Building Run Profiles
Core Pace, VDOT, Race Simulation Workouts
With the publication of Monday’s article, I’ve shared a protocol that has helped many athletes build the general capacity required to quality for Kona, or Boston.
Frequency - Measured In Runs Per Week
Duration - Total Weekly Volume & Weekly Long Run
Quickness - Strides
Economy - Technique & Hills
Sustained Intensity - Final Steps of Progressive Test
Durability - Benchmarking At Steady Heart Rate & Steady +10 bpm
The purpose of today’s article is to answer common questions arising as athletes implement their plan:
How Easy Is Too Easy?
Where Should I Target Steady Pace?
Do I Train Pace Or Effort?
What Is Realistic Race Pace?
In answering these questions, we’re going to build a Run Profile across time.
Endurance Training Pace - 80% of Volume
To make endurance running more challenging, it is better to run more rather than faster.
This is only true to a point and only true if the athlete is receiving a beneficial adaptation from their work.
Keep 80% of your run volume in the Green Zone (Easy / Steady).
What does this mean in practice?
The Runner Can Pass The Talk Test: there is no panting, breathing is comfortable
The Talk Test is a popular way to limit intensity. However, I can pass the talk test when running Tempo. It's not foolproof.
Signs Endurance Training Is Targeted Too High
Fatigue: if the program isn’t tolerated then the program is too intense.
The first thing you will notice is unusual fatigue from endurance sessions. This nearly always means endurance training targets are set too high.
This is a tough pill to swallow. If you are not tolerating the load, then slow down and remove back-to-back run days. Return focus to developing general capacity via frequent easy running.
Lactate: when I’m untrained, I have a linear lactate profile. This means my lactate rises as soon as I start running. Linear profile athletes can talk, often comfortably, while running Moderate-Hard, and even Hard, efforts.
If you don’t have access to lactate testing, then watch for pace fade (relative to a fixed heart rate) and decoupling (where heart rate increases materially relative to pace).
If you have access to lactate testing, then “at or under” your first lactate threshold is intense enough for your Green Zone Training.
Fatigue - Fade - Decoupling
We never graduate from Endurance Training. It is a core part of the program.
If you find yourself tempted to drop endurance volume to make space for more intense sessions, then you may be selling your development short.
Rather than dropping endurance sessions:
Include longer warm-ups.
Place work sets at the end of endurance sessions.
Place Easy Training after work sets.
Multisporters and Triathletes:
Don’t rev your engine every day. Consider the consolidated intensity profile across every mode of exercise, including strength training.
This goes beyond the motto of Keep The Easy Days Easy.
It is easy to rev hard many times a week. Have the discipline to keep Endurance Training in your Green Zone.
Target Pace or Effort?
For the early YEARS of your development:
Target Effort
Notice Paces
Cap Heart Rates
Along the way, race shorter duration events and use benchmark tests to assess higher intensity paces.
With those shorter duration events, race fast. They provide valuable information, and a powerful fitness stimulus. Note:
Pacing Profiles
Split Data
Use the information to assess:
Was I Strong At The End?
Did I Deliver My Fitness To The Finish Line?
Does My Training Address My Needs?
Where Does Race Pace Fit On My Progressive Test Curve?
Lab Tests are useful.
Race Results are better.
Recently, I ran a best effort 5K (19:08), my pace in the race (3:50 K Pace) was roughly equivalent to my lab-derived Functional Threshold Pace (3:48 K Pace). My average heart rate for the final ten minutes of the race was 162 bpm.
Lessons you are will see in your own data:
Lab Data, even using max heart rate per step, will understate Heart Rates seen in the field.
Field Heart Rates will be lower than what can be sustained on Race Day.
Short Duration Steps will overstate an athlete’s ability to hold a given intensity.
Let’s repeat these lessons:
Lab Tests Understate Heart Rates
Training Heart Rates Are Below Racing Heart Rates
Short Duration Intervals Overstate Durability
The above are why it is essential to Skew Errors Left when considering lab data and short duration intervals.
Core Pace
The longer the event, the greater the difference between Core Pace and Average Pace.
