Episode 28: Every Run Type Explained: What Each One Does and How to Slot It into a Hybrid Week

Most lifters who start running run the same pace every single time. 

One effort, every run, forever. 

Too hard to recover from, too easy to actually get faster. 

In this episode I break down every run type that matters, what each one is for, when to use it, and exactly how to fit it around your lifting so neither one ruins the other. Easy runs, long runs, tempo, intervals, strides. What they do, how hard, how often, and how to build it all into a hybrid week without burying yourself in fatigue.

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Lift Heavy, Run Fast Podcast Intro

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

What's going on, everyone? Welcome back to another episode of the Lift Heavy Run Fast Podcast. I'm your host, hybrid coach Mike, and today we are going through every different run type of run, uh, every run type explained, and what each one does, and how you can slot it into your hybrid training week if you're someone that wants to lift heavy and run fast at the same time. So I'm going to talk you through how I use them, uh, each of the different runs, both for myself and my clients, how I recommend people program with them, um, because there are some considerations that you want to take into account depending on the run type that you're using. And then in addition to that, you know, do you need to do all of these runs and you know what you one might want to sacrifice if you can't run, you know, three or four days a week or whatever? Okay, so we'll kind of touch on all of that. Before I do that though, quickly, uh, I am about 19 days out from Project 300 sub-90. Uh, for those that don't know, it is a challenge that I have set for myself where I'm going to try and deadlift. I just realized I don't have one of my lights on. It is a challenge I have set for myself where I'm trying to deadlift 300 kilos and run a sub-90 half marathon back to back. No one in the world has done it. I've got the track booked that it's going to be taking place at. The lift will be happening at the track, the uh run will be then happening immediately afterwards. I've got a few people coming down. Um, it's gonna be really exciting. Will I do it? I don't know, we'll see on the day. I don't want to get cocky or anything or sell myself short, but overall, I would say confidence-wise, oddly enough, I'm not feeling that great. I just thought it would be a little bit easier right now, which is probably a stupid thing to be thinking. I thought training would be a little bit easier, I thought lifting would feel a little bit easier, I thought everything would be coming together a little bit nicer than what it has. I've been carrying quite a bit of fatigue, deadlifts felt quite slow and heavy last week. My runs have felt quite slow and heavy over the past week. Again, I am peaking two things at once, so I'm not sure what else I expected, but I thought everything would be going a lot smoother for me physically. Mentally, I'm fine, like there's no problem. It's just physically my body feels like it's been taking a beating. And unfortunately, given what I'm trying to do, I do have to push both things. I don't have the option to pull back on one or the other uh right now when we're three weeks out. So, anyway, that's besides the point. The main thing is is that uh yeah, I'm tired. Anyway, so I'll talk you through some of the runs that I program and you know, some of the common runs that you would hear or have probably heard about, okay, amongst uh the running world. I'm gonna relate these in relation, I'm gonna make these in relation to hybrid training. Um, if you are just a runner, as I've mentioned before, these probably the things that I'm saying may still apply to you, but they're probably not gonna be as relevant to you because you're not also trying to back up your training sessions with heavy lifting as well. Okay, so this is for people that are trying to lift heavy, run fast, look good, all that kind of stuff at the same time. Not people that are just looking to exclusively get as fast as possible. Just a consideration. Anyway, one of the things you'll find with lifters that run is that they tend to just stay in the gray zone for a long period of time. So a lot of lifters, when they start running, they just run. And if you are new to lifting, if you've listened to any of my previous podcasts, I'm always I do say that. Like you should just go out and run hard and just run whatever you want. Who gives a shit? Don't overcomplicate it. But over time, you're gonna need to start looking into the nuances of these things, and you'll realize running hard all the time makes you really tired. And you'll also realize that running too slow all the time makes you really slow. So you've got to figure out when do you want to use each run, how do you want to use it, and what are you trying to achieve by doing so. Okay. Let's start with one of the principles that I follow first, and one of the principles that I reckon most hybrids follow. Uh, again, I've I've done a whole podcast episode on this, but it's called the high low model. So essentially you want to have one hard run, and that run could be a long run in terms of hard in terms of length, hard in terms of pace, whatever you do. So one long uh one hard run, follow it up with an easier run, normally with an easy run afterwards. So you're not gonna go have a long run and then have another long run afterwards, you're usually gonna have a long run, then an easy run afterwards. And that would be the same if as a hybrid with your weight training sessions, you're not gonna have a hard run and then usually a hard lower body session the day after. Upper body you can get away with a little bit more, it doesn't matter as much. Uh, I wouldn't max out though the day after a hard run. Um, but