Volume Training

Yeah, you read that correctly. It's time to talk about everyone's least favorite run, the long run. It doesn't necessarily have to only be running, volume training also applies to "cycling, running, cross-country skiing, or a similarly aerobically demanding sport:"(Magness Pg. 130). High volume workouts are very slow paced and are time consuming which in most cases is boring. "Given the changes that occur with high intensity versus lower intensity and longer duration training, it is not surprising that high intensity training shows greater benefits over only a the standard 6 week time frame of most training studies. (Magness Pg. 130). Now, don't get me wrong. I hate long runs just as much as the next guy, but Steve brings up a study that was conducted in 2002 that supported the statement that supported athletes doing more volume training. "so that the continuous group now did 12 weeks of interval training. It was found that the group that did continuous and then interval training improved significantly more in terms of exhaustion (15% to 5.3%) and VO2max (7.4% to 3.6%) than the group that did interval then continuous training. While this shouldn't be a surprise to any coaches, the finding supports the idea that a base of moderate work needs to established before intense training is done in order to achieve maximum benefits. (Magness Pg. 131) My advice to you is start going on easy runs with friends and enjoy the weather before pushing yourself to your limits!

Me and some buds at the Christmas eve cookie run. We ran 9.3 miles!