the HMM philosophy, I would say that faster training would be the speed that we do at the beginning of the marathon segment before transitioning to the strength and marathon specific work over the second half of the training plan. I believe it’s also part of the reasoning behind the 3/2 rule: No more than 3 marathons in 2 years so that you can work on faster paces. 

Point 3: Elite runners generally don’t push as hard in training as mid-pack and slower runners.

Yes, it’s a simple percentage game. If I am running 100 miles per week, the percentage of “fast” running is going to be less than if I am running 50 miles per week. My workouts might be bigger in absolute volume and intensity, but from a percentage standpoint, there’s a limit to how much you can do. If we both do 5k worth of 5k pace work in a week, then for me, that’s 3% of my weekly volume. If the runner doing 50 miles/week does the same workout, it’s 6% of their weekly volume.

Now, I will say this, too. When you look at a 4 hour plus marathoner, there is a big blurring of lines. They can go out and run their 4-6 miles “easy” and average faster than their goal marathon time. Citing back to one of the previous points: their general endurance is fine, but their specific endurance is lagging. Lots of reasons why this might be, but usually, their training just doesn’t match the event.

Personally, this is why low volume, minimal days per week plans may make you feel fast, but ultimately give you a false sense of where your fitness truly is.

Point 4: There’s a limit to how far and how hard you can train.

Yes, absolutely. We all have that limit. When I was younger, not married, no kids, and running as a job, I could run 140-150 miles per week at my peak and then recover from it. I coach CEO’s and stay at home moms that train their butts off, but that means 40-50 miles per week. However, the biggest lesson you can learn is what we’ve already talked about- easy days are not your enemy and these, when done right, allow you to run more overall and train harder on the designated days.

Point 5: Adopt a new pattern for your training. Focus on training weeks, not individuals. Alternate your weeks (hard, hard, easy, moderate).

For part number one, yes, agreed 100% and this is the basis of cumulative fatigue. Your fitness isn’t going to come from an individual workout, but rather, the cumulative effects of weeks and months of consistent training.

For the second part of this, there is one main problem I have with this. This is basically what the most successful people were doing. But more successful than who? Oh, more successful than the people who trained the least and ran the hardest. So, it wasn’t the strategy that would yield the most overall success. It was the strategy that was most successful in the group being looked at. It doesn’t mean it’s the most effective.

Secondly, my question is, was that rotation out of necessity? How many people who ran hard for two weeks were forced to take that third week incredibly easy so that they could recover enough to have a little bit harder 4th week? Again, some questions I’d like answered.

To Conclude:

To wrap up, the whole caveat to this is at the very end. 47% of the people running were UNDER-TRAINED. So to me, that makes the case for the HMM. It’s not a just go run 40 miles per week plan with 20 of it coming from the long run. It’s a step up between a common low mileage high long-run plan that will allow you to survive a marathon. However, it’s not an 80+ mile per week plan either. It’s a moderate mileage plan with a lot of easy running and hard workouts. I read this article and was further verified that the HMM is the plan that can take a recreational runner who thinks that 3:35-3:45 is where they’ll be and instead get them to a 3:15-3:30 marathoner with a little more training and a lot of understanding of why you are doing what you are doing.

Hansons Marathon Method books

How many times have you set your time goal, thought it looked kinda scary, but still doable? Yeah, me too. Now, how about when you started the training plan and that first workout at your new race pace was staring back at you? Knees shake, sweat build, and a “Oh crap, that’s fast” blurts out. Yep, been there too. There’s a number of reasons we might be in this situation.

Maybe we are looking at that big home run goal, say a BQ that’s 15 minutes faster than our personal best.

We haven’t run a marathon in a long time (if ever), but since we’ve done some relatively fast shorter races, the charts say we are capable of something much faster than we had in mind!

The opposite, you are a habitual marathoner, but recognize you need to work on that “get down” speed. (Bonus points if you name the book) And that 5k time looks like it might as well be a world record attempt.

