New Training Philosophy

After a lot of research and studying of various training approaches, I'm pretty convinced we, in the U.S., have missed the boat. We have a very rigid and inflexible training philosophy which, among other reasons, probably explains why we have failed to challenge the East Africans. I've started a new training schedule that is more in tune with the East African approach to running. I'm running my easy runs, much easier and my hard runs, harder.

Additionally, I've decided to stop interval training and concentrate on tempo training which, if approached conservatively and slowly, should result in increasing my aerobic conditioning level. Instead of slow long runs, I'm going to concentrate on good hard tempo runs but only 1 hard run per week. And, when I say tempo runs, I mean progressive tempo running. So that allows the body to warm up and the focus is on 5, 10, 15, 20 min., etc., sustained paces instead of the 400, 800, 1200 meter sprints we do as part of interval training . . . intervals is what causes many of my injuries. It's too hard to warm up and start sprinting whereas it is much easier to spend 30 minutes gradually increasing pace.

I'm also doing most of my runs, whether hard, medium or easy, on hills as this will build strength and stamina. Although I just started with schedule, I'm feeling healthier and stronger.

HHH