I live down the street from one of the many crossfit studios that are springing up like autumn mushrooms here in Seattle. I’m not a fan of crossfit. In this regard, I agree with Steve Magness’s strong criticism of the crossfit movement. Nevertheless, I do have profound respect for Kelly Starrett, a doctor of physical therapy and self-professed avid runner, who is at the core of the crossfit movement. This review is about two of his books: Becoming a Supple Leopard and Ready to Run, which I think belong on every endurance athlete’s bookshelf.
General Training Ideas
Creating and Using a “Week in Review” Entry in Your Training Diary
For about the last six months, I’ve been trying to keep an eye on my training a little more closely. One trick I’ve found invaluable is to create a weekly narrative of my training that’s part of– but also separate from– the rest of my training data. Here’s how I’ve been doing it. Continue reading
A Better Way to Run MaxVO2 Intervals
I’m about to tell you about one of my absolute favorite workouts because it is so darn effective at making people fast at running. It’s a variation on a running workout that came out of some research about 14 years ago and it’s amazing. Continue reading
The Importance of Lactate Threshold
I just wanted to write a short post clarifying my position on lactate threshold and some exciting new product information to help optimize your training. Continue reading
Revisiting Polarized Training
Every now and then, some new information comes along that just blows away everything that I was taught about training. Even more rare is the when older research gets updated and repackaged in a way that surprises me in startling new ways. Both happened to me last when I dug deeper into the research around something called “polarized training.” It may fundamentally change the way that I train– and you may want to try it as well. Continue reading
New Training Strategies Coming
This message is a quick head’s up about some changes that will be happening over the next few days here at The Athletic Time Machine. Continue reading
Purposeful Carbohydrate Depletion
Yesterday, a post came across the Running Writings site that piqued my interest. It was about the weekly long run— a ritual of marathon runners— and it suggested that we all do them wrong. This post is a quick synopsis of why and what to do about it.
Lactate Clearance Intervals, MCT-1, Arrhythmias, and Why You Need Speed
A few weeks ago, I did some very short, high-intensity sprints in the middle of a zone two bike ride. The sprints left me feeling exhausted far more than they should have, so I thought it was probably a good idea to do two things: get some more low-intensity aerobic training in and to simultaneously work on some really high intensity interval work. This post explains why this might not be a bad idea after a couple of weeks of hard racing.
How I Travel
This week has seen me doing a fair amount of travel for a client. I travel a fair amount for work and have racked up my share of airline miles, but I don’t travel nearly as much as others. With my whole family on the east coast and a race schedule that has me on a jet at least annually, there are a few tips to travel that I thought I would pass along– and hopefully get some thoughts flowing.
Review: Heart Monitor Training for the Compleat Idiot
This is a quick review of John Parker’s book, Heart Monitor Training for the Compleat Idiot (3d ed. 2009). If the name John Parker sounds familiar to you, it should. He wrote what is perhaps the best novel book on running, Once a Runner. Turns out that Mr. Parker is a pretty good coach too. Here are the key takeaways from my quick read of this great book. Continue reading
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