My favorite quote about the suffering that runners experience during races (and hard workouts) is from legendary ultrarunner Scott Jurek: 鈥淧ain only hurts.鈥� In other words, as intense as it may be, the discomfort we experience when running to our limit does no harm beyond being uncomfortable. Sure, it might feel like you鈥檙e dying, but you鈥檙e not. Some runners, including the pros (who wouldn鈥檛 be pros otherwise), have a higher tolerance for this sort of discomfort than others do. Those who maintain a pain-only-hurts attitude toward their suffering have the highest tolerance for it鈥攁nd consequently get the most out of the physical fitness they bring to each race.

What does it mean to have a pain-only-hurts attitude? At its core, it鈥檚 about not making race discomfort out to be more than it really is. To say that pain only hurts is to accept the pain as a necessary part of the racing experience instead of wishing it away as though it were an indication that something has gone wrong. Former 5,000-meter American record holder Bob Kennedy said it well: 鈥淥ne thing about racing is that it hurts. You better accept that from the beginning or you鈥檙e not going anywhere.鈥�

Accepting discomfort does not lessen it, but it does make it more tolerable, hence less of a drag on performance. Research has shown that people who are trained to accept exercise-related discomfort experience lower perceived effort levels and perform better in endurance tests. A by scientists at the Catholic University of America, for example, found that high school runners trained in mindfulness techniques (a practice that involves acceptance of internal states and external circumstances) significantly lowered their mile times.

Two good ways to increase your acceptance of race discomfort are bracing and detachment. Bracing entails actively girding your mind for suffering before a race. Tell yourself, This is going to hurt, and be OK with that. Never allow yourself to be unpleasantly surprised by how much you hurt during competition. Detachment entails separating your thoughts and emotions from your perceptions so that the latter don鈥檛 control the former. Realize that you don鈥檛 have to think negative thoughts and experience unpleasant emotions just because your esophagus is on fire and your legs feel like concrete. Instead of thinking,听I hate this at such moments, think,听I鈥檝e been here before and gotten through it. This is nothing new.

Psychologists refer to this type of process as metacognition, which can be loosely defined as thinking about your thoughts and feelings. The better you are at observing your own consciousness, the more you can control it. It should come as no surprise to learn that elite runners rely heavily on metacognition when racing. In 2015, sports psychologist Noel Brick of Ulster University teamed up with a pair of colleagues to interview ten elite runners about what went on in their heads during competition. A majority of these athletes described not merely feeling intense discomfort in races but also using the sensation as information. In a discussion of their , Brick and his coauthors remarked, 鈥淲hile many athletes reported awareness of exertional pain during running, this awareness was primarily used as a signal to engage an appropriate cognitive strategy.鈥� In essence, the runners asked themselves, 鈥淕iven how I鈥檓 feeling right now, what is the best thought I can think or the best action I can take to maximize my performance?鈥� Among the most commonly cited responses to discomfort were adjusting pace, trying to relax, and 鈥渃hunking鈥� distance or time (i.e., mentally dividing a run into smaller segments to make the distance seem more manageable).

The researchers noted that while certain specific metacognitive strategies were widely practiced among these elite runners, others were idiosyncratic. What matters most is not the specific thing you think or do in response to discomfort but that you cultivate a habit of monitoring (rather than just feeling) your discomfort so you can choose the best response for you.

As a coach, I鈥檝e found that different metacognitive strategies are useful to different athletes. When I find myself deep in the pain cave in races, my self-talk becomes rather harsh (Man up! Don鈥檛 be a wimp!). It works for me, but when I share this strategy with my athletes, some of them look at me like I need to be locked up.

In fact, though, my little midrace drill-sergeant routine is nothing more than an idiosyncratic way of exercising what鈥檚 known as inhibitory control, which all runners exercise in one way or another. Inhibitory control is the ability to resist immediate impulses (such as the desire to slow down or quit for the sake of escaping discomfort) and stay focused on a less immediate goal (such as completing a race in the least time possible). The better you get at vetoing your urges to take your foot off the gas in races, the better you will perform. In a , Italian researchers found that a standard test of inhibitory control was a strong predictor of subsequent race performance in a group of ultrarunners.

Other research has shown that inhibitory control can be strengthened through deliberate practice, and there are lots of ways to do this. In everyday life, just about any form of deferred gratification you can think of will strengthen the underlying mechanism, which is centered in a part of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex. An example from my own life is creating a daily to-do list and tackling the item I dread most first, the item I鈥檓 most looking forward to last. In training, things like exercising to failure (e.g., holding a wall squat as long as you can) and the aforementioned mental trick of chunking distance or time when you鈥檙e running hard will have the same effect.

Metacognition is also useful for emotional self-regulation. Individuals who are adept at regulating their emotions are said to have a high level of emotional intelligence,听and guess what? Research has shown that EI, too, correlates with running performance. A led by Enrico Rubaltelli of the University of Padova and published in Personality and Individual Differences in 2018 found that individual scores on a test of EI predicted half-marathon performance better than prior racing experience and even training volume in a group of recreational runners.

Emotional intelligence, too, can be increased through deliberate practice. Mindfulness training is one proven means of enhancing the capacity for emotional self-regulation. But there are other ways. A lot of runners, including many professionals, use the training and racing context itself to work on this skill. Simply recognizing that you always have a degree of freedom to choose your emotions is half the battle; from this point, it is relatively easy to choose specific emotions that are more helpful than reflexive fear. If your shoe spontaneously falls apart during a marathon, for instance (as happened to Eliud Kipchoge during the 2015 Berlin Marathon), you don鈥檛 have to panic; you can keep calm and press on (as Kipchoge did, ultimately winning the race).

You may find it easier to control your emotions during a race if you preselect a desired emotional state before it even starts. Some elite runners like to race angry and intentionally work themselves into a lather prior to competing. There is scientific evidence that anger can indeed be performance enhancing for certain runners. Others have had success racing in a state of gratitude, especially when returning from a setback. Ryan Hall made a conscious choice to race the 2010 Boston Marathon with joy, and it helped him achieve a fourth-place, 2:08:40 performance. The fact that the fastest American-born marathoner in history chose to race happy is all the proof we need that having fun and performing at the highest level are not mutually incompatible.

Excerpted from , by Matt Fitzgerald and Ben Rosario, published by Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright 漏 2022 by Matt Fitzgerald and Ben Rosario.

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In a , Barry Smyth and Aonghus Lawlor at University College Dublin found that, on average, male runners took 4 minutes and 29 seconds longer to complete a marathon than female runners of equal fitness. The reason? Poor pacing. Specifically, the male runners tended to start too fast and fade.

You couldn鈥檛 ask for a better scientific illustration of why pacing is important. Simply put, poor pacing is wasteful. When you arrive at the starting line of a race, you have the potential to perform at a certain level, determined mainly by the fitness you鈥檝e accumulated through your training. How close you come to realizing your full potential on a given day is largely determined by how well you pace. If you start too fast, you鈥檒l wear out and have to run some slow, ineffective miles later in the race. Pace too slowly and you leave some potential in the tank. If your effort is erratic throughout the race, you will waste a certain percentage of your hard-earned potential.

