Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
~Aristotle
I was logging the team’s Saturday workout results, and was struck by how quickly these threshold workouts teach us about what our bodies can do.
The stated goal of our Saturday workouts this week and the week before was to accumulate time at or near our lactate threshold. What we are trying to do physiologically is to work at the threshold where our bodies are producing an increased level of lactate (mostly people say lactic acid, but let’s not get wrapped up in the details here), and our bodies are still able to process that lactate and break it down. The chart below shows this graphically; we are trying to spend as much time as possible along the bend upwards of the curve labeled ‘lactate’, with the goal of shifting our individual lactate curves further to the right. Current thinking from USATF and IAAF is that the positioning and shape of this curve is the best predictor of race performance. I agree, and also have some other reasons I like this pace for young athletes, and so MVXC does a lot of work at this level of effort. The Saturday workouts for the last two weeks have focused on this training zone.
However… there is another reason why these workouts matter so much to high school athletes. Running in the lactate threshold zone (tempo runs, tempo or cruise intervals, long fartlek runs) also challenges our perception of what feels easy and what feels hard. This threshold between easy and hard is difficult for young and new runners to deal with. When we first start training seriously, and we feel uncomfortable, we don’t know how to project that information into the future; ‘if I feel uncomfortable at this level of effort, how long does that mean I can sustain this level of effort? How will I feel 5/10/30 minutes from now if I keep running at this level of effort?’ It’s hard to answer these questions unless we get out and challenge ourselves. These Saturday threshold workouts have helped many runners answer these questions.
On Saturday August 20, we ran repeat miles at threshold pace with one minute recoveries (Matador Miles or tempo intervals); a week later on August 27, we ran a continuos threshold run (Tempo From Stevens Canyon). In theory, the Tempo from Stevens Canyon should have been at a slower pace than the prior week’s workout which had one minute breaks built in; I find that usually 15-25 second slower per mile slower is typical. However, the following runners either maintained roughly the same pace or even went faster: Anushka, Aravind, Jason, Kyle, Nitin, Ryan, Triya, and Yash. This change did not come from one week of training. What is going on here?
A lot of what is going on is that these runners are simply learning more about what their bodies can do for them, and how to ask their bodies to deliver more. A lot of this is also ‘mental callousing’; simply becoming tougher and more willing to put up with short term discomfort in pursuit of long term gain, or a a goal. Part of this mental callousing is becoming adept at telling the little voice in your head that wants us to quit to get lost! Lots of us are getting better, quickly, at figuring out how to deal with discomfort, and the Saturday data from Anushka, Aravind etc. is an example of what we are all learning and re-learning.
Our Saturday workouts are improving our physiology. Just as importantly, our Saturday workouts are making us smarter about our running, giving us a better understanding of what we can ask from our bodies, and making us a little tougher about telling that little voice inside our heads to go bother someone else.
We are getting a great turn out on Saturdays–and we welcome more people! We hope you join us next weekend for our optional Saturday and Labor Day Monday workouts. These workouts are fun–or at least satisfying 🙂 !
EVERYONE of every level of experience and fitness level can benefit from these workouts. You don’t have to be varsity, we want all of MVXC here. Please join us!
Labor Day Weekend Optional Workouts
Saturday September 3
Meet at 8am (an hour later than usual to allow for Friday Team Movie Night!)
Long, conversational run. This is going to be a nice comfortable run and should be very enjoyable. New runners can have their first time on Up and Over on a cool morning at a relaxing pace–this is highly recommended and will give you an advantage over everyone who get’s their first look at this run on a screaming hot September afternoon! Experienced runners will have a longer option.
Monday September 5 Labor Day
7am to beat the heat!
Lactate threshold. Back for Matador Miles; I bet you run these better than you did two weeks ago! Others, don’t be scared off; we have workouts for all abilities and this workout is oh-so important for you. Get up early and join us!