There’s lots of reasons why, but the bottom line is that the paces might be a big jump. When looking at speed, maybe you have an intro workout of 12x400 meters at goal 5k pace. However, goal 5k pace feels more like mile pace. So, that hard, but doable, workout (in theory), has now become impossible. If that goal 5k pace is approaching, say your current 3k plus pace, then we are taking it from a place of being below VO2max to a place where it’s right at, or above, your VO2max. This completely changes the scope of the workout. Plus, it makes it really tough on you and it probably won’t end the way you want it. When you look at marathon paces, let’s say you are looking at that first marathon tempo of 4 miles. However, your last half marathon wasn’t too far off that goal pace- yikes! The same thing applies here. Early on, we might be making a lighter marathon pace workout into a lactate threshold workout. If you are in a marathon segment and in this situation, it could spell disaster later on.

For marathoners, why would this be the case?

If you are following the HMM plan, then you are looking at 18 weeks of running. That’s a long time. That’s buffered a bit in the beginner plan with easy weeks in the beginning. In the Advanced plan, you are getting down to business  right away. Regardless, you have several weeks of a buildup of speed and marathon pace workouts before switching to the marathon specific work over the last several weeks. Now, if we are taking the first few weeks of speed, that’s supposed to be on the slower end of the speed range (close to LT for some people) and then a marathon pace that should be more like a harder easy run and switch these to both at LT, or above, then we set ourselves up to be burnt out by 10-12 weeks of training.

If you are training for a 5k or a 10k, then you might not have an 18 week schedule but 14 weeks is still a long time. With half marathon and marathon training, we might be able to get away with it for a while, but as intensities get faster and faster, the potential damage gets higher. Things like DOMS will occur more regularly. Overall muscle damage may be higher. Ultimately, we dig the hole a little deeper than we can fill back in with recovery every time we work out.

So, over the course of several weeks, we either it a breaking point or just so burnt out that performance takes a nosedive. Even if we do survive, psychologically, we haven’t particularly done anything to make ourselves confident.

We end up hanging on rather than building up.

Recommended Post

Whatever situation you are in, the question remains the same- how do we bridge the gap between where we are at and where we want to be. Just diving in may work, but is it the most reasonable solution? The chances of failure are a lot higher with this approach.

As a coach I approach three different ways.

I make sure my athletes aren’t just doing one type of training all the time.If they just want to run marathons, then I try to get them to switch modes at the appropriate time. There’s a number of ways to time this. One way is to do during a time that doesn’t make sense to train for their primary event. So, a marathoner in Florida, may benefit from doing a speed segment during the summer months, when training for a marathon would be absolutely miserable. Then, they could switch gears in September and run a marathon in December or January when the weather would be much more favorable to them.

Adjust overall paces.What I mean by this, is each workout for a certain goal will be kept the same. So, your 5k pace is 7:00/mile and you are looking to get down to 6:40/mile. What I might do is take a week or so at the current 7:00 pace, then cut down to 6:50 pace for 3-4 weeks, then close out the segment at 3-4 weeks at the goal pace of 6:40. This gives the body time to adapt to new levels. In other words, we don’t dig that hole so deep we can’t get out of it.

Cutdown paces during the workout.Flipping it, let’s assume your current marathon pace is 8:00/mile and you want to get to 7:30 pace. You have a 4 mile tempo at goal pace. At the beginning of your segment, that might be faster than what your LT is, so completely changing the dynamics of the workout intentions. What I might do is say first mile at 8:00, then next mile at 7:50, then 7:40, then try to close at 7:30 if you can. Then over the course of the next several weeks, increase the amount of time in the range of goal pace to goal pace plus 10 secs/mile and decrease the amount of time at the old marathon pace. You could easily do the same things with repeats.

Reduce repeat distances for the first few weeks and make tempos repeats.So, for workouts like speed at new goal pace, you could keep repeats to 200-600 meter repeats at new goal paces and keep recovery a little longer. With a four mile tempo, I often just make 8x800 meters or 4x1 mile at goal MP with short recoveries. Now, mind you, I don’t believe the physiological adaptations are the same, but in this case that is not the point. Here, our goal is to build confidence in new pace and just dip our toes into the deep end.