Not surprisingly, elite runners take pacing skill quite seriously. In his book听, Michael听Crawley quotes the head of an elite running club, Coach Meseret, saying of听his athletes, 鈥淚f they run on the track and I tell them 66 seconds and they come around in 65 that is a yellow card. But if they run 64 then that is a red card for me, they will not lead again.鈥�

One second per lap equals five seconds per mile, which isn鈥檛 much. If you were held to this same standard in your training, how long would you survive before earning a red card? Judging by my experience coaching recreational runners, not very long. The problem isn鈥檛 lack of aptitude. It鈥檚 that most recreational runners have never had a Coach Meseret help them learn how to pace effectively.

Until now! I鈥檝e spent the past few years honing a systematic approach to developing pacing skill that is fully described in my forthcoming book, On Pace: Discover How to Run Every Race at Your Real Limit. Here are three of my favorite methods to cultivate pacing mastery.

Effort-Based Runs

Pacing is done mainly by feel. Throughout each race, runners are conscious of their perceived effort, or how hard they鈥檙e working in relation to their limit. As they make their way through the race, they continuously assess whether their present effort is and fine-tune their pace accordingly.

In our tech-obsessed modern reality, we tend to assume we need to rely on fancy wearable devices to regulate our pace effectively, but this is not the case. found that supplying experienced athletes with inaccurate performance data during a time trial鈥攖hat is, deceiving them into believing they鈥檙e going faster or slower than they really are鈥攄idn鈥檛 significantly affect their performance. Why? Because they trust their effort perceptions鈥攁nd rightly so.

In fact, overreliance on device data thwarts pacing skill development by distracting runners from their perceptions of effort and slowing the process of learning how they should be feeling at various points in a race. A straightforward way to counteract data overreliance and facilitate perceptual self-trust is to run by feel, learning to regulate intensity without consulting any type of wearable device.

It鈥檚 OK听and even helpful to record workout data in the usual way in these effort-based runs, but, importantly, you should wait until you鈥檝e completed the session to study the numbers. This post-workout analysis will allow you to assess how well you did in controlling your running intensity by feel.

For example, suppose your training schedule calls for a workout featuring six two-minute intervals at 5K pace. To make this an effort-based run, run the two-minute segments at a pace you feel you could maintain for three times longer if going all-out. Capture your workout data on your watch, but don鈥檛 consult it during the run. When you get home, look to see how evenly you paced the six intervals and how close you were to your actual 5K pace.

You don鈥檛 have to make every run effort-based to improve your pacing skill, but do feature them regularly in your training.

Specific Repetition

Like any other skill, pacing requires repetition. No runner gets their pacing right the first time. But getting it wrong supplies the aspiring pacing master with information they can use to get closer to the mark the next time. Specific repetition is a technique that accelerates this learning process by simplifying it. Doing the same workout (or variations of the same workout) over and over until you鈥檙e able to pace it perfectly every time provides a foundation for pacing other workouts and races with confidence.

The workouts you choose to use for specific repetition should be relevant to your goals. For example, if you鈥檙e training for a 10K race, a good choice听would be long intervals performed at lactate threshold intensity, or the fastest pace you could sustain for about one hour. During this workout, you鈥檒l want to look at your watch and work to maintain a consistent pace for each repeat while you monitor how the effort feels at each stage of the workout.

Your sessions should not be identical every time, but instead should become gradually more challenging with each iteration so they boost your fitness level at the same time that they develop pacing skill. Here鈥檚 an example of a sensible sequence for a runner in 10K training:

Six Weeks Before a Race

4 x 1 mile at lactate threshold pace (LTP) with a quarter-mile jog between each mile.

Four Weeks Before a Race

5 x 1 mile at LTP with a quarter-mile jog between each mile.

Two Weeks Before a Race

6 x 1 mile @ LTP with a quarter-mile jog between each mile.

As you work your way through a sequence like听this one, a subtle evolution will occur in how you experience it. You鈥檒l gain a richer and more nuanced sense of your effort and pace, when to push and when to relax, and what the workout is telling you about your current levels of fitness and fatigue. You鈥檒l feel more and more in control of your execution of the workouts, and this feeling of control will begin to spill over into your other runs.

Novel Challenges

When you鈥檝e gotten the hang of specific repetition, you鈥檙e ready for novel pacing challenges, a more advanced pacing skill development tool that works in almost the opposite way. Whereas specific repetition develops pacing skill through familiarization, novel pacing challenges do so by testing your ability to adapt to unfamiliar twists on pacing.

An example is long accelerations, which entail speeding up continuously from an easy jog to a full sprint over a period of several minutes without consulting your watch. This is doable, as acceleration is something every runner can feel, and in fact, accelerating continuously for much shorter periods鈥攕ay, ten to 20 seconds鈥攊s quite easy. But drawing out a continuous acceleration over several minutes demands a high degree of body awareness and a fine-tuned ability to control pace, which is what makes long accelerations a terrific novel pacing challenge.

Begin with a three-minute acceleration. From there, you can advance to six minutes, then 11 minutes. Then stack multiple accelerations (3:00 and 6:00, 3:00 and 11:00, 6:00 and 11:00, and ultimately 3:00, 6:00, and 11:00) in a single run. As you will discover, long accelerations are quite taxing, which makes them excellent fitness builders as well as effective pacing skill developers. But this also means that in workouts featuring multiple accelerations, you鈥檒l want to separate them with a minute or two of passive rest followed by five to ten minutes of jogging.

Although you are forbidden from monitoring your pace during a long acceleration, you should record your workout data so you can look at it later and judge your performance. Focus on the pace curve. It should be gently upward-sloping from end to end, particularly if you run your accelerations on a flat route.

This is just one example. Other novel pacing challenges听include听precision splitting, where you try to complete each interval in a set of intervals in exactly the same time, and , where you try to cover a tiny bit more distance in each interval in a set, finishing with an all-out effort.

Don鈥檛 Forget to Have Fun

The biggest misstep I made when I started to teach pacing skill to runners in a programmatic way was unintentionally making some of them feel like every run was a test of some kind. That鈥檚 no fun, and it had a negative effect on the overall motivation and enjoyment for some athletes.

Never allow your pacing work to spoil the fun of training. As important as it is to be conscious of pace in certain runs that are earmarked for pacing skill development, it鈥檚 equally important to relegate pacing to the back of your mind for other runs. Pacing skill development is meant to be a project, not an obsession. And the overall process should be rewarding, not frustrating. Focus on the progress you鈥檝e made rather than on how far away pacing mastery seems.

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The well-known 80/20 rule of intensity balance stipulates that runners should aim to spend about 80% of their weekly training time at moderate intensity (i.e. at a pace at which you can comfortably carry on a conversation) and about 20% at moderate to high intensity. This ratio was first observed in elite endurance athletes by exercise physiologist in the early 2000鈥檚. His research found that the 80/20 rule is followed almost universally by top-level runners, cyclists, swimmers, triathletes, cross-country skiers, and rowers around the globe.听

But it wasn鈥檛 always. Historical analysis has shown that elite endurance athletes of the mid-20th century and earlier did not train this way. Because today鈥檚 top athletes are a lot faster than those of earlier generations, Seiler believes that an 80/20 intensity balance is optimal for them, yielding better results than any alternative.

