The Running Public

Listeners submitted some good questions this week, so we choose three and drove on in:

1. When should I push through and when should I take a break in training? How should “improving “ feel?

2. How much should I use Pace as a metric for Quality Workouts when preparing for OCR?

3. I just cancelled my upcoming race and signed up for a different one a few months later in the year. Should I keep following my training plan or should I rework the plan based on the new goal?

We have too many training items on our mind this week, so we’re covering multiple topics today! We start with the lessons we had reinforced to us this past weekend about pacing and racing in the heat, and then we progress to warm ups, race strategy, and mental toughness. 

Matt was the best runner on Kirk’s college track team. He was a 4:00 miler and a 1:47 800m runner. In the twenty years since they last saw each, Kirk found OCR and trail racing while Matt dabbled in triathlon before becoming a National Record holder on the row and ski ergs. And today here they are, reunited on The Running Public!

Over the past three weeks, we’ve discussed the three main types of Quality Sessions: Speed Work, Threshold Work, and Long Runs. Today, we break down exactly how we like to mix them all together at different points of the year (Off Season, In Season, Peaking). 

Running, like any form of fitness, is full of preconceived notions which simply aren’t super accurate. So, let’s put some of them to rest today!

Are long runs overrated, underrated, or simply misunderstood? What exactly is a Quality Long Run and why should we be doing such a thing?

From strongman and Canada to running and China, Cody has lived quite the athletic life!

Lactate threshold. Anaerobic threshold. Ventilatory threshold 2. Forget all the terms and science and confusion. There are plenty of other episodes out there regarding all of that! Today is all about WHAT this type of training looks like, WHY it is so effective, and HOW we can implement it effectively in our training.

Brakken and Kirk get to know each other on a much more intimate level by spending an hour grilling each other with Speed Dating questions.

“Speed Work” is one of the most misunderstood and misapplied types of quality workouts! We all want to be fast, but how fast do we need to be running in training? Today’s episode breaks down what speed work is, common misconceptions, and how to implement it in your schedule (assuming you’re training for an event that is 5k or longer!).