Top 25 Training Advances

Joe Henderson, the first editor of Runner's World, wrote "Time-Tested Advice: A Review of the Top 25 Training Advances" in Amby Burfoot's Complete Book of Running. It surveys the evolutionary process of training changes over time.

1. Training without straining. Know the difference between hard enough and too hard.

2. Aerobic training. The term aerobic came from physiology and made an international phenomenon. Prolonged low intensity exercise improves physical endurance better than brief, explosive workouts.

3. Specificity of training. You will reap in races what you sow in training. Long slow runs prepares you to race slowly, a rule adapted by Jeff Galloway. Similarly, short, fast runs train you to race short distances, Advocated by Jack Daniels in tempo runs to lift runners out of their training ruts. Long runs increase strength; short fast workouts to build speed.

4. Long runs. LR builds endurance. Cornerstone of distance running programs.

5. Surviving the marathon. Runners who regard the marathon event not as a race for time or place, but as a survival test to be passed just by finishing.

6. Hill training. Long runs on extremely hilly courses and hill repeats prior to the sharpening phase of training. Hills are speedwork in disguise.

7. Speed training. Other than intervals around the track, include tempo runs and cruise intervals (run at tempo pace but broken into 3 to 6 repeats with brief rest periods between them).

8. Race as training. Use short races as speedwork training.

9. Recovering from races. Jack Foster devised this method: one day recovery (still run, but not race or train hard) for every mile of racing.

10. Hard and easy days. Alternate hard with easy days.

11. Recovering from hard days. Long slow distance (LSD) runs or gentle running meant running slower miles between more difficult workouts.

12. Days off. No more a dirty word.

13. Tapering before races. Cut back on mileage 2 to 3 weeks before a race.

14. Running cycles.

15. Training by time instead of distance.

16. Preventing overuse injuries. Training too long, too fast and too often can lead to breaking points.

17. Listen to your body. HRM helps.

18. Stretching. Slow pace running all the time results in loss of flexibility.

19. Strengthening. Muscles at the back of the legs (hamstrings) tend to overpower those in front (quads). Upper body muscles lag those of lower body. Supplement with weight training.

20. Carbo loading before and carbo reloading after races and hard exercises.

21. Hydration.

22. Cross training. Swimming and bicycling improves aerobic fitness just as well as running.

23. Water training. Aerobic workout without impact.

24. Walking. Tom Osler, ultramarathoner, inserts brief walks to increase the length of the longest runs. Galloway found that better times are possible by taking 1-minute walking break every mile.

25. Fitness training. Running for fitness does not require racing. Simply run 2 to 3 miles (5 km) three to five times a week.