The thing about elite endurance athletes, though, is that they train at very high volumes. So it鈥檚 natural to ask whether the same ratio is also optimal for non-elite athletes who train at lower volumes, or whether these athletes are better off spending more time at higher intensities to make up for training less. If you only run three times per week, for example, should each run be equivalent to one of an elite鈥檚 harder workouts, since you took a day off when the elite was putting in more long easy miles and so you’re ready to roll hard again?

Research Finds that Slower Runs Mean Faster Races听

Seiler and other scientists have not only asked themselves this very question, but also addressed it in controlled studies. In , 30 club runners with 10K times just under 40 minutes were divided into two groups and placed on separate training programs for nine weeks. One group adhered to an 80/20 intensity balance while the other hewed to a 50/50 ratio, which is actually what most recreational runners do. All of the runners completed 10K time trials before and after the training period.听

On average, members of the 80/20 group improved by 5% and members of the 50/50 group improved by 3.6%. This seemingly small difference in percentage improvement translated into a 35-second difference on the clock. And when the authors of the study looked at the six individuals in the 80/20 group who did the best job of adhering to the prescribed ratio, the performance improvement jumped to 7%, equal to an additional an 12-second lowering of 10K times.

The runners in this study ran just over 30 miles per week, or slightly less than the typical self-described 鈥渞ecreationally competitive鈥� runner does, according to one survey. Thus, we have pretty solid evidence that if there is a threshold of training volume below which the 80/20 rule no longer applies, it鈥檚 under 30 miles per week. Additional research is needed to find out exactly how much lower this threshold might lie.

A Mix with More Moderate Miles

As a coach, I encourage runners who log substantially less than 30 miles per week and want to improve their race times to stick with an 80/20 balance and run more rather than try to make up for running less by spending more time at high intensity. It is true that, minute for minute, high intensity yields bigger improvements in aerobic capacity than lower intensity. But this doesn鈥檛 mean that high intensity can completely substitute for low intensity.听

No amount of high-intensity interval training, for example, will give you the endurance you need to complete a marathon. Regardless of how little you train, it鈥檚 important that you balance your workouts in a way that develops all of the fitness components you need to race successfully (assuming that鈥檚 your goal).听

Recently I asked Stephen Seiler 鈥� a former competitive rower and cyclist who still keeps fit 鈥� how he would approach his own training if he were confined to the extreme low end of the volume spectrum. 鈥淚f I could only train two times a week,鈥� he replied, 鈥淚 would probably end up combining some high-intensity and low-intensity work in both sessions, aiming to try to stimulate every muscle fiber I could, as much as I could!鈥� As you see, even in this extreme scenario, the person who knows more than anyone about optimizing intensity ratios would not go all-in on high intensity.

It should be added, however, that Seiler would never voluntarily train just twice per week in the first place if he intended to race, nor choose to race if he could only train twice per week 鈥� and I hope you wouldn鈥檛 either!

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My first marathon was the 1999 California International Marathon in Sacramento. As I trained for it, many of my friends who were marathon veterans gave me the usual warnings to 鈥渞espect the distance,鈥� pace myself conservatively, and avoid setting too ambitious a goal. I truly believed that I would heed this advice, but I did not. My 6:06 first mile felt so easy that I decided to forge ahead at that pace. Consequently, by the 18-mile mark I was walking. I finished in 3:34, after having run the first half in under 1:23.

My second marathon was the 2000 Long Beach Marathon. I truly believed I had learned my lesson and started at a slightly more conservative pace than I had in Sacramento, despite the fact that I was now fitter. But by the 23-mile mark I was again walking. I finished in 3:11, a scant 26 minutes off my goal time.

Not until I ran my third marathon did I run my first halfway decent one. I finished in 2:46:42 at the 2001 Rock n鈥� Roll San Diego Marathon. Yet while I did not fall apart in this race as I had in my first two marathons, I still slowed substantially in the closing 5K. My average pace over the first 23 miles was under 6:20 per mile, but my last mile was run in the range of 7:30.

If I have learned only one thing from the 14 marathons I have now run it鈥檚 that pacing oneself optimally in a marathon is very difficult. The only marathons in which I have not run the second half substantially slower than the first are the few I have run non-competitively, as workouts. I don鈥檛 have this problem at shorter distances. My pace is almost always metronomically steady in 5K鈥檚, 10K鈥檚, and half marathons, even on my bad days.

I am hardly unusual in this regard. The vast majority of experienced runners are able to pace themselves well in shorter events but bonk to some degree before they reach the finish line in marathons. For example, in the 2007 California International Marathon, only 24 of the top 100 finishers managed to run the second half of the race no worse than one minute slower than the first. By contrast, in the 2008 Carlsbad Half Marathon, only eight of the top 100 finishers slowed to a similar degree.

Why is pacing the marathon so much more difficult than pacing shorter races? And for that matter, considering the fact that the winner of most marathons runs the first half slower than the second, can we even assume that maintaining an even pace throughout the entire race is the optimal marathon pacing strategy? What can we do to improve our marathon pacing? Let鈥檚 tackle these questions one by one.

Why Is Marathon Pacing So Difficult?

There is a growing body of evidence that pacing in distance running events is governed by a brain-based mechanism that has been referred to as teleoanticipation. This mechanism continuously calculates the maximum pace that the runner can sustain through the remainder of a race without a catastrophic loss of homeostasis (such as overheating) occurring. The factors that are used in this calculation include conscious knowledge of the distance remaining, physiological 鈥渟et points鈥� such as the maximum allowable core body temperature, and feedback signals sent from the muscles and other organs to the brain. The results of the calculation are adjustments to the level of muscle activation (hence the runner鈥檚 pace) and perceptions of fatigue that serve to limit the intensity of exercise to the maximum level that will not cause serious self-harm.

Running experience plays a key role in calibrating this mechanism. When children do their first one-mile fun run, they invariably start at a full sprint and bonk within a few hundred yards. But this mistake teaches them to pace themselves much better in their next fun run. This process continues as long as the runner stays in the sport, so that eventually almost every runner develops a highly refined capacity to pace himself in races 鈥� except, perhaps, in marathons.

Research on pacing has shown that an evenly paced effort 鈥� often with a short finishing 鈥渒ick鈥� 鈥� produces the fastest finishing times in running, cycling, and other endurance time trials of more than a couple minutes鈥� duration. Experienced runners naturally tend to follow this pacing strategy in most races, which is manifest in the vast majority of world records set at every track race distance from 1,500 to 10,000 meters.

It stands to reason, however, that there is a limit to the computational power of the teleoanticipation mechanism. As race distances increase, there must come a point at which this mechanism can no longer comprehend the distance well enough to make an accurate calculation. There is clear evidence that almost all runners slow down in 100K ultramarathons. The highest finishers slow down least, but they鈥檙e still far from negative split territory. So it would seem that the limits of accurate teleoanticipation lie somewhere between 10,000 meters and 100 kilometers.

My research suggests that it鈥檚 on the short side of 26.2 miles for most runners, yet both the men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 marathon world records were run as negative splits. At the 2007 Frankfurt Marathon, Haile Gebrselassie ran the first half in 1:02:29 and the last half in 1:01:57. In 2018, when Eliud Kipchoge took that world record down to 2:01:39 in Berlin, he split 61:06/ 60:33. At the 2003 London Marathon, Paula Radcliffe ran the first half in 1:08:02 and the second half in 1:07:23. When Brigid Kosgei lowered that to 2:14:04 at the 2019 Chicago marathon, she ran nearly听dead-even splits of 66:59 and 67:05, despite the wind picking up in the second half.

