Do Most of Your Running at a Gentle Chatty pace
Top runners don’t run hard all the time. They will do 80 to 90% of their running at a gentle aerobic pace and so should you. It doesn’t matter what your pace is as long as it’s Chatty. A Chatty run for an Olympian may be 6.5 to 7 minutes a mile but for you it may be between 10 or 15 minutes a mile. That doesn’t matter as long as your effort level is gentle.
Be Aware of When You Have Recovered.
Getting the recovery time is key to improving as a runner. Olympic athletes are very aware of when they have recovered from a session or when they feel tired and need more rest time. A recovery day for them will look very different to a recovery day for the rest of us. It may involve a gentle 40 minute run in the morning and the same again in the evening. A 65 minute 10km runner may recover by putting their feet up, going for a swim or doing some yoga. You need to work out what recovery day is for you because if you are not recovering you won’t get fitter. It’s vital that you recognise when you are tired and it’s time to recover and when you are fully recovered and ready to increase your running a bit more.
Include a Variety of Aerobic Paces in the Week
An Olympian will include different Chatty paces in their weekly training. In Chatty Sparkly Running terms, that means Super Chatty, Chatty and ‘breathy’ runs during the week. Remember any event distance of 5km or 85 to 90% is aerobic. That is using oxygen to give you the energy you need. So running at Chatty pace will be training this energy pathway. Top athletes will also do some speed work in the week like short sharp sprints. For Chatty Sparkly runners these are our Sparkles. So don’t forget to include these in your training week.
You can find more Chatty Sparkly posts about how to vary your paces here.
a) How to Run a Fartlek Session
b) How to Vary Your Running With Sparkles
What Makes an Olympic Athlete Different to the Rest of Us?
They have been running along time and built up their fitness over a number of years. Consequently they can cope with the volume of training that they do to excel and win medals. They also have an innate talent for the sport.
As a runner you have to judge what you are capable of based on your running background and fitness level and from this point you can gradually progress your training.
Most of us want to run for fun, health and improved performance. Chapters 1 and 2 of the Chatty Sparkly Running book goes into more detail on how you can achieve this.