Getting Faster for newbies
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ryanweeg posted 17 weeks ago.
I liked this. Haha.
"If one can stick to the training throughout many long years, that willpower is no longer a problem. It's Raining? That doesn't matter. I am tired? That's beside the point. It's simply just that I have to."
-Emil Zatopek
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Triguy98 posted 17 weeks ago.
This is decent advice- once you're in shape. For many newbies who come to this sport out of shape, the best way to get fast is simply to put time in the sports. In high school, we spent the whole summer (100 days) running 5 miles a day. The result at our alumni/ student race? sub 18:00 5ks- no speed work involved.
The more advanced you get, the more important high quality work becomes.
Life is short. Play hard and get dirty doing it.
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310 days
tbs_craig posted 17 weeks ago.
good advice for athletes...
i'm all about pushing into the pain and past, but i've spent my whole life learning about my body.
but, newbies beware, you can be a hard ass all you want, but a hard ass with stress fractures is not a fast hard ass.
other than that, those are cool stories.
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tsilcyc posted 17 weeks ago.
I agree completely with what you're saying but I don't agree with the subject line. You need to know your body before you can take the "no pain, no gain" attitude. And newbies don't know their bodies well enough. An injury like Plantar Fasciitis has some subtle hints that when missed will end your run training for months. Only someone who knows their body will question the subtle twinge in the arch. My .02
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burnman posted 17 weeks ago.
For seasoned athletes, there is no other way to get faster than to "go fast." However, I disagree with these comments in reference to newbies. A newbie without a good strength and/or endurance base doesn't develop speed from going fast, they develop injuries from going fast. The underlying premise of base training is forcing the body to incrementally break itself down and repair itself (if done properly). If the body is broken down too fast by repeated overuse, it can't repair itself and injuries arise - and I'm sure everyone here has a story or two about "training through" an injury with less than favorable results.
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Leroy Bonkers posted 17 weeks ago.
All those examples are from elite expereinced athletes, and gdtkone sounds experienced too. You can't just wake up one morning and say "I'm going to do the workouts of the pros". None of those pros are worrying about 'just finishing'.
But once you've got adequete endurance, he's right. .
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Socket posted 17 weeks ago.
I totally agree with the "for experienced athletes only" comments, especially as a n00b. I'm working my way up to be able to finish my first Tri in April. Maybe by next year I'll be up to going fast (fast for me is running < 9:00 miles so I got lots of headroom there).
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DavidWhiting posted 17 weeks ago.
Think the best hard training is tri. Every time I focus on just running, get some kind of injury. Last year, training for Arizona Ironman was no problem. Then focusing just on training for a mountain marathon, tore up my knee. Cross train! Then I talked to a guy this week who only runs and runs 7 days a week. He just won in Napa! His story is here for what it's worth
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Anton posted 17 weeks ago.
A newbie without base, who goes fast all the time, disappears.
There is such a thing as overtraining. Just ask all the athletes who aren't able to get out anymore.
There are limits. The unwise athlete thinks there aren't. The wise athlete knows this to be true.
The main goal of someone new to any endurance sport should be to find where their limits lie, not to destroy themselves.
None of the athletes mentioned in the opening post were newbies when they pushed their limits...they already had many years of experience....and had learned from their mistakes.
"What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?" - Vincent Van Gogh
My Blog: http://anton.trifuel.net
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xc800runner posted 17 weeks ago.
What people here fail to mention is that even nubies wil get fast with training fast. I agree, you will break down quickly, be more prone to injury, and likely burn out within 6 months, but you will be able to race fast. If you're just training for one race, and are willing to sacrifice your legs for a few months afterwards, you can certainly train very hard for a couple months, peak when you need to, and get the results you want. I ran a sub 15 5k with 2 months of speed training, a fractured fibula and cortisone injections as a junior in high school, and subsequently received multiple D1 scholarship offers the following year. (Sadly I peaked 2 weks before my "A" race and crashed hard the next week, then failed to qualify for Foot Locker nationals). But knowing I would be spending the winter swimming, I was willing to sacrifice my legs that fall.
I don't recommend this for long-term health, especially in new athletes, but ayone will get fast by training fast.
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1390 days
PrinceofClydes posted 16 weeks ago.
Eric Heiden, Josh Thompson, Alberto Salazar, Bill Koch, Mark Spitz, Christopher Wood, Floyd Landis are all freaks - freaks of nature.
Unless you are also a freak of nature, you can't do what they do.
If you are a freak of nature, you're probably not reading this thread.
Michael Phelps swims 7,000m per session - 5 or 6 days a week, every week. - just as Spitz did.
All we mortals can hope for is to learn from:
- his technique - skills are transferable (at least in triathlon, not so much in other sports)
and
perhaps to glean something from the overall structure of his training, ie. phasing, peaking, nutrition, equipment.
What makes Michael fast, won't make me fast. It would probably kill me.
What we can take from these great athletes is inspiration, their desire and their dedication to be the best they can be.
PoC
"Pain doesn't last, chicks dig scars, glory is forever!"
- Shane Falco.
Having raced for some time, Nordic skiing in the eighties, biathlon in the late eighties (ski and shoot) and Ironman since 1990, I have encountered a variety non-triathlon national and world class endurance athletes and coaches including Olympic and national champions. A dozen or so books, reminders of 'the search', give testimony to numerous discarded writings. ERG, basically flavored sweat, to Gatorade to Cytomax and Revenge and the latest polymorphonulclearlactatephospholipohydrophyllicamino drink (did I cover it all) have all been shaken, stirred, swallowed and sweated out. A variety of vitamins, a manifesto of multinutritionals, a gaggle of go-fasters fill my cupboards and garage. So here are the few pearls that stand out from the rest. To go faster you need to go faster. To swim fast you need to swim fast. To ride fast need to ride fast. To run fast you need to run fast. When Eric Heiden's coach was asked by the Russians about Eric's training, she described a typical day. They said, " Look. If you do not wish to tell us just say so. But do not make up such ridiculous stories." Josh Thompson, America's premier Biathlete in the late eighties and World Championship silver medalist was doing a workout on a treadmill. The speed and incline progressively increased until he was gasping an eventually discharged off the back landing in a heap! When asked by an observing coach how often he did this type of workout, he replied, " Quite often." Alberto Salazar, he of 4:25 mile at mile 22 in NY marathon, said he found his speed at the track." Bill Koch, Olympic silver medalist in Nordic Skiing in 1972, pointed to a 3,000' vertical 1.5 mile long ski run and said, " A world Cup racer would do this twice, hard, as a workout." This coming from the man of 200 mile Vermont bike rides. Mark Spitz was the first of the 'train until you get slower, rest and then train again' crowd. He only won 7 gold medals. Christopher Wood, world class rower, feared his midweek interval workouts. Finally, my all time favorite comes from the beleaguered Floyd Landis. " There is no such thing as over training. If your training makes you tired you are under trained for the training." Think what you will about him, you gotta love his attitude.
So, for all of the newbies, remember: To go fast you have to go fast. For everyone else chasing me, keep reading your books and articles.