Saturday, May 4, 2013

Experts give Bolder Boulder 10K training advice

The training technique to emphasize so I will have a good time in the 2013 Bolder Boulder 10K is the Tempo run according to Mike Sandrock. His latest column in the Daily Camera quotes Melody Fairchild and Frank Shorter tips on using Tempo runs to train for the BB. In years past Sandrock has said the key to running a good BB is to run 400 meter intervals. I am not a big fan of going to the track to run 400's so the shift in emphasis to the Tempo is good news to me. My questions about the Tempo run have been how fast and how long should it be. The Tempo is also called the Threshold run because it's supposed to be at the pace where your body changes from aerobic to anaerobic. Running at threshold pace increases your anaerobic threshold with minimal wear and tear on your body. The problem has always been how do you know what this pace is? Some writers advocate run at a pace that you do not have to breathe hard, that is you can sense if you are at the threshold. I can, sort of, but I come up with widely varying times for different days. Other coaches say just subtract 30 seconds or 20 seconds from your latest 5K pace. Every coach seems to have a different way to to establish the threshold pace and I chose Jack Daniel's method because he has put his formula on the web here. I highly recommend his calculator that does a lot more than just calculate threshold pace.

No comments: