Archive: Around Town

The number of runners on the road multiplies incredibly this time of year thanks to improving spring weather. But you might be one of those people who run into this scenario (no pun intended): you used to be in shape but on your first time out you barely survive a mile. You are terribly discouraged at your current level of fitness and start to question why you're out there in the first place. What do you do?

The natural thing may be to tough it out, slow down to a painful trudge, and finish your run. After all, Vince Lombardi told us that "winners never quit and quitters never win." That's what you're supposed to do, right? Stay moving to burn those calories? My recommended strategy is going to fly in the face of the aerobic fat-burning myth that you have to keep moving at a low intensity. When you hit that uncomfortable and unbearable point on your run, don't slow down, just accept it and walk.

 

In other words, you are not allowed to jog (the j-word is never spoken by real runners, by the way). Don't slow down in order to get in the "old" mileage. When you start your run, keep the pace up until you hit that quitting point, then walk for 5-10 minutes to recover. Then hit it again with another spurt of running, not jogging, at your original comfortable pace. To make an analogy to business, Seth Godin, author of The Dip, would call this "strategic quitting." Instead of lather-rinse-repeat, you just run-walk-repeat to cover your designated route.

Why not slow down to a painful jog instead of doing a walk-recovery? One perspective concerning your motor learning, or muscle memory, is that you don't want your body to "learn slowness." If a baseball relief pitcher comes out throwing fast balls at 90 miles-per-hour and then starts to slow down from fatigue, the manager needs to make a change on the mound. If this pitcher tries to throw his fast balls through fatigue, his body will unfortunately learn how to throw "slow."

Another reason is that you are not short-changing your fitness when you run-walk; you just may be enhancing it. Exercise research from the Tabata group out of Japan (1996) shows that high-intensity interval training resulted in better aerobic fitness. In this case, better aerobic fitness means easier calorie burning.

Vince Lombardi did get it right when you are getting back into running shape: "Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit." In summary, don't trudge through the pain unless you are maintaining your faster starting pace; run-walk-repeat. See you on the roads.

---