Here is how a typical running training superset might be structured:
Run 200m at very near to maximum speed for that distance. Follow that with 400m as fast as can be managed for that distance and finally run 1k at your fastest, maintainable pace for that distance. This of course might look like the beginnings of a pyramid session, but the crucial difference with the superset is that there is no recovery between the reps. Hence the whole 200m, 400m, 1000m becomes one rep. After this combined rep, a good recovery is taken: perhaps 4 minutes of very light jogging/walking before the next rep is started. A total of 3 such reps would make for a very worthwhile session (3 miles total of hard running). These sessions sound quite daunting and are hard work. Surprisingly though they can be a great session to do if you are feeling a little lethargic; those 200s really wake the body up.

In summary then, our sample superset session looks like this:

• 200m then straight into 400m then straight into 1000m
• 4 min recovery
• x 3

Why are these sessions so effective?
The initial high intensity bursts of 200m and 400m produce significant amounts of lactate. Continuing to run — albeit at a necessarily reduced pace — prompts the muscles to utilise and clear the lactate and acid. The training effect is that your tolerance for faster running will increase.
There are also psychological benefits to be had too. Initially, at the start of the final element (in this example the 1000m), running is going to seem incredibly hard, but as the aerobic system catches up with the energy demands the pace will feel much more manageable. Your pace for the final 1000m section is likely to be around your 10k pace. In short, your 10k race pace will seem to be much more relaxed.

You don’t need to stick to these distances for effective supersetting, and you don’t need to limit yourself to 3 components of the combined rep. For instance, you could reduce the 1000m element to 800m and then run straight into a 1600m section so that you run: 200m, 400m, 800m, 1600m.

This type of session is very flexible and can even be done away from the track. It can also be based on time, e.g. a superset of 40 secs, 90 secs, 4mins would be a great alternative combination.

Play around with them and if you use the track keep a record of your times because a little analysis will tell you a lot about your training progression. Do keep in mind that those fast bursts should be run pretty much as fast as you can run; it’s easy and tempting to save a bit for the final element.

…..but I appreciate it more than ever!! I was incredibly frustrated a week or so ago when we had a dumping of snow that made just leaving the house a dangerous ‘sport’! I did have a bad fall which resulted in an impressive lump on the back of my head and very painful ribs. Thankfully, I fell backwards!!! It unnerved me, however, and curtailed all activity for a few days. Turning over in bed was as strenuous as it got, but please don’t underestimate the effort that goes into that!

Anyway – back to running! I still get the occasional problem with pain in my lower legs – especially running downhill, but I think my legs have adapted to the weight increase. I rarely get breathless – too slow probably, and the biggest hindrance by far is now my pelvic floor. It’s holding up so far, but I need to factor pit stops into my route planning.

I have to admit – I’m really missing hard training and racing, and I find it increasingly hard to watch races from the sidelines, but I am very thankful that I have been able to run throughout my pregnancy. Not long now….

Running doesn’t really follow these trends. Like most sports, it’s an ‘honest’ activity. You get out what you put in. Yes, some athletes are blessed with natural talent that can put fame and fortune at their feet, but they still have to work extremely hard to even get a chance. For the rest of us, we too can achieve remarkable feats and enjoy huge rewards by running to our own potential — whatever that may be.

The half marathon is an interesting distance. It’s a distance at which if you’ve not put in the work you’ll probably come unstuck. This is not really true for the more common 10k; most people who run could amble round for 6 miles without too much drama, but beyond 10 miles things can get a bit ugly for the ill-prepared.

That’s probably why the personal satisfaction is so high on completing a half marathon for the first time — it’s the reward for all that training; not everyone can do it! So it takes a bit or preparation to complete a half marathon and especially to complete it in a way that matches or exceeds our own expectations.

Anyone who runs knows that feeling of the runner’s lethargy: we know we should get out there and run if we are to develop, but sometimes, the chair is too comfy, the fire too warm, or the toast smells too good to get out there in the cold, dark or wet. We consciously know that if we ran, we’d feel better than if we didn’t. We consciously know that a good performance demands dedicated training, but, for some reason we skip the run — and usually feel awful for doing so. That decision not to run isn’t often made by our conscious mind, that’s why it’s hard to talk ourselves out of it. It doesn’t matter that we know that it’s often those skipped runs that make the all important difference as we approach those last 3 miles of a half marathon, the decision has already been made.