I love setting big goals.

However, big goals without a plan is no good. Here’s 4 strategies to help bridge the gap in the early stages. These can be used for big goals, coming back from a long time away from an event, or going into uncharted territory. Let’s make it happen!

Is having a coach worth it?

The answer is, drumroll please, it depends! Believe it or not, ability is not a prerequisite for myself, or any of my other coaches to work with you. In fact, I’d say ability isn’t ever something I particularly look at when taking an athlete on. When I do, it’s not to determine if the person is “fast enough” to be with us, but rather to determine what coach will be able to serve your needs best.

Work Hard

If ability is not a prerequisite, what is? I do have a few traits that I do look at in potential athletes. The first is the promise to work hard. However, don’t confuse this with training faster or more that’s on your schedule! That’s not hard work, that’s just running as hard as you can without understanding the nuances of training.

Working hard is following the plan to your best of your ability, not finding ways out of doing workouts, skipping runs without reason, and just expecting fitness to come to you.

Buy in

This leads to the second trait is to buy into the philosophy. To follow the plan in principle. I know that things can be out of our control and adjustments need to be made, but just not doing something because it’s different from what you are used to doesn’t help you, or your coach. Going rogue on a plan means you don’t trust me, the philosophy, or yourself. Change in training is uncomfortable, but not believing in what you are doing almost guarantees failure. I am not saying it’s my way or the highway, but there has to be agreement by both parties in regards to what you are doing.

Dialog

Lastly, there has to be communication. You’d think it would be easy with all the technology surrounding us, but you wouldn’t believe how many times I have been ghosted by athletes for weeks. Then like a flair in the night, I get a response (and it’s usually- I am hurt) Talk to me, I promise I won’t scold you like a child! I may give you some tough love, but I desperately want to know what’s going on.

Pillars of a Coach

Of course, the flipside of all of this is, what should you be looking for in a coach? Well, some of the same things. The big thing is communication. With our platform, Final Surge, it’s easy to comment on workouts to put context into workouts. I do my best to at least acknowledge a workout that I get notified about.

As an athlete, it’s good to know that someone is at least looking at what I am doing.

Commenting on workouts is a huge start because we can discuss directly about a workout within your training log. It allows for easy adjustments and teaching points.

Another big thing I feel a coach has to be able to do for you is to explain themselves. They are in charge of your training, your health, and your ability to perform at the highest level. If you have questions, they should be able to answer, or at least, provide resources to give you answers. This allows your ability as an athlete to buy into the system a lot easier, no?

The third thing I’d look for is their ability to modify your situation. In reality, we are unique, but our situations usually are not. Given that, a good coach knows those different situations and can keep their training philosophy, but adjust it to a variety of situations.

To conclude

Overall, having a coach is vital, as long as both athlete and coach are present.

If the athlete isn’t present, the coach gradually just stops taking interest.

If the coach is not present the athlete doesn’t buy in. In both situations it’s a lost opportunity and, more than likely, will end up in a poor experience for both. Now, I recognize that paying for a coach is a big decision, so I would really weigh the things we have talked about today. For us at LHR, we have recognized that paying for a coach can be expensive and so we’ve really tried to provide options for all price points. To see all the options, check out our page www.lukehumphreyrunning.com/coaching We also have a standard first 14 days free with our Bronze, Silver, and Gold options. This is to make sure it’s the right fit for you. If you are thinking about coaching, check out this page and we’d be happy to guide you in the right direction.

More specifically, the question was,

“Once well into the plan do your easy runs truly feel easy?”

This was asked by one of our Facebook group members and I believe that he was hinting that his workouts were ok, but the easy runs were now an issue of being stiff, sore, and sluggish. As others noted in their response, they felt like it took miles to warm up and shake these feelings, at least to an extent. These are big concerns, for sure, especially if you’ve never been in this situation before. It could be easy to confuse hard training with going overboard. Is feeling like this normal with marathon training?

