I attended a high school known for its swimmers. They were the best in the country, and some of them competed in the Olympics. Before championship swim meets, I could overhear amusing discussions in the hallways about “shaving down” and “tapering” in an attempt to swim faster. As a member of the cross-country and track …
Imagine that you’re sitting in an empty room at a table with a plate of cookies and are told you can have one cookie now or two cookies later. Which option would you choose? Such a scenario was used in the 1960s and 1970s by psychologist Walter Mischel and his colleagues at Stanford University to …
Breathe In Through Your Nose and Out Through Your Mouth There’s no evidence that you must breathe air in through your nose when running and breathe air out through your mouth. Breathe however makes you feel most comfortable. Breathing Through Your Nose Increases the Amount of Oxygen You Take In You don’t inhale more oxygen …
Last time you did an interval workout, did you have a specific number of reps decided before the workout? Nearly all coaches prescribe and nearly all runners perform a specific number of reps for interval workouts, with that number decided before the workout begins. However, the number of reps is not all that important, and …
In a review of the data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, scientists at Stanford University’s School of Medicine compared obesity, physical activity, and caloric intake in U.S. adults from 1988 to 2010. They found a significant association between the level of physical activity in the population—but not daily caloric intake—and the increases …
One of the key features of training program design is the manipulation of stimulating and maintenance workouts. The general pattern I typically use is to introduce one new workout per week (A), habituate to that stress, then, in a subsequent mesocycle, add a second workout of similar stress per week (2As). After habituating to that …
Reverse linear periodization is a method of training that gradually and progressively increases the volume and decreases the intensity over time. It is the opposite of the traditional linear periodization. Historically, linear periodization was designed to improve strength, speed, and power, with training progressing from general conditioning (volume) to specific skills (intensity), with the highest …
It had been a week since Laura and I had spoken. I could tell she had been thinking about what we talked about. We were sitting in the bleachers at the track. She had just finished her workout, and the late day sun was casting an orange glow on the bleacher steps. “You …
Periodization is a blueprint of sequential periods of focused training that guides the coach and runner in the acquisition of specific characteristics of fitness. Training periods are divided into macrocycles, mesocycles, and microcycles. Several ways to periodize your training: 1) Linear Periodization Progressing from high volume/low intensity to low volume/high intensity. 2) Reverse Linear …
On your first day at altitude, you go for a run, and notice within a few steps that you’re breathing heavier than usual. You wonder why, because the air still contains 20.93% oxygen, whether you’re at the Dead Sea in Israel (1,385 feet below sea level) or on top of Mount Everest in Nepal (29,029 …