No human is limited

— Eliud Kipchoge – EGH (@EliudKipchoge)

Therefore it seems that the marathon is within the teleoanticipatory limits of the very fastest 鈥� or at least the best-trained 鈥� runners. It鈥檚 probably the best-trained runners, because there is no indication that pacing ability is linked to running talent, while there is abundant evidence that it is linked to running experience.

Is Even Pacing The Best Marathon Pacing Strategy?

The fact that most of the fastest men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 marathon times ever recorded involved negative splits would seem to be strong evidence that negative splitting, or at least even pacing, is the optimal marathon pacing strategy. One of the world鈥檚 top experts on pacing strategies, Ross Tucker, Ph.D., finds this logical irrefutable.

鈥淚’m a big believer that there is such a thing as 鈥榥atural selection鈥� when it comes to performance,鈥� he wrote in an e-mail. 鈥淚n other words, if the very best athlete runs a negative split, then that is most likely the optimal way [for everyone] to go about it. Because given that hundreds of world-class athletes are racing, time will eventually ensure that the optimal strategy is settled upon. If a positive split were better, I have no doubt that all the great athletes would be going out and doing it, simply because it works.鈥�

However, just because even pacing seems to be the optimal pacing strategy for the world鈥檚 best runners doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 automatically the best pacing strategy for you and me. There鈥檚 a large and possibly crucial difference in the fitness levels that elite and non-elite runners bring to the marathon event. It鈥檚 plausible to me that the more modest a runner鈥檚 fitness level is, the more likely it is that he will achieve his fastest time by running somewhat aggressively in the first half and then 鈥渉anging on鈥� in the second half. Put another way, it鈥檚 plausible to me that the smaller the difference between the most comfortable pace a runner could sustain for 26.2 miles and the fastest pace he could sustain for the same distance, the more likely it is that a slightly positive pacing pattern would produce the best overall result.

Even the winner of most 100K ultramarathons runs a positive split, due to the extremity of the distance. Perhaps the standard marathon distance is almost as extreme for the average runner as the 100K distance is for the very best ultrarunners, making a positive split almost unavoidable. Just maybe, the average runner would have to hold back so much in the first half to run a faster second half that it鈥檚 just not worth it. If so, the average runner is better off just trying to avoid a precipitous decline in speed in the final miles.

It is pure speculation on my part to suggest that modestly fit runners will typically run their best marathon time with a slightly positive split, where the second half marathon is run between, say, one second and two minutes slower than the first half (although others have suggested the same, such as Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas in , arguing that for sub-elite marathoners running economy declines in later stages of the race so your optimal pace will as well). 听It would be very difficult to test this hypothesis scientifically. And there would be little point, because most runners will complete the second half of a marathon slightly slower than the first half even when they consciously aim for perfectly even splits, so my advice to all marathon runners is to try to run even splits. If you鈥檙e trying to break the world record, you will have to actually run even splits or possibly a negative split, whereas if you鈥檙e the average runner you should be content if your second half split is less than two minutes slower than your first.

You may also have to run even or slightly or better to lower your own personal best finishing time if you have run multiple marathons and lowered your personal best time to a point near your genetic limit. In this case, you are now more like an elite runner than an average runner.

How Can We Improve Our Marathon Pacing?

Effective race pacing may be defined as actually completing a race with the fastest time one is capable of completing a race. Let鈥檚 now take it as a given that every runner should try to run even splits or better in a marathon, although actually running a slight positive split might yield the fastest finishing time for most runners. What measures can you take to improve your ability to complete your next marathon with the fastest time possible? Here are five:

1) Run More Than One Marathon

The more familiar a specific racing experience is, the more effectively the brain鈥檚 teleoanticipatory mechanism will be able to do its job. If you鈥檝e done it, or something very much like it before, then your brain will be able to compare the feedback it receives from your body and the environment to similar past experiences and make good calculations about the fastest pace you can safely maintain between your current location and the finish line.

Everyone agrees that nothing can prepare you for the fatigue you experience in the final miles of your first marathon. But after you have had this experience, you are better able to pace yourself effectively in future marathons. Most of this learning happens on a subconscious level. Your brain-body makes its way through your second marathon with a better sense of how you should feel at any given point in the race.

So treat your first marathon as a sort of experiment. Pace yourself cautiously but not fearfully and see what happens, knowing that, no matter what happens, you will pace yourself better in the next marathon for having done the first.

2) Set Appropriate Time Goals

Because the marathon distance is so extreme, few runners are able to effectively pace their way through a marathon entirely by feel, however, as they do in shorter races. You have to hold so much back when running a marathon that the early miles necessarily feel very easy 鈥� so easy that you could run five or 10 seconds per mile faster or slower and it would not feel noticeably harder or easier. But a pace difference of just five or 10 seconds per mile in the first half of a marathon could make the difference between hanging on and falling apart in the second half. So choosing an appropriate time goal, which in turn gives you an appropriate target pace, is very important.

Past marathon performances are the best source of information to use in setting future marathon time goals. In many cases, the most sensible goal is to beat your previous best time by a slight margin. How much of an improvement is realistic depends on how much better your fitness is during your current marathon ramp-up than it was in previous ones. Comparing your performance in recent workouts against your performance in similar workouts done at the same point in past marathon training cycles will give you a good feel for how high to reach.

Another good source of information to use in setting marathon time/pace goals is performances in shorter races. A race time equivalence table or calculator can be used to generate a predicted marathon time based on a finish time in a shorter event 鈥� for example a 10K. There鈥檚 a good race time equivalence table in Daniels鈥� Running Formula and a good calculator at .

Be forewarned, however, that these tables and calculators assume optimal training for each race distance. Optimal training for a marathon includes a lot more mileage than optimal training for, say, a 10K. However, most runners train far closer to optimally for shorter races than they do for the marathon. They are unwilling or unable to increase their mileage enough to make their marathon training truly equivalent to their training for shorter races. Thus, I have found that the race performance equivalence calculators tend to be very accurate from the 5K to the half marathon but overestimate performance for the marathon. Keep this in mind when using them.

3) Train Hard

Like marathons themselves, but to a slightly lesser degree, hard workouts serve to calibrate the teleoanticipation mechanism. Hard workouts expose your body to fatigue in ways that are similar to how marathons do, so they teach your body how fast and how far you can go before fatigue will occur. This internalized feel for your limits will help you pace yourself more effectively on race day.

The more marathon-specific a workout is, the more it will help you in this regard. Therefore, in the final weeks of training for a marathon you should do a handful of very challenging workouts that mimic both the speed and the endurance demands of your coming marathon. Here are three peak marathon workout formats that I recommend:

Long, Hard Run

1 mile easy

20 miles @ marathon pace + 20-30 seconds per mile

Marathon-Pace Run

1 mile easy

14 miles at marathon pace

Pre-Fatigued Time Trial

10 miles easy

10K maximum effort

4) Run The First Half By Time, The Last By Feel

There are many runners who have completed 50 marathons, 100 marathons, and more. There are also many runners who routinely complete ultramarathons ranging from 50K to 100 miles in distance. For these runners, the 26.2-mile distance may be so familiar or manageable that they can effectively pace themselves exclusively by feel in a marathon. The rest of us cannot.

The rest of us need to pace ourselves initially by paying attention to actual pace data. Only after passing the halfway mark can we then safely go by feel, running the remaining distance at the fastest pace possible and using pace data only to monitor our pace rather than to actually control it.

If you have chosen an appropriate finish time goal and pace target and you accept that it is best to aim to run an even pace throughout a marathon, then it鈥檚 obvious how you need to handle your pacing after the starting horn sounds. Do your very best to run the first mile at exactly your goal pace time. Don鈥檛 run slower to 鈥渟ave energy鈥� for the final miles, because it鈥檚 very unlikely that you will be able to make up time at that point, and don鈥檛 run faster to 鈥減ut time in the bank,鈥� as this usually results in a precipitous decline in pace after 20 miles.

At the one-mile mark, check your split and adjust your pace accordingly in the next mile. Continue trying to nail your target pace perfectly throughout the first half of the race. At that point, you will be able to rely on your teleoanticipation mechanism to guide your pacing the rest of the way.

If you own a speed and distance device, you can use it to show your real-time average pace throughout the race, so you don鈥檛 have to wait for mile marks to check whether you鈥檙e on pace. Just be sure to account for any known degree of inaccuracy in your device鈥檚 readings. I ran my last marathon with a speed and distance device that consistently tells me I鈥檓 running three seconds per mile faster than I really am. My target pace for the race was 6:05, so I tried to keep the average pace reading at 6:02.

5) Know The Course

Even pacing is not the same thing as an even distribution of energy. Even pacing becomes a very poor pacing strategy for the marathon when keeping an even pace requires sharp fluctuations in your rate of energy expenditure. Hills, of course, are the complicating factor here. When you鈥檙e running uphill you have to expend much more energy to hold the same pace you were holding on the level terrain that preceded the hill, and when you鈥檙e running downhill you can go faster with less energy than you can on level terrain.

You should try to keep your energy expenditure relatively even throughout a marathon, which means you have to slow down when running uphill and speed up when running downhill. This is something you will tend to do naturally, but instead of just taking the hills as they come, you should study the marathon course beforehand so you can factor the placement of hills into your pacing strategy.

For example, almost the entire first half of the Boston Marathon is downhill, while the second half is not. Therefore you should plan to run the first half at a pace that鈥檚 slightly faster than your target pace for the whole event. By contrast, the San Francisco Marathon is much hillier in the first half than in the second, so a planned negative split is definitely the way to go in this event.

Naturally, the hillier a marathon course, the slower you should expect your finish time to be. So if your main interest is running a fast time, choose the flattest marathon you can find, and then run it like a metronome!

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鈥淐orrective exercise鈥� sounds vaguely like a form of punishment, similar to reform school. In fact, however, the term simply refers to therapeutic exercises done for the sake of addressing limitations in flexibility, mobility, and strength that compromise our ability to perform sports movements in ways that reduce efficiency and increase injury risk.

Corrective exercise is not a specific type of activity, like Pilates, but encompasses all types of activity鈥攕tatic stretches, dynamic stretches, foam rolling, bodyweight strength exercises, and more鈥攖hat serve this basic purpose. If you鈥檙e looking for a simple way to run better and healthier next year, consider adding corrective exercise to your daily routine.

Act Like a Pro

I was first introduced to the practice in the summer of 2017, which I spent in Flagstaff as an honorary, temporary member of the Hoka One One professional running team. Throughout this three-month period, I had full access to all of the support resources as the real pros, including physical therapy, and as a 46-year-old injury-prone runner, I made full use of them.

Whenever pain signaled an imminent breakdown, I visited in Flagstaff or in Phoenix, where I would undergo testing and leave with a list of corrective exercises that I was instructed to do daily to fix the limitations that, according to the testing, were contributing to my problem.

By the end of the summer I was spending 30 to 35 minutes a day on these exercises, and I wasn鈥檛 alone. All of the real pros had corrective exercise routines of their own, each customized to meet their individual needs. I found the habit to be highly beneficial. Corrective exercise didn鈥檛 completely prevent injuries from starting, but it did help keep them from getting out of control. I was able to survive several weeks in the 80- to 90-mile range, which is a lot for me. On top of that, I just felt better鈥攍ess stiff getting out of bed in the morning, less rusty when taking those first few strides of a warm-up.

Essential Assessment

I wish I could use this article to give you a nice, one-size-fits-all corrective exercise routine to try, but that鈥檚 not how it works. To get the most out of the practice, you need to build a routine around your individual limitations.

Step one is to get a assessment from a physical therapist who has a lot of experience with runners. This person will be able to diagnose your current flexibility, mobility, and strength limitations and prescribe exercises to correct them. Step two is to take those exercises home and do them鈥攅very day!

Not a Chore

If this all sounds rather onerous, know that it isn鈥檛 really. Most corrective exercises can be done anywhere and anytime with little or no equipment. I do my routine (which I鈥檝e pared down to 20 minutes since returning home from Flagstaff) at home in the evening when I鈥檓 winding down. It鈥檚 actually kind of relaxing, and unlike other daily chores like flossing my teeth, I look forward to it.

A number of the exercises I do address imbalances in my pelvic region that have led to several injuries鈥攁nd which are a problem for many of today’s runners. Here鈥檚 an example: Lie face up on the floor with your knees bent sharply and your feet on the floor about eight inches apart. Position a foam roller between your knees. Now press your knees together as though you鈥檙e trying to crush the foam roller and hold the contraction for 10 seconds. Relax for 5 seconds and repeat 10 times.

If the next available appointment with your best local running-focused PT is several weeks out, and you don鈥檛 want to wait to get started, you have options. Various resources, including the books by Jay Dicharry and the by Michael Rosengart, provide simple self-tests you can do to diagnose common limiters, as well as exercises to correct them. Nothing beats one-on-one attention from an expert, but such mediated guidance beats waiting to get started with corrective exercise.

If you鈥檙e skeptical, start small. Do just one exercise targeting one diagnosed limiter every evening to establish the habit, and see how it goes. If you notice benefits and the time commitment doesn鈥檛 feel burdensome, add a second exercise, and so on, until you鈥檙e doing it (literally) like the pros.

For a guided series of corrective exercises that build key running strengths for efficiency, power and durability, check out Jay Dicharry’s online course, .

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What would you do if you found out you had a 10% chance of dying within the next year unless you stopped running? Would you run anyway? How about if you learned there was a three-in-five chance that continuing to run would make you seriously ill? Would you find a new hobby?

For me, these questions are not some idle thought experiment. Within the past year I鈥檝e been diagnosed with two separate medical conditions, one of which may increase my chances of dying as I run, while the other leaves me virtually immobilized a few days after I run. All runners are willing to bear some cost to do what they love. I happen to be in a position that forces me to decide what cost is too great.

The Heart of the Matter

The condition that puts me at risk of pulling a Jim Fixx is the same one 鈥� atherosclerosis. Unlike him, though, I do not have a family history of heart disease, nor have I ever smoked or been sedentary, as Fixx did and was before he discovered running. Instead, my coronary artery plaques appear to have been caused by running (and swimming, and cycling, and elliptical biking) 鈥� years and years of stressing my poor ticker to the max.

I know what you鈥檙e thinking: 鈥業 thought running was good for my heart!鈥� And it is! But for reasons that aren鈥檛 well understood, doing large amounts of intense running over long periods of time leaves a mark on some individuals, including me. According to the results of a recent angiogram, my calcium score is 363, which, based on my age and gender, means I have a 5% chance of suffering a heart attack within the next 10 years. But here鈥檚 the fine print: Studies suggest that all calcium scores are not equal, and that the risk of cardiac events is not as high for someone like me, who earned his 363 by running instead of by smoking and eating bacon.

A short time ago I sought the advice of , an assistant professor of cardiac surgery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and also an ultrarunner and triathlete. My own cardiologist is okay, but she鈥檚 not an athlete and she doesn鈥檛 treat a lot of athletes, and I wanted the perspective of an expert who鈥檚 able to see things as I do. After bringing her up to speed on my situation, I asked Dr. Fielder what she recommended I do as a next step toward assessing my risk of running myself into an early grave. Without hesitation, she told me I should get a coronary catheterization, which she described as a mildly invasive procedure that can determine the severity of any blockages I might have. 鈥淒epending on the outcome,鈥� she said, 鈥測ou鈥檒l come away with either peace of mind or a basis for pursuing further treatments.鈥�

鈥淟et鈥檚 say I do that and there are no blockages,鈥� I said. 鈥淚f I understand you correctly, that tells me it鈥檚 safe run now. But if running caused my plaques, won鈥檛 more running just keep making them worse until I do have a blockage?鈥�

鈥淭hat鈥檚 a good question,鈥� Dr. Fiedler said, 鈥渁nd I don鈥檛 know the answer to it. And I don鈥檛 think anyone does.鈥�

To summarize: A simple, expensive procedure will give me a much better sense of how risky it is for me to run today. But what I can鈥檛 know is how this risk might change with continued running. I feel like Hamlet, minus the despair: 鈥楧o I roll the dice, or play it safe?鈥� Lucky for me, I鈥檓 under no immediate pressure to answer this question. Less lucky for me, my heart condition isn鈥檛 all that鈥檚 wrong with my body.

Going Long

There鈥檚 a lot of confusion surrounding long Covid, so let me try to clear it up. Long Covid is not the acute illness people experience after being infected with the COVID-19 virus. Nor is it the normal, sometimes protracted, process of recovering from the virus. It is a separate, chronic condition that somehow gets triggered by the virus in a percentage (estimates range from 10 to 30%) of those who survive the acute illness.

include fatigue, shortness of breath, paresthesia, insomnia, and cognitive impairment. Another common symptom of long Covid that I have in spades is post-exertional malaise, which is a fancy name for not being able to get out of bed after exercising.

The last time I ran was August 8, about four weeks ago as I write. I felt ready. For the first time in more than ten months I had no symptoms (unless you count some minor numbness in my left lower leg and foot). Having learned from past disasters that it鈥檚 impossible to be too conservative, I ran for 15 minutes at a very slow pace, quitting while I was ahead. Or so I thought.

Three days later, I woke up feeling as if I鈥檇 been dragged behind a horse. Only now am I getting back to a point where gentle walking doesn鈥檛 set me back even further. Fair to say, running isn鈥檛 an option for me at the moment, and for all I know it might never be. There鈥檚 a part of me that鈥檚 okay with this possibility. I had 40 good years as a runner. I ran in Kenya and Bulgaria, with Kara Goucher and Haile Gebrselassie, through blizzards and desert heat. Running changed my life for the better and made me the man I am today. I have no unfinished business as a runner.

Or do I?

Don’t Stop Believing

Lately I鈥檝e been thinking a lot about Charles Barkley. The 鈥淩ound Mound of Rebound鈥� was 36 years old and playing his last season of professional basketball when he ruptured his left quadriceps tendon on December 8, 1999, during a game between his Houston Rockets and the Philadelphia 76ers. Soon after being carried off the court, the always unfiltered Barkley conceded that the injury was probably career-ending.

A part of him was okay with this possibility. After all, he鈥檇 already made the decision to retire. But a bigger part wasn鈥檛 okay. And so, six months later, on the final day of the 1999-2000 season, a less-than 100% recovered Sir Charles entered a game against the Vancouver Grizzlies during the second quarter and played (badly) for seven and a half minutes. And then he retired.

鈥淚 can’t explain what tonight meant,鈥� Barkley said at the post-game press conference. 鈥淚 did it for me. I鈥檝e won and lost a lot of games, but the last memory I had was being carried off the court. I couldn’t get over the mental block of being carried off the court. It was important psychologically to walk off the court on my own.鈥�

You see where I鈥檓 going here. Charles Barkley couldn鈥檛 bear the thought of leaving a sport that had given him so much on a note of defeat, and I guess I feel the same way about running. My last official race was the 2020 Way to Cool 50K, which I quit at 8 miles because I was sick. With Covid. It sure would be nice if just one more time I could feel what it鈥檚 like to be fit and fast and confident, to finish strong.

One thing that I always noticed but never could explain about running was the way in which my racing ambitions caused everything in my life to line up behind them. When I had an important event in front of me, I was happier, nicer, more productive, an all-around better, saner person. Running has been mostly taken from me, but the one part of the experience I can still claim, if I so choose, is the dreaming part.

The dream of running again now substitutes for my prior dreams of running faster, farther, and better than ever before. I freely confess that this new goal doesn鈥檛 make me quite as happy, nice, or productive as chasing PR鈥檚 once did, but that鈥檚 only because I feel like crap all day every day. The dream of crossing one last finish line does, however, make me a saner, better person than I鈥檇 be if I just gave up, and that鈥檚 what matters. I鈥檇 even go as far as to say it probably doesn鈥檛 matter if I never achieve my goal, as long as hope doesn鈥檛 die before I do.

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Whether you鈥檙e a first-year runner or a veteran competitor, whether you race 5Ks or marathons, there鈥檚 a place for 600-meter breakdowns in your training.

The workout consists of fast intervals of 600, 400, 300, and 200 meters run in descending order. These intervals are short enough to be run very quickly and thus develop the speed and sharpness you need to achieve your race goals. But those 600m intervals are long enough to also test and develop your body鈥檚 fatigue resistance at faster speeds. So, by no means is this a sprinter鈥檚 workout. Six-hundred-meter breakdowns develop speed in a way that helps you improve your 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon times 鈥� not your 100m dash time!

Like all workouts involving very fast running, 600m breakdowns require a thorough warmup. Start with some light jogging, then perform some dynamic flexibility exercises, such as giant walking lunges and standing forward-backward and side-to-side . Finally, run (100m runs at 90% sprint speed). Now you鈥檙e ready to break it down!

How fast should you run the fast intervals? Almost 鈥� but not quite 鈥� as fast as you can. Go very hard but stay relaxed and take the edge off the misery you would feel in a true all-out effort. Write your times down in your training log for comparison with future 600m breakdown sessions.