What if there was a way to bypass that process? So that the question or uncertainty didn’t even arise: it’s a training day, so I’m training. Hot, cold, raining, windy, dark — so what, I’m training.

This is the specific aspect of mental training that has been addressed by Uncommon Knowledge in their hypnosis download for half marathon training. Like a live one-to-one hypnotherapy session, it’s not necessary to analyse and deconstruct the script, because, after all, the work is done in the unconscious. But, rest assured, this is a thoroughly professional, well-researched and well-presented audio from experts in the field to help you keep your half marathon training on track. It even has benefit for those not training specifically for a half marathon; those who don’t want to come off the tracks of a focussed, determined training regime that leads to that great feeling you get when you cross the line of a race having given your all — not just during the race, but during those all-important weeks of training.

I’ve listened to it, both for review purposes and also for my own benefit, if you’d like to develop another dimension to your training or are just curious about what it could do for you then it’s well worth it. Don’t forget, as with most mind training, repetition produces the greatest results — just like physical training.

Check it out here: hypnosis download for half marathon training.

Distance Barefoot: 6km (treadmill)

 After a week skiing (not a very barefoot friendly activity), I was back on it this week.  The relative rest gave my calf strain time to recover and now feels absolutely fine, but the cold weather seemed to follow me home and it’s been a bit cold and snowy this week.  So far I’ve managed a couple of barefoot runs on the treadmill.  I find that treadmills seem to blister my soles even more than asphalt – think it’s the heat of the belt, so I kept them fairly short and extended one a little bit by putting my VFFs on for 10 mins or so.   I tried to stop just before blisters actually develop, and think that I’ve managed to hit that sweet spot – feet felt a little tingly but seemed fine the next day..  Hopefully this will help my soles cope with tarmac when it’s more reasonable out there.

 Other than a fairly unimpressive weekly distance, I’ve put my money where my mouth is and entered Windsor half marathon.  It’s not ‘til October, so I should have loads of time.  The course is 100% tarmac, and being in Windsor Great Park should mean there is little by way of debris to worry about – if i can get through the training on the streets of London it should be a walk in the park..

My last post and back to the Bristol Half Marathon.  Come 2011 I ran it in my Evo II minimalist shoes.  I ran a minute slower than 2010 but came 100 places higher up the field – so a great result.

However, my calves were incredibly stiff for the three days following the race.  This is the one area where I find barefoot or minimalist running has a detrimental affect on my body – road running.  I don’t think it is the hard surfaces but the monotony of action on the body – there is very little change in terrain, pace, camber or motion and my calves seem to take a bashing. 

A lot of it is probably my lack of training on these surfaces, but this is not where I enjoy running most.  For me it is the woods, fields and hills of Somerset where I find barefooted joy.

By May the Inov-8 off-road shoes I had run the 2010 Half Marathon in had well and truly worn out.  My birthday was coming up in June and I was very excited as Inov-8 had made the move into truly minimal shoes.  So a month later I received a pair of Bare-Grip 200s – an off-road shoe with no midsole, no cushioning and no height differential between heel and toe.  

Again, a great pair of shoes.  There is no option but to run with your forefoot as you really don’t want to slam your heel down on a rock or root in these.  But they are fantastically grippy and responsive – the only problem is the lightweight mesh upper seems to be taking a bashing from not that much running, and tearing.

Using these shoes marked my transition to minimal running full-time on road or cross-country, something that I have stuck with ever since.  Any padding has now long gone. 

It has been a slower transition to true barefoot running, as I find it is so dependent on temperature and weather – rain means picking up sharp grit, and cold means numbness which reduces feedback and increases chance of injury. 

Throughout the summer I tried to get in one truly barefoot run each week, whether in town or cross-country, but that only lasted up until autumn.  This year’s project will be to increase my barefoot mileage and that may mean developing new tactics.

In February I went to Sri Lanka and while I was there I did a couple of runs – one on a beach and one round a town, in and out of the Evo IIs.  But after each I was hobbling.  And the hobbling continued for a good couple of days afterwards.  I had burning on the insides of my Achilles Tendons but didn’t know why.

