Greetings Earth,
I was writing to my friend who is currently training for his first Half Marathon, while I'm training for my first full Marathon, and I thought it would be a good idea to share my thoughts on here too:
So I’ve been watching and reading a lot about the elite runners and their weekly training, specifically the world class Kenyan and Ethiopian runners and their weekly milage. Now, you and I both strive to improve our running, by improve I mean be the fastest we could be for as many kilometres per week as possible. The thing we both should be thinking about is aerobic base. These runners run a daunting 125 mile week, that’s slightly over 200 kilometres. Last week was my peak week so far, in other words, the farthest I’ve ran in any given training week since I picked up running in mid-2013. I ran 61 kilometres. You get the picture!
When it comes to running, running volume i.e. milage is probably the biggest factor when it comes to enhancing this aerobic base, given that most of it is done at an easier effort, hence the term aerobic. I won’t get into specifics about training zones and heart rate training right now, but what I want to get at, is the sheer amount of volume these athletes put in daily, and just to put it into perspective, most of them have two training sessions a day, while some go up to three.
Now I don’t think that we’re after world records (although in my wildest fantasy, I still think it would be pretty cool to), but as someone who is already almost 25 years old, a ex-obese chain smoker who thrived on fast food and poor habits, I have a lot of work to reverse these lost years of athleticism on my part.
Surly we can’t reach a 200 km week in a beat, but slowly, we can accustom ourselves to running more, but that’s not all there is to it. Proper sleep, 8 to 9 hours a day is vital in terms of recovery and adaptation to these harsh workouts, performance-enhancing nutrition is a must to keep the milage up, and functional strength training is mandatory to ensure we have the sufficient ligaments, muscles and tendons strength to carry us over these long distances.
Someone might read what I wrote and get discouraged, but this only fuels the fire within me to become a better athlete, to unleash the beast within.
Stay strong!
