Running With A Purpose

By Lee Fidler/Running Journal/May 2010
Lenny and I were reviewing his training week prior to the group interval workout on Wednesday evening. His previous week had produced a new wrinkle. He had run intervals with a group from the track club the day before. In this piece, we will consider purpose.

In a well-planned training program, every day should have a purpose. I was concerned that Lenny was falling into the trap of running hard every day -- the run-till-you-drop school of thought. I asked about the purpose of the Tuesday intervals and he was dumbfounded.
The purpose of some days should be recovery. A short day, an easy day, or and off day should be recovery. The basis of training is the stress/adaptation theory.

The stress is interval training, tempo runs, and long runs. The adaptation is facilitated by the recovery days. We present our bodies with the challenge of a hard workout and they respond by preparing for the next bout of hard work during recovery periods.

Remember how you have responded to gradually increasing your long run or expanding your weekly mileage. Your speed in races and in workouts has also improved in small increments, by taking recovery days along with the fast days. If your program is all stress, your adaptation will be compromised.

The most specific way to train for a 5K or a marathon is to race one every day. However, none of us could physically or emotionally tolerate such a program. Therefore we divide training into various components.

One day we may focus on endurance by doing a long run. Another day we may turn our attention to speed or anaerobic threshold by using interval training or a tempo run, respectively. Still another day may be designated for recovery with a short easy day. Every day has a purpose.

If you are not interested in performance, your runs may still have purpose. Daily mileage may be a way to balance calories consumed versus calories expended. The reason for your run may be mental health, a relaxation technique, stress relief, a timeout. In addition, a planned running program may help you avoid injuries. If each day has a purpose you may avoid overloading your legs with too much mileage.

Back to the original scene, a week later, Lenny arrived at the Wednesday night group with an answer. “I thought about what you said last week,” he began. “The purpose of running hard with those guys on Tuesday is to have fun.” Although I questioned the intensity, fun is certainly a good reason to run.