The short answer is, YES! This is completely normal. Those easy days following a big workout can be brutal. If you were to look at my training logs, it would be common to see an easy day following a workout day that looked like: 8:00/mile, 7:45, 7:30, then 7:00 pace or faster the rest of the way. When I was at peak training volume, there’d be about a 6 week block that could be really tough for the psyche if I were to judge my marathon capabilities by the drop in pace of my easy runs.

Some noted that the easy days were harder than the workout days. I can definitely attest to that. We are more likely to be “in the zone” for the workouts. We may pay a little more attention to diet, hydration, and fueling during the workouts. Our adrenaline is higher and it’s a bigger deal, right? Meanwhile, we often just go through the motions of the easy days. If you find yourself in this position, then I can only say one thing- Welcome to cumulative fatigue! This is where the magic happens, but it’s also a time to be diligent and not drift into overtraining. Easy runs slowing down is one thing, but workouts taking a hit are another.

So, how do we combat this?

Unfortunately, there is no magic pill here, but we can address the symptoms a little bit.

Be on point with recovery nutrition/hydration. That stiffness and soreness means that there is tissue damage. It can’t repair without the right fuel in the right volumes.

If I do a workout in the morning, then in the evening I’ll do some foam rolling. The hours between should be sent making sure you are getting the fluids and fuel you need to stimulate that recovery process. The work being done won’t lead to adaptations- it’s the recovery between the work that leads to the adaptations. My foam rolling won’t be super hard, but we’ll flush things out and work on trouble spots. For me, it’s calves, quads, and hip flexors.

I’ll do a dynamic warm up before my run. This might be as simple as a few bodyweight squats and leg swings. Just something to open up the range of motion and bridge the gap between rolling out of bed and going for a run. That’s a big shock to the body. Check out the complete routines in the book. These don’t have to be long- just a couple minutes. Don’t expect a miracle here, but it can shorten up the warm up period to maybe a mile instead of 2-3 miles.

The last thing I will say about this is that being in this space isn’t bad. To me, it means you are in a place where you are challenging yourself beyond your normal comfort zone. This is where growth happens, if monitored correctly. You do need to be diligent here and not drift past this zone and into an overtraining zone. Again, your biggest indicator here would be decreased performances across the board. Also, being stiff and sore is fine and we can lessen these. However, if you are in a position where you have sharp pains, limp, or pain gets worse as you run, then it’s time to take a step back and get some answers. These signs are all classic of an actual injury. Overall, welcome to the hard training club. Recognize the differences between this and the signs of being hurt to ease your fears. Don’t let the details be an afterthought as these will help you strive during the weeks of hard workouts. The payoff, when kept into the are of cumulative fatigue, is resilience, toughness, and ability to grind it out if need be during tough spots. Those are the things that lead to big breakthroughs. Hope that helps!

A little while ago, I posted a quick podcast on the role of carbohydrate and overtraining. When training hard by volume, intensity, or both, the lack of carbohydrates has a direct relationship with performance (and mood). The reason I discussed that idea was to try to show people how the idea of overtraining is confused with the idea of cumulative fatigue in marathon training. The problem is, it’s like when your check engine light comes on and the mechanic gives you a range of options from the gas cap not being tight all the way to catastrophic engine failure. There are those two possibilities and about 5 more in between the extremes. Fatigue can be quite the rabbit hole to dive into. However, dive we must, and hopefully, with a few posts, we can cover a lot of the areas we can look at first. Maybe we can avoid catastrophic engine failure.

Most of us are aware of iron and its importance for performance. However, for sake of making sure, iron is a mineral that is crucial for energy metabolism (processing carbohydrates), transporting oxygen, and the acid-base balance in the body. Being deficient can result in weakness, general fatigue, a higher heart rate, shortness of breath, and your performance. The worst part is that endurance athletes can lose iron 70% more than their sedentary counterparts! We lose through heavy sweating, our urine and GI tract, and the mechanical force of our feet crashing into the ground at 180 +/- steps per minute. Women also lose iron through their menstrual cycle. Oh, I forgot to mention- iron doesn’t really absorb that well either.

