by Paula Jager CSCS as published in Natural Muscle magazine October 2011
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Strength, Speed & Power. Most of my competitive and professional life has revolved around these three aspects of fitness. While definitely not one to neglect balance, agility, coordination, flexibility, accuracy, stamina and cardio respiratory endurance they were secondary in my personal goals. I wanted to be strong, fast and powerful and have lots of muscle. Still do. Most endurance athletes I have known that were not at an elite level were weak and looked like chemo victims. I never had any desire whatsoever to be able to run 26.2 miles or even a 15k for that matter.
Many of my clients have endurance goals and I have trained them accordingly with much success. When many of our members came up with the idea of training for the Tough Mudder I encouraged them and began putting together a 16 week plan. I had no intention whatsoever of joining them. For those of you unfamiliar with the Tough Mudder it is a grueling 12 mile course with approximately 19 obstacles interspersed throughout. www.toughmudder.com While I enjoyed running obstacle courses I was used to 160 yards, not 12 miles. Our team rapidly grew to over 40 participants and the pressure was on—“why aren’t you doing this with us?” It is not a timed event but rather a team challenge—leaving no man behind. The bonding and camaraderie will be strong and it was not a time to be on the sidelines coaching but rather alongside them. So, sign up I did.
Dear God I thought—I’m going to have to train for this; especially considering my last 5 K (my idea of distance running) was over a year ago. I really do not like to run more than 100m or maybe 200 m. Did that mean I would need to forsake the iron and run Long Slow Distance all the time while visions of muscle wasting danced through my head?
Absolutely not. But there are many dangers associated with excessive endurance training. Dating as far back as the 1970’s the misconception of mainstream training philosophies of 45 minutes to an hour or more a day of intense aerobic activity has led to an overtrained, unfit, immune-compromised exercising population. Man was not meant to continue at a chronically sustained high intensity aerobic pace. We’ve all seen it in the local globo gym—day in and day out, week after week Jane and John plod away on the treadmills and ellipticals or pedal themselves into exhaustion in spin classes. It has done nothing to shed the extra fat on their butts and guts let alone tone them. I have never been impressed by any of these results.
Several problems can be caused by training for long periods of times at high intensities such as. . .
Coupled with the common high refined carbohydrate intake promotes a dangerous level of continuous systemic inflammation.
Aside from the disastrous results mentioned above why is high intensity aerobic pursuit such a dead end? One reason is the high level of carbohydrates consumed needed to sustain this activity leads to chronic inflammation. You’ve all seen it—Sally and Johnny are running a 5 K so they load up on a big bowl of pasta the night before and chow down on bagels and juice immediately after their 36 min 5 K. Type 2 here we come.
All being said there are still people out there that want to run a half or whole marathon, participate in a triathlon or the Tough Mudder and there is a better and smarter way to train for it while avoiding the negative risks mentioned above. The days of logging mileage in excess of 20+ a week are rapidly becoming archaic. And so is the weak and skinny appearance of the stereotypical endurance athlete. Many are finding that by incorporating strength and conditioning workouts into their training routine along with shorter more interval based training they are improving speed, power and overall performance along with reducing injury potential.
Our 16 week training program was modeled after a proven template by Brian MacKenzie of www.crossfitendurance.com. MacKenzie has created quite a stir in the endurance training world upsetting many with his radical ideas. Radical they may be but they are working and working very well. His methods have taken both amateur and elite level distance runners and triathletes to the next level with record breaking performances and a dramatic reduction in both training time and mileage.
For our Tough Mudder program I modified his program specific to the obstacles/terrain. In a very simplified description it consists of 3-4 strength and conditioning workouts over the course of a week along with 3 runs (short intervals, long intervals and a long run). Depending on one’s starting level of fitness the workouts may need to be scaled down appropriately. The adjacent page shows our program for the initial 4 weeks. As you can see each week has 1-2 max effort strength sessions with a short “finisher” along w/ 1-2 power sessions and 3 running days. The mileage will increase as the week’s progress.
We are now 6 weeks into our program and in case you’re wondering my strength and power are as good as when I started if not better. My endurance has improved dramatically and I’m definitely faster. My muscle is still there although I’m leaner and I’ve even gained a little in the hamstrings—imagine that. Wonder if it’s the sprinting? The team members are doing outstanding with amazing all around improvements and I am actually looking forward to the event. If you need a new challenge in your fitness routine I highly recommend giving this program a try along with the event—cause it’s time to mudder up!