you can still train hard in your upper body the day after you do a hard run because normally the upper body might be a little bit fatigued, but if you've got to do some reps, maybe you've got to do like a little bit more hypertrophy-based work as opposed to maximal strength-based work, you normally can back it up quite fine and still get good uh stimulus for adaptation. But if you were trying to do a hard run and then, you know, squat a 1 RM the next day, probably not a good idea. If you were gonna do a long run on a Sunday and try to go for a 5k PB time trial the next day, also not a good idea. What we want to do is have a couple days in between where we're either running easier or you know having a rest day somewhere there too. Okay, so high low model, hard session, easy session, hard session, easy session. You can expand the high low model as well. You can do the high, low, medium model, high, low, medium model. Okay, so you can do something like that where you kind of have a session that's in between somewhere. I would say for the most part, to be honest, my training is probably a little bit more like that, where I have a high, low, medium kind of situation going on. Um, and it might not always be as clear-cut for everyone depending on how many days you train, what your training goal is, and all that kind of stuff, okay. Just uh it's just a that just use that as like a template for something that you may want to follow. It is not the only way this type of training works, okay? People are gonna say, you know, have their own different ways of doing things. And if you are a runner or someone that is training for a particular sport, there's probably different ways of doing things. But doing something like that will apply to most sports, to be honest, as well as uh to both lifting and running in the context of hybrid training. Anyway, now let's move on to the main ones easy runs and zone two runs, easy runs in particular, are more of the engine builder. So they're gonna build your aerobic base, improve capillary density. Your capillaries are the things that transport nutrients through your blood. Um, they're the blood vessels, the smallest ones. Um, you get improved fat oxidation, so the improved ability of your body to utilize fat for oxygen and also to utilize fat for energy and the improved ability for your body to utilize um the oxygen that it's taking on uh for energy and the creation of ATP via increase of mitochondrial density as well as in some cases increase of mitochondrial size. For those that don't know what a mitochondria is, you weren't paying attention in union biology, and the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the soul. What does that mean? Honestly, who gives a fuck? It doesn't even matter. Um anyway, so uh your zone two runs will generally be like your conversational pace kind of stuff. Usually it's gonna be the bulk of a lot of people's trainings for those that are doing quite a lot of training uh in terms of running and lifting, a lot of zone two work can benefit you. However, uh, if you were someone that doesn't actually run that much, you don't need to do a lot of zone two. And I think I've spoken about this before in previous podcasts. I think zone two, particularly in the context of high context of hybrids, who aren't really doing more than like 40 to 50ks a week anyway, which is still like a very substantial amount, don't get me wrong. But if you're not doing that much running and you're not on your legs for like, you know, six plus hours, seven plus hours, you know, 14 hours a week, whatever it is, you can get away with doing more harder training because you're not using your legs that much, to be honest, in the context of you know, uh running endurance or this kind of sport. With the muscles that are used, in you know what, I won't unpack that. I was gonna unpack something there. I'm gonna leave you all hanging a little bit because it'll be something I talk about in another episode, and I don't want to unpack it because it's gonna go off on too big of a tangent. So sorry. But anyway, the point is zone two gets overused for a lot of people, okay? Particularly hybrids. You can do a lot more hard running than you know the 80-20 rule kind of permits. Nonetheless, it is a lot easier to recover from, like zone two or easy runs are a lot to recover from. I say zone two because I have it written down here, but easy runs don't necessarily need to be in zone two, by the way. Uh, your easy runs might be in zone three or zone four if you're unfit, and that's fine. Just base it off whatever is easy in quotation marks for you, whatever feels easy for you, regardless of what your heart rate is doing. I think just basing it off feel is more important in the context of hybrid training. For most uh runners only, people who run, you'll be quite fit. So staying in zone two makes sense for you because your heart rate can stay low enough for you to run at an easy pace. But for a lot of us bigger guys, especially, it's going to be too hard to stay within a certain uh heart rate zone. Anyway, the next one would be, and the key thing is with your easy runs is that they feel easy, okay? And and before, when I mentioned the high low model, okay, the low right now would be an easy run. That would be a considered a low session, okay? Something that is low in fatigue um cost. Uh you can still gain benefit and build volume by doing that. Uh, it can still drive adaptations, um, but it's not gonna cause a whole lot of fatigue and it shouldn't really leave you too wrecked afterwards. You should finish the session maybe with some fatigue, but you should be able to back it up again the next day and train. Okay. Then we're looking at long runs. These are so the long runs, there is no actual uh the long run will be relative to you, by the way. So whatever is long for you based off your weekly mileage and what you're used to. Um, for me right now, my long runs are anywhere between I want to say long run for me now is 17, uh 18 kilometers up to 26 Ks at the moment. Um, I can do all of those distances quite comfortably depending on what pace I need to run. But I do find with the longer the distance gets, the more fueling uh that is needed. I can get away with you know being kind of shit with my fueling the shorter distance long runs, like an 18k run. If I'm going fairly chill and not punching it hard the whole time, I could do that with one gel, which is just 35 grams of carbs for me, which is against everything that I prescribe my clients, but I know my body, uh, as long as I fuel well beforehand and all that kind of stuff, um, I can get away with a lot less fuel on some of these runs if I want to, but I don't most of the time because the goal is to try to push them a bit if I can. But anyway, I'll explain that. So long runs, there's different ways to do them. Okay, there's so many different ways to do them. I'm just gonna list off a few. One of them is doing like just one distance and having a steady pace the whole way. So one long, easy run is what I prescribe a lot of my clients, you know, 18Ks this weekend, just run at whatever pace feels easy and just do that. Then there's versions of it that might include a block, which is like, you know, 5k is easy, 10k is hard, 5k is easy again. So you've got that block in the middle. Then there's some instances where I've done uh I don't know the technical name for a lot of these. I don't know if this would be a fartlek or what, where maybe you're going fast for 1k, slow for 1k, fast for 1k, slow for 1k. And you could repeat that for up to 20 something kilometers or more, depending on how long you're running for. And then another one could be a common one that I do is I'll do like a progressive long run where I start slow and I get faster and faster towards the finish. Bunch of different ways to do it. The main thing that the long run does again is building up your aerobic capacity, it's the longest run of the week, metabolites, all that kind of stuff, uh accumulate a lot more when you're doing longer runs because you're on your feet for a longer period of time, which in some cases can cause more adaptations. Um, you know, you can get better mental durability, which I think is the uh the biggest one, um, as well as sometimes you can improve tissue tolerance. Okay, so your muscles and stuff over time, the longer you do those long, or the more often you do those kind of big runs, uh, you do not need, I'm not saying this is the way to do them, but you in the beginning you might find your ankles and calves feel fucked. But you do those long runs every week, eventually those calves and whatever else doesn't hurt as much anymore. So they're very good at developing tissue tolerance, as is your entire weekly volume. Okay, so don't just think I'm only talking about the long run here, but uh they can be really good at just developing, you know, that strength and all that kind of stuff uh in your legs, the endurance in your legs. Okay, I won't harp on too much. Then we got tempo and threshold runs. These runs are pretty hard, okay? They're not your hardest, but they are pretty hard. Um, these runs are at a normally at a pace that you could hold. It depends. Again, there's different ways to do these. A thresh a tempo run could be, you know, a warm-up and then like 30 minutes at a particular pace, that is quite fast, normally at or slightly lower than your race pace, depending on whatever race you're training for. Or it could be like 10 minutes on, five minutes off, 10 minutes on, five minutes off, 10 minutes on, five minutes off. So there's different ways to do it. I personally prefer that kind of 10 on, five off, 10 on, five off. You get the same adaptation, but you maintain the quality a little bit better throughout the whole session, as opposed to just having one big chunk, um, where often you kind of dip towards the end because you're fucked. The point is it drives up your lactate threshold by doing those sessions. So your lactate threshold is the point at which your body begins to use uh lactate or pyruvate, which is there's something going on in the body at a cellular level in order to create energy, essentially, for energy. And when that does happen, you get a lot of waste products. This is me giving you a very simplified version here. Also, because I don't know the detailed science stuff, neither do you need to know that. But essentially, when you get that kind of conversion of energy using these types of things, this is because your body isn't able to only use oxygen anymore. It needs to call on other fuel resources, and when it uses these resources, you can then get other waste products that build up in the body or in whatever muscle muscle you're using, usually the legs and the lungs, whatever it is. And when that happens, the pH level of your blood and your circulation system can change, as well as you know, the buildup of lactic acid and all that kind of shit can happen, and that's when you kind of start to slow down. Okay, so it's that point right before or right as that happens, okay. And the reason why you want to train that is because essentially you want to push that ceiling higher and higher so you can withstand higher amounts of work without all of that kind of bad stuff happening that I just mentioned. Okay, so that's the goal. Push hard so you can raise your ceiling a little bit higher. I probably butchered that um scientific explanation a little bit, and I may have gotten a couple things wrong or confused there, but the point is it's that's what it does. And if there's any scientists on here that listen to this, you're welcome to correct me. Uh, I'm sure if I read over some of my notes, I'd be able to remind myself of what I should have said. But I'm doing this off the dome, okay? Authentic stuff here. I'm not reading off a piece of paper trying to give you guys um some fake knowledge that I have because it's not stowed away inside me. Pause. That's weird. Anyway, intervals and VO2 max sessions. These are hard reps with a recovery. What these are great for is building your top end speed, okay? Um, improving your running economy, okay, and then also basically getting faster. These sessions, the faster session of your training week, you're probably only going to be able to do them once. I realize I haven't touched on a couple things with the things that I've mentioned, and I'll just quickly touch on these. VO2 Max sessions and interval sessions, I genuinely think you could probably only do once a week. If you're a top-level runner, different story, but we're talking about hybrids here. I reckon once a week at your top end, and maybe you could do like an 80% speed session or 90% of that speed session again if you wanted to do it twice in a week, but you're gonna find it really hard to do two hard interval-based sessions where you're running as hard as you can or running close to as hard as you can, more than once or twice a week. And then the reason why that is is because most of us are also backing it up with some kind of leg training that week. Doing both of those things can be really difficult to do. It's essentially meaning you're pushing your legs to their limit up to two to four times a week. And given that the size of the legs are quite large, the muscular, the type of muscles that are available in the legs, they tend to recover a little bit slower. So it can be really hard to do that. Tempo runs, threshold runs. I like to actually do these runs two times a week. I personally found for me myself that doing these type of runs twice a week is what improved my running capabilities the most over the past few months. I would say doing two tempo runs in my training each week allowed me to reduce my running or my half marathon time down from 131 to 128. I would say doing that has made the biggest change. Uh, primarily because being a bigger person, I feel like being able to run hard consistently on my legs for long periods of time was always difficult. But doing those two sessions each week, they they are slightly less taxing than doing just an interval-based session, but they're still very taxing. Okay, they're they're still hard. You probably haven't got more than one or two of those sessions in you each week. They did a lot for me personally in my training in the lead up to my last race. And then the long run, you really only want to do one long run each week. To be honest, if you're doing more than one long run each week, unless you're an ultra runner, which is not who I'm speaking to right now, um, you should probably reconsider your training week. You don't need two long runs, you're probably better off separating that uh or distributing that weekly volume over the course of your week instead. Keep in mind here, I'm again, I'll say it one more time. I'm talking to hybrids who are also trying to lift and run. So if that's you, consider it. The last one I'll touch on here uh is strides. Strides are just essentially anywhere from like I say 15 seconds up to one minute accelerations um that you you would usually include inside one of your current runs that you're doing, like your long, easy run, or at the end of a run, and then you'll do a full rest and then you'll go again. And they're just short bursts of fast pace. And the reason what they're and what they're good for, practice the skill of running, sharpen your turnover of your legs. You can add them onto almost any run. They're good at just practicing running fast because a lot of people don't realize that running faster is a skill. And if your form is shit, it is it is extremely much, it's way harder than it should be. But as your form gets better at running at those faster paces, you'll always find it's easier for you to maintain that pace. So again, practicing it frequently is a great way to do that, which is where strides can come into it and they cause very little fatigue. And you can do them almost all the time because they're so short. I add those in at the end of a few runs each week. I don't really program them for people. Sometimes I do. Um, but at the end of an easy run, sometimes I'll do a little, I call it I call it a little squirt, which is where I'll put my foot on the accelerator a little bit um throughout like an easy run for like 15 to 20 seconds, and then I pull back again and I'll jog calm, get my heart rate back down before I do another little quote unquote squirt where I give the accelerator a bit over here and then I pull back again. Okay. Um and I'll integrate those into my easy runs now and then, but not all not all the time. Essentially, look, I'll think I'll leave it there uh just because I don't want to yap on too much about everything. There's a lot I can unpack here, and there's a lot of things here that I am going to touch on in other podcasts, particularly with the integration of these things into your hybrid training program that's coming in the next couple weeks. But otherwise, that's everything for today. I'll leave it there. Like, comment, subscribe. Uh if you can give me a five-star rating, I think that helps a lot. That's kind of what this in terms of measuring tools, I think that the podcast world appreciates. If you can do that, please go ahead. And then also, if you want to get coached by me or at least see the programs that I offer, I have a lot of programs that you can download, including free ones, by the way. Uh just hit some of the links down below and you can have a look at my stuff. There's heaps there, it's for free, some of it as well. And then there's also my page stuff if you do want more one on one coaching. But anyway, uh great having you on board or listening. See ya. Bye.