Before you decide to leave your car on the side of the road and walk it home, let’s finish this out. We can run those diagnostics and get you back on track!

So, to switch away from the silly car analogy, let’s talk about iron stores. It’s kinda like a pantry and your kitchen. You have the stuff you use every day that’s in your cupboards and fridge, but you may also have bulk items stored that fill the backstock. We use our day to day goods. We eat our cereal and cook our hamburger. We get low and take another bag out from the four in the pantry and another pound of burger from the bulk we bought at Costco. Things are all good, right? The problem is, we haven’t been back to Costco in two months and we haven’t been replenishing the long-term storage. So, right now, our day to day is fine because we are pulling from the reserves, but the reserves will only last so long. Iron Deficiency works a bit in the same way. We have iron stored in a blood protein called ferritin. We are training hard, sweating profusely and feet just slapping away at the concrete. No problem though, we’ll just pull from the ferritin. Uh oh, I haven’t been refilling the pantry as fast as I’ve been taking it out. Now we are starting to get into trouble. So, let’s look at the three levels of iron deficiency.

Stage 1:

This is a diminished total body iron content and can be determined by looking at your serum ferritin. Performance may not be affected yet, if the ferritin in the liver is only diminished. Once the muscles have been impacted, then you’ll start to see performance start to drop. This is where we have the pantry and are using the iron here to satisfy needs in other places in the body. (Form red blood cells that we are breaking down)

To be in this state, you are looking at a serum ferritin level of less than 35 ug/L (micrograms/Liter). Hemoglobin and transferrin saturation will still be normal at 115 g/L and above 16, respectively. Honestly, though, a lot of runners don’t feel “spunky” after their levels drop below 50. So, knowing your trends is good. Also, the low end of “normal” is 15 for both men and women. I have had women completely exhausted, get blood work, and have the doc say it looks ok, still normal. I look at it and their ferritin is at 15 or 16! So, make sure you have someone read it that understands athletes. Personally, I get mine done and take it to my chiropractor. He knows where I should be after years of treating me. This is compounded that ferritin levels can rise quickly due to stress, inflammation, and infection, which would give us numbers that are falsely inflated. Go figure!

Stage 2:

At this point the cupboards are sparse. Ham and cheese sandwiches have become grilled cheese sandwiches. When we are at this point, ferritin stores are getting to the point where they can no longer support the full production of red blood cells. You are still making them, but capacity has been reduced. To compensate your body will try to use zinc to make up for the iron that is not readily available. If we are in this stage, ferritin will drop below 20, hemoglobin will still be normal, but another blood protein that carries iron, transferrin will be less than 15% saturated. This means that less than 15% of the protein is carrying iron.

Stage 3:

Now we are at the point where there’s nothing in the cupboards or the fridge. When we get to this stage, hemoglobin is affected. Hemoglobin is the protein that carries oxygen from the lungs to the tissues, while bringing carbon dioxide back to the lungs. If we get to this point, everything will be lower. Ferritin will be less than 12, transferrin saturation will be below 16, and hemoglobin will be less than 115. If you are at this point, training is going to be pretty darn tough to maintain. Performance will be significantly down. I’d be surprised if you were running anything of any substance.

Improving the situation

We have already mentioned that there’s problems with keeping iron levels up and training hard. We break it down at much faster rates than average people and the bioavailability of iron is less than ideal, much less. You have two types of iron- heme and non-heme. Heme iron is more readily available and better absorbed than non-heme iron, about 40% compared to 5%. Yes, you read that right. Heme iron is found mostly in animal sources, while non-heme is nearly 100% non-heme. Now, non-heme iron is absorbed better when in the presence of heme iron, but you get the point. It’s not easy to get iron from the stomach to the bloodstream.

