Conditioning Basics:

A good analogy for your training is a bank account in which each time you run you make a deposit into that account and each time you don't run you withdraw a little from that account. During a season, it is fine to make a few withdraws once in a while. However, it would be very detrimental to your performance if you were to make a large withdraw at one time (i.e. not running for a month).

Over the course of the your conditioning, the majority of runs should be done at an easy pace. Some will say that you need to run fast on your easy runs, but I find that a slow, easy pace will benefit you the most. Think of your Pre-Season Conditioning phase in the light of the theory of Mercantilism where you only have a limited amount of energy or stamina that is available during the season. This is similar to the analogy of a bank account except it is a little different in the sense that you can only make withdraws.

Your job as a runner is to maximize the amount of physiological benefits that you can get from the limited amount of stamina available in the season. Likewise, if you always run too hard on your easy run days, then you will be using a large portion of that finite amount of stamina while not allowing your body to rest (since “easy” days make up most of your weekly mileage) and recover that energy. However, if you were to go at a easy, aerobic pace on the majority of your runs, you will make the most gains during the rest of the season.

I hope that these analogies for training will benefit you in your own running and they have for me. Moreover, please let me know if you have any different ideas on conditioning that would be beneficial to this blog.