Here are two versions of the 600m breakdowns workout:

Beginner Version

Warmup: Run 10 minutes easy, dynamic flexibility, strides

Main set: Run 600m, 400m, 300m, and 200m fast with slow, 300m jogging recoveries between fast intervals

Cooldown: Run 10 minutes easy

Advanced Version

Warmup: Run 20 minutes easy, dynamic flexibility, strides

Main set: Run 2-3 x (600m, 400m, 300m, 200m fast with 300m jog recoveries)

Cooldown: Run 20 minutes easy

Even the advanced version of 600m breakdowns is not a killer workout. Because 600m breakdowns are not highly race-specific for distance runners, they are not intended to be among the toughest workouts you do. You should finish a session of 600m breakdowns feeling as much exhilarated by the speed you attained as you do tired from the effort.

Incorporating 600m Breakdowns into Your Training

When should you do 600m breakdowns? They鈥檙e pretty challenging, so you should keep them out of your training until you鈥檙e within 10 weeks of a race and actively pursuing peak race fitness. Once you introduce them into your training, you鈥檒l want to do them and/or similar workouts once every seven to ten days to develop speed and high-intensity fatigue resistance and then maintain these capacities until you race.

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国产吃瓜黑料 of high school and college, few runners experience the hard fun of competing in cross country. That鈥檚 unfortunate, because there鈥檚 nothing else like it 鈥� hills, mud and redline intensity from start to finish. And because channeling XC stars will make you a better runner all around: faster, stronger, more in tune with your body and mentally tough.

To prepare for the specific challenges that XC racing presents, cross country runners do certain types of workouts that the rest of us seldom do. Sprinkling these workouts into your routine will fill gaps in your running fitness and help you achieve your next goal, whatever it may be. Plus, they鈥檙e fun! (Yes, and hard.)

Here are four classic cross country workouts to try:

Up-and-Downs

To succeed in cross country, you need to able to not only run strong up hills but also run confidently and efficiently down them. This workout will make you a stronger climber and more confident on steep descents.

1.) Warm up with 1 to 3 miles of easy jogging.

2.) Run at 90 percent effort up a hill with a moderate slope (5-7 percent is ideal, but work with what you have) for 30 seconds.

3.) Rest for 30 seconds.

4.) Run at 90 percent effort down the same hill you just ran up. Since you鈥檒l be going a lot faster, it will take you less time (probably 15-20 seconds) to cover the same distance.

5.) Rest for 30 seconds.

6.) Repeat this sequence a total of four to eight times, depending on your fitness level.

7.) Cool down with 1 to 3 miles of jogging.

Downshift Intervals

Because of the varied terrain involved, as well as tactical considerations, cross country races are seldom evenly paced. Being well prepared for this aspect of the discipline requires that you develop the ability to recover from short bursts of hard running while still running fairly fast. This workout does just that.

1.) Warm up with 1 to 3 miles of easy jogging.

2.) Run for 30 seconds at about the highest speed you could sustain for 1 mile, then slow down to your 10K race pace, give or take, and continue for another 2.5 minutes.

3.) Rest for 1 minute.

4.) Repeat this sequence a total of four to eight times, depending on your fitness level.

5.) Cool down with 1 to 3 miles of jogging.

Stretch Intervals

In cross country, you can鈥檛 rely on numbers (split times, pace data, distance markers) to achieve the goal of getting to the finish line as quickly as possible. Instead you need to go by feel, or more specifically perceived effort, continually adjusting your pace to the changing terrain so as to ensure you finish with an empty tank but don鈥檛 empty it before you finish. Stretch intervals will make you better at reading your perceived effort level and knowing your limits.

1.) Warm up with 1 to 3 miles of easy jogging.

2.) Run fast uphill for one minute and drop a marker (a brightly colored sock works well) at your stopping point.

3.) Take two minutes to jog easily back to your starting point.

4.) Run uphill fast for one minute again, aiming to cover just slightly more distance this time than you did the first time. Drop a second marker at your stopping point.

5.) Take two minutes to jog easily back to your starting point, picking up your first marker along the way.

6.) Repeat this sequence a total of six to 10 times, depending on your fitness level. Your final repetition should be a maximum effort.

7.) Cool down with 1 to 3 miles of jogging.

The key to executing this workout properly is to avoid running the first hill repetition too fast, so there鈥檚 room to speed up by several small increments before you reach your maximum effort level. But you also mustn鈥檛 cheat by running the first rep really slow!

Critical Velocity

All runners should do a mix of easy, moderate and hard running. Most runners do their moderate running at or near lactate threshold intensity, which is the highest speed that鈥檚 sustainable for roughly one hour. But many cross country runners also mix in some work at critical velocity, which is the highest speed that鈥檚 sustainable for 30 minutes and is closer to XC race pace for most. Adding the following workout to your routine will fill one more gap in your fitness.

1.) Warm up with 1 to 3 miles of easy jogging.

2.) Run for 3 minutes at critical velocity on flat or relatively flat terrain.

3.) Jog for 3 minutes.

4.) Repeat this sequence a total of five to 10 times, depending on your fitness level.

5.) Cool down with 1 to 3 miles of jogging.

Note that critical velocity falls between 5K and 10K race pace for most runners. If your 5K time is 29 minutes, for example, your CV pace will be just slightly slower. If your 5K time is 19 minutes, your CV pace will be closer to your 10K pace.

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Ever heard the expression “Smelling the barn?” When a horse returns to within sniffing range of the stable after a long ride, the horse spontaneously increases its pace to get the darn thing over with. Many human runners do something similar. When I took up running at age 12, I completed the same six-mile route every other day, and I always instinctively ran the last part faster, to get the darn thing over with.

Though intuitive, picking up the pace in the last part of a run is not something that runners should do in every workout. That鈥檚 because there isn鈥檛 anything that runners should do in every workout. Training must be varied from day to day to develop well-rounded fitness. But there is a place in any structured training regimen for progression workouts, which is what coaches call .

There are three distinct types of progression runs that I like to incorporate into the training plans I design. Their benefits overlap to some degree, but the benefits of each are unique to that specific format. Let鈥檚 take a look.

Fast-Finish Run

A fast-finish progression run is a run in which the faster second part of the run is relatively short 鈥� typically between one and three miles. Fast-finish runs may be either moderately challenging or very challenging. The factors that influence the challenge level of a fast-finish run are the duration of the slower first segment (the longer it is, the more fatigued you will be when you start the faster second part and the more challenging the overall run will be), the duration of the faster second segment and the pace of the second segment.

Easier fast-finish runs are a great way to give yourself a moderate training stimulus at times when your body is ready for more than an easy run but you don鈥檛 want to leave yourself too tired to perform well in your next scheduled hard run. An example of an easier fast-finish run is five miles at a comfortable pace followed by one mile at 10K pace.

Harder fast-finish runs are great workouts for half-marathon and marathon training, because they challenge you to run fast when you鈥檙e already tired. An example of a tough marathon-specific fast-finish run is 13 miles at a comfortable pace followed by three miles at half-marathon pace.

Threshold Progression

A traditional threshold run consists of a short warmup followed by a few miles of running at 鈥渓actate threshold pace鈥� (or the fastest pace you could sustain for one hour in race circumstances) and concluding with a short cool-down. In a threshold progression, the warmup is greatly extended and the cool-down is removed. The purpose of these changes is to create a workout that challenges you to sustain your threshold speed when you鈥檙e already tired. This makes it a great workout to use in half-marathon and marathon training. An example of a threshold progression run is five miles at a comfortable pace followed by four miles at threshold pace.

