Chasing Pr's
Posts
🏃‍♀️ Early Off-Season Speed Work

🏃‍♀️ Early Off-Season Speed Work

December 01, 2022

Good morning!

This week: Running shoes for knee pain, pre-workout supplements and off-season speed work.

I can't believe we are already in the last month of 2022. I sometimes still feel in 2020

Happy running,😁

OFF-SEASON

Early Off-Season Speed Work

It can be really hard to back off your training after races are over in the fall. Especially if you've performed well. Often runners want to take advantage of their increased fitness and keep the ball rolling with more mileage, more speed, more everything.

You cannot operate at 100% peak fitness all year round!

Now is the time to bring your weekly mileage down a bit and lay off the speed work to let your body and mind recover from the previous 4-6 months of training.

Then when your training program starts for whatever spring race(s) you have planned, you'll feel fresh and ready to tackle another build-up!

Should you completely stop all speed work? Not necessarily. You might want to do a shorter tempo run once/week just to keep your leg turnover there. But you shouldn't be blasting out workouts at the track or doing really long difficult tempos right now.

For example, a runner during their “on season” may do an 8km tempo at a 4:20 min/km pace (7min/mile). During their off-season they could shorten the tempo to 5-6km and do a 4:30min/km pace (7:14min/mile)

The offseason is also a great time to incorporate a fartlek run. For 15-60 seconds, pick up your pace and then run easy in between the harder efforts. You could repeat this 10-20 times during a run.

So if you’re in your off-season, what should you do?

Scale back but don’t completely eliminate the speed work. Just keep it at a moderate level!

PERFORMANCE

Do Pre-Workout Supplements Work on Runners

The short answer, YES!, according to this randomized trial from exercise scientists at Creighton University.

The long answer:

Scientists used a pre-workout called PerformElilte for their study and found out that it had an 84% chance of extending the endurance of NCAA Division 1 cross country runners.

The company did not fund the research, and the scientists report no conflicts of interest.

But don’t just go and buy PerformElite. The pre-workout contains a lot of ingredients, and some (like caffeine, taurine, beta-alanine, and beetroot) have been supported by previous research.

So far, there haven’t been studies that test each of the ingredients above individually, but the researchers think caffeine and beta-alanine are the most important ones.

Our experience. We’ve been using this pre-workout for years (which contains all of the above ingredients) and have to say that we can feel the difference the days we take it; running just feels easier.

But don’t take it every day; besides the possible health issues, your body can get used to it, and the effects you feel will be less. Use it at your own risk!

SHOES

The Best Running Shoes for Knee Pain

What are the best shoes for runners with knee pain?

Unfortunately, despite significant research in this area, there's no specific answer.

Some runners with knee pain try a heavily cushioned shoe like Hokas and love the shock absorption it provides. This makes sense because if you're running in cushiony shoes, then those shoes are likely taking some pressure off your knees.

Other runners with knee pain try minimalist shoes like Altra Escalantes and they feel much less knee pain running in them. This, too, makes sense because often, you won't land with an aggressive overstriding heel strike in a minimalist shoe because it can feel very jarring.

So what should you do if you’re a runner with knee pain and you’re looking for new shoes?

You have to experiment and see what works best for you!

Most running shoe stores will allow you to return shoes if you’ve worn them for a short period of time indoors. So buy a couple of pairs and head to an indoor track or get on a treadmill. See how your knees feel during and after your run.

And keep in mind knee pain often isn’t solved with the perfect pair of runners. Strengthening up important muscles like your quads, hamstrings and glutes is key. And a gait analysis to make sure you’re not overstriding can really help!