LOLZLetter 262 | Why You Should Race Shorter Distances When Marathon Training
Welcome,
This is the post I had planned for last week, but with the sudden passing of Kelvin Kiptum, celebrating his life felt more appropriate. This week was inspired by racing a series of shorter events, including a 10k. My plan is to race a few more shorter races, but as some people know, I've been going through a weird sickness the last couple of weeks so trying to recover with that first.
It can be easy to get into the marathon training grind. Every weekend needs to be a long run; there is no time for shorter distances. But truthfully, you shouldn't give up on racing shorter distances during training too. Running marathon season after marathon season with no change or break is enough to burn anyone out, or injure you, or just find yourself in a plateau.
Here's why adding shorter races to your schedule can help you get faster:
Keep Your Endurance
Most runners worry they'll "lose endurance" if they include shorter races and distances. Newsflash: you don't. If you stop doing long runs, then you'll likely lose endurance. Adding speed work will make you more well-rounded. You'll be able to handle different pieces of long races better, for instance, hills!
Run Faster and More Smoothly
Doing speed workouts helps you run faster and smoother. When you push yourself in short bursts, you teach your legs to turn over more quickly. This can make your normal long run pace feel easier. You don't need to do formal speed workout to accomplish this. Something as simple as strides at the end of a run, can be enough.
Boost Your Oxygen Use
When you train for short races, you do more speed workouts. This helps your body get better at using oxygen, which means you can do more physical activity without getting as tired. So running harder and faster without being as tired.
Most marathoners can run forever at slower speeds. In fact, running at your goal marathon pace for a few miles should not feel hard. When you get into that higher-end speed work, you do see bigger results in a shorter amount of time. Taking an entire season to train for a shorter race and doing structured speed work will develop your aerobic capacity. The more oxygen you're able to consume, the harder you can run.
Balance Is Key
Using faster workouts can increase your leg speed. As mentioned before, you don't have to go to the track and do formal speed work like 400-meter repeats. Even something as simple as strides will benefit you. Running at your top-end speed brings benefits to all runners! By putting your body into a high lactate state, you are teaching it how to recover by reducing a larger amount of lactate over time.
Make Your Muscles More Efficient
Want some true science? Running shorter distances and speed work can improve the flow of oxygenated blood to the muscles. This can improve mitochondrial density. Mitochondria (The powerhouse of the cell...did anyone else learn that in grade school?) are muscle cells that can produce ATP, which is the true fuel that supplies muscle contractions.
So if you improve your muscles' ability to use oxygen at shorter distances, you will improve your racing at all distances, including your long race.
Price:
Okay, so this is a fun one, and really, nothing is cheaper if you sign up for a marathon and a 5k. But shorter races are usually cheaper. You can run 3-4 5ks for the cost of a marathon (more for bigger marathons). Don't ask me about the time I paid $80, yes $80, for a 5k in LA County.
Less Boring Speedwork:
There are definitely rumors that you "lose your speed" when you start marathon training. The truth is, we sometimes stop doing as much speed work, which yes, can cause you to lose your speed. By adding in a few shorter races, you can maintain some fast speed. Plus, racing with people is overall more fun? Or maybe I just say that because I'm lucky if I see another runner out when running around the desert.
In short, adding some shorter races can make you stronger and faster all around. You don't need to run a 5k every weekend to see success, but adding some shorter races can make you faster.
Want more?
If you are curious, this book by Jack Daniels, goes into great detail about how to get faster at longer distances you need to get faster at shorter distances too. I've seen a lot of running coaches adopt this principle, but I think it's important to get it straight from the source too.
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Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Who Lost to Josh Kerr Without a Blindfold, Says He Could Beat Him With a Blindfold: Honestly this article title is elite.
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