Category: Intro to Training Programs

Key Items everyone needs to know about the TEAM GFR TRAINING PROGRAMS.

  • Conversation Pace

    “Conversation Pace” is the key to getting started and staying with it.

    Walking and running should feel good. Your effort, in general, should be comfortable. We are often asked, “What’s comfortable supposed to feel like?” or “How do you define comfortable?”

    Comfortable means being able to talk in complete sentences while exercising. Using the “talk test,” you’re doing fine if you can “comfortably” carry on a conversation. If you can’t “comfortably” talk in complete sentences while you are exercising, you’re trying too hard. Slow down and get back to “Conversation Pace.”

    “Conversation Pace” doesn’t mean gasping for air every few words or forcing the end of the sentence, wishing the session were over. It means talking so comfortably that you are totally involved in the conversation and you don’t even notice you are exercising. The session is practically over before you realize it, and you think, “Wow, that was so easy!”

    When you are comfortable, your fitness level improves. The more comfortable you are, the more you can do, and the fitter you get. Here’s how it works… Your heart and lungs get used to processing more and more blood and oxygen every time you go out. Your cardiovascular system responds by becoming more efficient. You respond by being more comfortable doing more work.

    Most beginners and many experienced people have a tendency to “over-train” when exercising. They think they’re able to talk but it’s with way too much effort. They fail the “talk test.” They aren’t getting enough oxygen and the cumulative effect of this leads to over-training. Day in and day out they eventually get anaerobic and they aren’t aware of it. This is why staying comfortable is so important.

    Staying comfortable and exercising at “Conversation Pace” is also more fun. You get to know the people you are working out with and time just seems to fly by. When it’s fun you’re more likely to stick with it. What a simple concept this is. Regardless of the actual pace that you are walking or running at, if you simply carry on a conversation, you know you are going at the right pace.

  • Marathon training is like homebrewing or winemaking

    If you have ever participated in the homebrewing or winemaking process you will appreciate this analogy.  Assuming the right ingredients are mixed in the right proportions and the “recipe” is followed correctly there is little that separates marathon training from winemaking and homebrewing when you reflect on these three essential components:

    • Experience – The best brewer or winemaker is nearly always the one with the most years of experience.  Sure it takes a lot of luck, but when you are in the realm of art + science, luck is directly proportional to years of experience.  The “art” is enhanced by all the mistakes made along the way.  Training for a marathon is quite similar.  You can have a stroke of beginner’s luck, but you are more likely to improve through years of experience and, unfortunately, a few mistakes and training errors.
    • Being Confident and Trusting the Process – Experimentation is always tempting when you are trying to make a batch of beer or a most exquisite wine, but you cannot change the essential process.  There are inviolable steps in making beer or wine.  You may have the most creative idea in the world for the next best brew, but if you change the order of the essential steps the results will stink – literally.  Your grand experiment will be entirely undrinkable and you will have wasted a lot of time.  Trust your training plan.  The workouts follow a specific order and plan.  The plan is your key to success.  Experiment “slightly” and “carefully” but don’t abandon the essential steps to success.
    • Patience – Wooo boy.  This is the toughest part of marathon training as well as brewing and winemaking.  Once the beer is in the carboy or the wine is in the oak barrel or stainless steel fermenter, not much can be done to change the final product.  Playing too much with the ingredients in the late stages of the fermentation process will more than likely ruin the final outcome rather than enhance it.  The same is true in the later stages of marathon training.  You cannot “cram” like you did for your college finals.  Either the work is in or it’s not.  When your marathon training reaches the final three weeks, you can only screw up the final result with final “tweaking.”  It’s patience in those final, sometimes agonizing weeks, when the aging process/training effect yields the best product.

    Feel free to make comments on this topic!  Let’s have some fun with it.

  • How Do the Training Levels Differ?

    When designing the four levels of training programs, I created plans that would differ in total workload by about 15% each as you move from Beginner to Recreational to Advanced to Competitor.

    In measuring the total workload, I looked at the following:

    1. Total Days per week
    2. Run/Walk Ratios
    3. Total Suggested Running Mileage
    4. Total Time Suggested Cross Training per week
    5. Total Time All Activities per week
    6. Progression of mileage
    7. Progression of workouts
    8. Types of Intensity workouts
    9. Types of Pace Specific workouts
    10. Intensity levels of certain workouts

    At each level, there are key workouts that form the framework of the overall training plan.  Also, there are assumptions made about the runners at each level based on experience.  My hope is that each level will develop its own personality.  There is no hierarchy.  One level does not “outrank” another, they are just approaching the training plan from a different perspective.

    Everyone is free to take a peek at the various workouts at the different levels.  To do that, you will need to go to your survey answers and in Section 1 under I would describe myself as: choose a different level.  Submit the survey and you can scroll through the workouts.  Just remember to return to your survey answers and re-select your level after you’re done peeking at the others.

    Hopefully your curiosity will be satisfied and you will quickly find that you chose the right level.  I really encourage everyone to find a level that seems appropriate and remain there for all the workouts.  In the first few weeks of the training plan, there will be some who will bounce back and forth between a couple levels.  “Fence-sitting” is OK for the first 3-4 weeks, but once we move toward the middle of the program (weeks 6-7), it will be important to stay with one level for all the workouts until the goal half-marathon or marathon.

    Can you switch levels for different goal events? Absolutely!  For example, you can try out the Advanced Level for a half-marathon and then do the Recreational Level as you move up to the marathon, or vice-versa.  However, a 2-Level jump is not encouraged at any time.