At this point, I’ll pause and answer a question that you may have asked yourself when reading the preceding paragraph, if not earlier: 鈥淚sn鈥檛 it bad to finish a workout without cooling down?鈥� Actually, no. The notion that concluding workouts with a short period of low-intensity activity promotes faster recovery is mythical. Research has shown that cooling down has no effect on recovery, so it鈥檚 okay to skip it in certain workouts. (Warming up before high-intensity exercise does, , however, accelerate post-workout recovery.)

Marathon-Pace Progression

In marathon-pace progression runs, the faster second segment is typically longer and slower than it is in fast-finish runs and threshold progression runs. Marathon-pace progression runs are an effective means to increase the challenge level and race-specificity of long endurance runs. Many runners make the mistake of doing all of their Saturday or Sunday long runs at a moderate pace, but once you have used these runs to develop sufficient raw endurance, they don鈥檛 provide any further benefit unless you pick up the pace.

You don鈥檛 have to be training for a marathon to benefit from marathon-pace progression runs. They provide excellent aerobic support for any race distance, although you will want to use them differently depending on your specific race distance. If you鈥檙e training for a 5K or 10K, marathon-pace progression runs should be emphasized relatively early in the training process and then phased out in favor of long runs that include even faster running. If you鈥檙e training for a half-marathon or marathon, they should be emphasized later in the training process, and they should be longer. A good peak-level marathon-pace progression run, appropriate for three to four weeks before a marathon, is two miles at a moderate pace followed by 14 miles at marathon pace.

I could write an entirely separate article about how to incorporate the various progression run formats into different types of training programs. As a broad guideline, I recommend that all runners include at least one progression run per week in their training at all times. Always choose the specific format that fits best with your immediate training objectives.

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You鈥檙e running along one day and your left heel becomes sore. It鈥檚 not too bad, so you complete the run. When you run again, the pain returns, and it鈥檚 a little worse this time. It鈥檚 still tolerable, though, so you complete this run as well. But in your next run the heel pain is even worse, so you decide to bail out and take a few days off.

Are you injured? Maybe, maybe not. For decades, doctors and scientists equated pain with injury. The idea was that the sort of 鈥減ain experience鈥� I just described was always caused by damage to the tissues in the painful area, and that such damage constituted an injury by definition. But the latest science suggests that the story is far more complicated. Pain and injury are only loosely coupled, in fact, and it is not at all uncommon for runners and others to have significant tissue damage in a particular area yet feel no pain and to feel pain in an area that lacks significant underlying tissue damage.

by researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, comprehensive testing was performed on 80 patients diagnosed with (PFPS), among the most common injuries in runners. Twenty-nine of these runners were found to have perfectly healthy knees as judged by standard imaging tests and another 29 had no measurable damage but above-normal levels of 鈥渕etabolic activity.鈥� Even among the minority of patients who did have observable degrees of tissue disruption, there was no consistent pattern to the damage.

That鈥檚 one example of pain existing largely in the absence of injury. There are also many examples of injury existing without pain. appearing in Physical Therapy in Sport reported the results of ultrasound imaging of the Achilles tendons of high-mileage runners who had no history of pain in that specific area. Nearly half of these asymptomatic individuals were found to have significant pathology in at least one tendon. If one of these runners had developed Achilles pain and gone to their orthopedist and undergone an ultrasound, it is very likely that the pathology revealed by this test would be fingered as the cause of the runner鈥檚 pain. And the doctor who did so might have been dead wrong.

Redefining Pain

Based on the latest science, the International Association for the Study of Pain revised its official definition of pain last year to the following: 鈥淎n unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage.鈥� In other words, pain is a certain kind of feeling. When damage to the body is felt, it is felt as pain. But the same feeling can occur at other times, such as when an injury has fully healed but we still fear using the affected part of the body.

So, what does this mean for you as a runner? It means that, except in cases of acute, traumatic, or obvious injury, such as stepping in a pothole and feeling something explode in your knee, which subsequently swells up to the size of a softball, you should treat pain as pain and make no assumptions about whether you have an injury and, if so, what it鈥檚 called. The idea that getting a diagnosis is a crucial first step toward recovering from a running 鈥渋njury鈥� is so ingrained that it may seem almost heretical to suggest that, in most cases, it has no practical benefit for treatment, and in many cases it does more harm than good, specifically by causing runners to feel fragile and physician-dependent. But researchers are increasingly warning clinicians against what has been described in as 鈥渢oo much medicine鈥� in physical therapy practice, 鈥渁n umbrella term that includes overdiagnosis, misdiagnosis, false positives, diagnostic overmedicalization, and overdetection.鈥�

I myself am a past victim of too much medicine. Many years ago I went to see an orthopedist about a nagging pain in my right knee. No amount of rest seemed to help it, so my doctor recommended arthroscopic surgery. When he opened me up, he found that the knee鈥檚 cartilage had deteriorated 鈥� a condition known as chondromalacia. So he filed the cartilage down all nice and smooth, sewed me back up, and told me that my problem was fixed and I鈥檇 be running pain-free within a week or so.

He was wrong. When I started running again, the pain returned. Chondromalacia was not the source of the pain, and smoothing out my knee cartilage fixed nothing. Eventually, I overcame the pain on my own by patiently yet persistently using the knee through a mixture running, bicycling, and strength training, doing as much as I could without making the pain worse, and making progress in a halting, two steps forward, one step back manner until the pain was gone and my training once again unlimited.

Self-Managing Pain: You are In Control

The formula for working through athletic pain that I developed heuristically for myself 15 years ago is now on its way toward becoming standard practice among forward-thinking therapists and trainers. Folks like Greg Lehman, a Canadian physiotherapist and author of the free e-book , and Ryan Whited, a Flagstaff-based personal trainer with whom I am currently coauthoring a book on self-managing athletic pain, are steering athletes away from 鈥渕edicine鈥� and empowering them to regard pain as a normal part of the training process that most athletes can work through on their own (or with the help of a trainer or coach) most of the time.

The exceptions are cases where you experience one of the following 鈥渞ed flag鈥� symptoms or signs: numbness or weakness, significant bruising or swelling, incontinence, confusion, seizure, loss of consciousness, or a gut feeling that something鈥檚 wrong. In all other cases, you should feel confident that the athletic pain you鈥檙e experiencing is not injurious in nature and it鈥檚 okay to work through it in a sensible, mindful way. In practical terms, this entails resting only when 鈥� and no longer than 鈥� necessary; continuing to run, though no more and no faster than you can without exceeding a tolerable level or discomfort; and doing strength exercises that involve the affected part of the body, beginning with simple isometric movements (think balancing on your toes in the case of Achilles tendon or calf pain) and progressing gradually to ballistic movements (think jump roping).

The message here is not that it鈥檚 鈥渁ll on you鈥� to solve the pain issues you experience as a runner. By all means, get help when you need to from qualified trainers, coaches, physical therapists, and 鈥� as a last resort 鈥� physicians. Just try to seek out professionals who are up to speed on the latest pain science and don鈥檛 let anyone take away your control of the process. You are the boss of your pain.

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