When I came back I bought a small ultrasound device, after I saw a friend using one after skiing.  And I also went to see my osteopath to try and understand what had happened. 

Initially I put it down to a three-hour, relatively gentle, hill walk in Wellington Boots.  The ground was soft and so my heels may have descended below the rest of the foot, but I’m not sure this was the root cause of the problem, though it may have been a contributing factor.  In the end I had to accept that somehow I had overused or abused these tendons through the extra strain put on them by barefoot running.  I thought I had been so careful on my journey to barefoot running.

Reassured by my osteopath that my legs weren’t going to fall off, I cut back my running to very short distances – initially a mile – and increased only as far as I could run without pain during or after the event.  Over a couple of months I got the distance back, but still can get some pain or stiffness in the right one, especially after road running.  I don’t know if I can do anything to make this better, but at least I am aware of it and can keep an eye on it.

You can’t be too careful.

It’s been six months since my last post now but I’m still an aspiring barefoot runner, if not blogger.  Perhaps that should be a committed minimalist runner, which, for me, seems more practical in the UK.  To get up to speed and with the benefit of hindsight I’m going to reflect on the year between the Bristol Half Marathons of autumn 2010 and 2011 in four short posts.

In 2010 I ran my best time ever in a pair of low support, very Inov-8 flexible off-road shoes.  They still had some cushioning and a raised heel but were lightweight and free compared to the motion-control stacks I used to run road races in.

After that I made the decision to buy some truly minimalist road shoes and invested in a  pair of Vivo Barefoot’s Evo IIs.  These have been fantastic – very light weight, very flexible, and eminently wearable  – in fact I wore them as general shoes all throughout the summer.

I was about to write my first post on these wonderful shoes when I got my first barefoot related injury, which I mentioned at the time in an earlier post, but looking back I was very resistant to accepting it was a training/running injury at the time.

I’m 34 weeks pregnant now and can’t run for more than a mile without I need the loo! Sometimes I really do need to go, but often it’s a ‘false alarm’ and just an unpleasant sensation. It’s actually the biggest hindrance to my running these days I think. I don’t run fast enough to get out of breath, my legs get a bit uncomfortable as I mentioned in my previous post, but they do seem to have adapted to the increase in weight, and my bump is neat enough not to have affected my balance or gait (or so it seems).  

Total distance: 15km

Barefoot distance: 800m

Outlook: positive, although developed a bit of a pain in right calf.

It was cold last week.  Went out early on Sunday morning after a freezing night, it was beautifully clear and the common was covered in frost.  The ground was frozen and the patches of mud that are usually slippery in smooth soled minimalist shoes were hard and crunchy underfoot.  Took my shoes off for a bit and ran on the horseride, and a bit of rough tarmac.  The cold ground numbed my feet pretty quickly and meant I couldn’t feel the ground properly – despite the numbness, everything felt rougher than I’d expected and actually quite painful.  A few other runners and dog walkers looked at me as if I was crazy, and began to think they might have a point.  I couldn’t tell if I was trashing my feet or of it was just cold.  After about 800m I put my shoes back on and my feet warmed up quite quickly.  When I got home, I checked my feet and they seemed fine, so think it was just the cold.   

It warmed up later in the week, and after recovering from a stomach bug, I went for a trot at lunchtime with some friends from work.  Running with colleagues meant I wasn’t inclined to take my shoes off, partly because it was raining and although not too cold I worried about my soles getting wet and blistering, but being honest it was really not to look weird in front of people I work with.   I reckon that as I get more confident barefoot I’ll be less shy about it, at the moment it would just look odd to take my shoes off just so I could run slower for 800m, and then put my shoes back on. Running and chatting meant I wasn’t so focussed on my form, and probably sped up a bit as a result, either way I was relaxed and enjoyed the run (apart from what I fear is a slight strain in my right calf, which came on towards the end – perhaps because I was going a bit faster and not focussed on my form).  

I’d be interested to hear from more experienced barefooters what limits you find – how cold, how wet, does it have to be for you to keep your shoes on (or not go out)?  Does this change as you get more experience/confidence?  And what tips do you have for keeping feet warm?