First step:

Time your iron intake properly. Another reason to make sure you are getting your recovery food in. A meal with iron in it (or supplement) along with a glass juice within 30-60 minutes of exercise improved absorption of iron. It's also important to note that absorption is better in the morning, too. So, regardless of running, this should be done in the morning. Foods like eggs, bacon, sausage, peanut butter are all higher sources, along with chicken, spinach, and broccoli. On the flipside, milk and coffee reduce absorption significantly.

Second Step

Oral supplements. Working with a sports physician is key here for optimal dosage, but I know many of you take an iron supplement. If you do, a slow-release ferrous sulfate is your best bet. Now, taking every day can create GI issues. Taking with the OJ definitely helps, but absorption between taking once a day and taking every other day didn’t impact absorption significantly but did reduce GI symptoms. There are patches available, too. However, it seems that the absorption rate of these are less than that of oral supplements. But, these are pretty new and improvements are constantly made. These may be a more viable option in the future.

Third Step

IV is all the rage, right now, so why not get an IV? No, don’t! I am kidding. I don’t think you can just get these at the IV shop, anyway. Now, these work with a 100% absorption rate, but you HAVE to work with a physician. Over the years, I have seen some physicians adamant that a person only gets severe problems. However, these have mostly been family physicians that don’t work with athletes. I have seen many sports docs offer it up if the blood work indicated it was necessary. I will say, I have had athletes with ferritin in the 10-15 range and just miserable. They got an IV and set PR’s within a couple weeks. But, it is key to work with a sports physician on this. If you go this route, get blood tested a month later and then again at 6 months after to see what your ferritin is doing.

If you are starting to feel the tiredness, the fatigue, and most importantly, a loss in performance, then something isn’t right.

The first thing I’d look at is your carbohydrate intake. It’s simple to do and it’s non-invasive. Maybe at the same time, you get your blood work done. I know it’s a pain to get a doctor's order and then go to the blood draw. There are other options now, too. Companies like Inside Tracker and others allow you to streamline this process. Now that you have numbers that are for runners, you are armed with info. If your general practitioner says you are fine, but your ferritin is at 25, you know better. Find a sports doc or a physician that works with runners (or is one). Time your iron at the right time while working with said doc to make a plan for supplementation. My biggest piece of advice- don’t let it get past phase two. Don’t let it go for months. If you are 6 weeks in a plan, tired, and slowing down, let’s figure it out. We can still save the segment.

Today I discuss an article from mysportscience.com and how even two weeks of hard training with low carbohydrate intake can be detrimental to performance and feelings of well being. A common scenario that I see as a coach is that people train hard for a couple of weeks and since it's harder than they have trained before (or a big jump back into it), they become fatigued, performance lags, and their mood decreases. The first thing they say is, "This must be cumulative fatigue." So, they keep pushing for a few more weeks until they go completely off the rails. The problem is, that it's not cumulative fatigue. Their symptoms of fatigue are occurring way too soon in the program. Plus, with cumulative fatigue, you may feel tired, but the workout times are still there. So, here's a quick 15-minute recap of the article posted and the study did behind the article. If you find yourself in this situation, this is an easy thing to check out and an easy thing to fix, if need be.

 

MySportScience Post

I recently finished reading the book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. It’s not a running book, it’s actually a book on business. However, as I read the chapters, it became clear that the ideas embodied some great principles that should be applied in many areas of life. The very basic premise of the book looks at different companies that were on the Fortune 500 lists throughout the 20th century. The book compares companies that took off and comparison companies that eventually faded away through acquisition or completely changing. I won’t go into the whole thing, but it’s a great book.

What I wanted to talk about is the two concepts that really make the book applicable. These are the three circles and the hedgehog concept. I don’t know if it’s really one concept because the three circles help you find the hedgehog. The hedgehog concept is simple, on one hand, you have the fox, always hunting the hedgehog by trying something cunning and different every time. He thinks he’s being slick, only to be fended off by the hedgehog in the same way, every single time. No matter what angle the fox uses, the hedgehog has perfected the one way to always fend off the fox and always beats the fox.