Core Pace is the pace we need to hold to achieve our goal time.
Average Pace is reduced by:
Turns & Turnarounds
Wind & Weather
Fatigue & Fade
Hills & Running Surface
Poor Early Pacing & Surges
The Need To Slow For Aid Stations
Joe Friel taught me Core Pacing and it guided my elite career. Joe wrote an article, The Fast Marathoner, that explains Core Pace in the marathon.
Put simply, a sub-3 hour marathon requires holding 4:14 K pace.
To deliver 4:14 K pace implies running faster for most of the race.
Not much faster, say 2%, but faster just the same.
Inverting Joe’s teaching yields an important insight for Race Simulation training:
Keep Moving.
Avoid extended rest periods inside the Race Simulation.
Recovery intervals should be active.
Using VDOT Scores
Developed by Jack Daniels1, a VDOT Score represents current running fitness over a given distance. It links, roughly, to an implied VO2max.
I like VDOTs because they are pure performance.
Distance
Time
While VDOTs can be converted for altitude, the score doesn’t care about athlete weight or conditions.
The score is a simple way:
To Convert Between Distances
To Guide Fast Running Paces
To Derive Core Pace
To Convert For Altitude
I cover all of the above in this video.
Key Points:
The further we get from the benchmark (time & intensity) the less valuable the information.
Don’t use a short benchmark to guide long duration targets.
Don’t use a long benchmark to guide short duration targets.
Sounds simple, you’d be amazed how many get it wrong.
Build your data set from short to long:
A future article will offer a deeper dive on Red Zone and Tempo Benchmarks.
Is My Core Pace Realistic?
Underperformance is rampant on race day. The workouts that follow will help you avoid an all-to-common fate.
Remember:
Each time we race a new distance, we are guaranteed a personal best.
A well-paced race will leave us feeling we could have gone faster earlier.
Prove the ability to deliver current fitness BEFORE attempting to exceed it.
The Reality Check Workout
60% of Race Distance
Split In Thirds
Each Segment Done At Core Pace
Recoveries Are Short & The Athlete Keeps Moving
Recoveries Are Done Slower Than LT1 Pace (Easy Effort)
Hydration & Nutrition Used At Race Levels4
Examples:
10 KM - 3x2 km at Core Pace, with 1 km Easy between each rep
Half Marathon - 3x4 km at Core Pace, with 1 km Easy between each rep
Marathon - 3x8 km at Core Pace, with 1km Easy between each rep
Cap This Session At 2:15
Consider Bike Warm-Up To Extend Combined Session To Race Duration
Post Workout Review
Review Heart Rate Across The Set
Review Feeling Across The Set
The athlete will need a heart rate “cushion” to be able to combine the intervals and extend to the full distance on race day.
Use the kinetics of the session to see if Core Pace is reasonable.
Compare the implied VDOT of Core Pace to what has been achieved in recent races.
Analysis of 2, or 3, Race Simulation workouts will be sufficient to see if Core Pace is reasonable.
The peaking process allows us to combine the results we’ve demonstrated in training.
Resist the urge to exceed targets in the first half of the event.
We’ve arrived at Specific Capacity training.
The athlete’s ability to tolerate Core Pace training gives insight into their General Capacity.
Take your time in arriving here. Shorter, C-Priority Races are an effective way to gather Core Pace data.
Final Word
Doc Hellemans said my Core Pace approach reminded him of the great Pauli Kiuru:
Straightforward
Effective
Perhaps a touch boring for the athlete
He’s given me ideas to spice things up for you.
We will be sharing those in a future article.
Back To Table of Contents
The Book is Daniels’ Running Formula and the Free Calculator is available here.
The last step of a maximal Progressive Run Test is the pace you should use to start a six-minute benchmark.
A Progressive Run Test and a local 5K are enough to start your Pace Profile. More on the other benchmarks in a future article with John Hellemans.
To consume hydration & nutrition at race levels, consider setting up a personal aid station. Ensure access to your personal aid station by setting the Race Simulation course as an out-and-back or use loops.