From a running standpoint, this could be a person who jumps from coach to coach, or philosophy to philosophy, always trying the shiny new thing.

All of this while the hedgehog (the person who has followed sound principles and developed a philosophy that works for them) absorbs new information and sorts out all the noise about what’s new and improved.

Anyway, the three circles are really a Venn diagram representing three questions.

The first question is what are you really passionate about? In business, it was something like producing products that helped make life easier, or something like that- usually specific to a certain industry. Now, it got me thinking about runners and what this response would be. This might be- running as fast as I can, running races, using running to maintain my health, etc. For me, I think it would be to maintain my competitiveness and joy of competing against those younger than me.

The second question in the book was, what is your economic driver? This might be profit per customer, profit per transaction. Something that measures how well you made money. For runners, this might be- how many times I qualified for Boston, how often I placed in my age group, or how many races I ran.

The third question was what can I be the best in the world at? In the case of a business it would be like making printers or something like that. For you, that might be something like age-graded performance. I’m not so literal on the wording, but the point is, what can I be the most successful at? It might be recognizing that the half marathon is your sweet zone, even if your heart keeps pulling you towards the mile.

The responses to these questions represent the inner part of the diagram and forms your hedgehog concept.

A Hedgehog Concept is not a goal to be the best, a strategy to be the best, an intention to be the best, a plan to be the best.

It is an understanding of what you can be the best at. The distinction is absolutely crucial. For you as a runner, this means understanding where your strengths lie. To me, it just clears the noise so that I can focus on what is most important in reaching my goals.

Now, when I was writing this out, I got confused on my own thought process. Am I telling a person to decide what they are best at and only stick with that? It certainly seemed like I was heading down that road. However, the more I think about it and look at what Collins' book discussed, I don't think that's the case at all.

My case for the hedgehog mentality:

Understanding what you are best suited for, will help you find more enjoyment in the sport. (Being successful and playing to strengths is always more enjoyable).

Allows you to be realistic about your goals, especially when dipping toes into things outside your comfort zone.

Not a surrender from doing any other events, by any means. To me, it means that when you are planning out seasons, looking at long term goals, deciding to run a race on a whim, then you should ask yourself the three questions above and decide how that is going to help you be the best runner you can be. Does it fit into what your "core" running being is?

I can hear many of you saying, but that means I will never have fun. To that, I say, "no you might not." But I also think your definition of fun might change. Let's use an example of qualifying for Boston. If you've been trying for years and it hasn't come to fruition, how fun is that? More that likely, it has eventually become demoralizing. Let's say you explore the three questions above and realize that the races you were running in the buildups were fun, but didn't really help you when it came to your qualifying attempt. So, missing out on that immediate fun is definitely a bummer, but that fun of qualifying because of making a calculated decision will far outweigh that. Plus, after you qualify, you can find new races to jump into for a while, or the next year run those races as a stand-alone segment.

So, I don't want you to think that you have to abandon things you enjoy, I am simply saying that you may want to consider a more calculated approach.

So, you really have to ask yourself, do you want to be the fox or the hedgehog?

Do you want to always be trying the shiny new tactic, or develop a system that allows you to be systematic, deliberate, and battle tested? Either way you go is fine, as long as you are comfortable with that. However, when you look at longevity and success, look towards the cute little hedgehog.

 

 

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Being in the right plan can make all the difference in the world. If you are familiar with the plans in the books, then you know that there can be a big difference between what others use as a beginner plan and what the HMM beginner plan looks like. These differences has led to the creation of a number of different plans based on the original Beginner and Advanced plans. These plans have helped filled the gaps to meet more people where they are at in their marathon experience. All of these plans have led to a common question, "How do I know what plan I should be in?" I explore those plans in this podcast. I have also attached a presentation so you can have a visual.

Google Slides

Today's question comes from Phil, from our LHR Community on Facebook. Right now, he's not really following a plan and is curious to how fast he should be running since he doesn't have the structure guiding him right now. Here are my thoughts regarding that and a couple of options for you.

 

If interested in base plans, please visit HERE

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