EPISODE #7: Ask Alli

WE'RE BACK! Biweekly.

Today's 'Ask Alli' episode is a new, solo episode all about my ‘WHY’ and what drives me, how to train for the track mile to the road half marathon, and what that could look like for you!

I hope this episode leaves you feeling inspired and motivated to tackle your next goal, stay resilient, be open to facing controversy, and overcome your biggest fears to eliminate any self-doubt because you can. WE can.

I hope this episode inspires and motivates you to tackle your next goal, stay resilient, be open to facing controversy, and overcome your biggest fears to eliminate any self-doubt because you can. We can.

Until next time!

Please email all questions to runwithallicoaching@gmail.com OR DM us on the @runwithallilivepodcast or @runwithalli Instagram social media accounts!

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 1:17

Hi guys, happy Thursday. Welcome to this is an episode of the Ask Allie spinoff on the Run with Ally Live podcast. I will be sharing this on the Run with Ally Live podcast feed. And I hope that my answer to two of the questions on the Run with Alley Live podcast stories helps you to improve your training, but also uh yeah, get a better sense of you know what makes sense for you and where you're at. And also, I really have to say I appreciate all of you on here. Um I love the personal questions and we're here to have a good time. Um, again, if you have any questions and you want to ask them, you could ask them um as we go and I will I'll respond as I'm able. Um, but I do want to address two pretty good questions. One has to do with um why I'm such a baller and what drives me every day. And the second is how I would structure my training if I was racing on the track and the road from the mile to 13.1. Two good questions, two different ones. So I hope you enjoy um this episode. This will also be recorded on Apple Podcasts so you guys could listen to it on your walk run or whenever you have time. So cool. Um, thank you for joining. Uh so the Ask Alley spinoff is a portion of the Run With Alley Live podcast that I'm looking to uh build a little bit this year with the intentions of helping you to train better. Um, you could ask me anything, running related, lifestyle related. I do ask that you be respectful of the questions that you're asking. Um, otherwise, I just won't answer them. So, uh question number one How are you such a baller? I love these fun questions. Uh, how are you such a bar and what drives you every day? Well, that's just because I'm a baddie. Um, I kid, but in all seriousness, um this is there's so many things that go into this question and this answer. But really, what drives me every day is just knowing that I'm doing something that's more conducive to the well-being of everyone here, um, or at least I'd hope, making some sort of impact on our community in it, and not just a number, like I felt like when I was in the corporate world. Um, you know, knowing that I get to coach amazing athletes, um, you know, work with amazing brands, um do like do the training with the athletes that I coach. Right now, I'm also competing, so it's pretty freaking cool. Um, having that relatability factor, yeah, it drives me every day. And just, you know, knowing that we're all finding ways to stay healthier um when there's so much crap going on in this world, it's like terrible, but we're here to stay positive. And I think that running is such a great, great outlet for mental health, for physical health, um, to just move and in any way that I could partake in that and attribute to someone else's life, um, it allows me to jump out of bed every day. So I really hope that answers that question. Um, now, in terms of the more training savvy question, I love, I love, love, love this. So I'm gonna really try to say it in a way that most people would understand because sometimes I tend to get a little sciencey and people are like, what is she talking about? So I'm gonna give you two different responses and I'm gonna repeat the question. The question is, how would you structure your training if you're racing on the track or the road, the mile to 13.1? So there's two approaches I'd take here. Um so one would be taking a full year to focus on the mile and everything under the 5k. So that could be 800 to mile to 3k to 5k. Yeah, um, on the track specifically. So, you know, I also think that throwing in a mile road race while trying to get faster on the track in the mile could be helpful because it throws in variety and it, you know, it's a lot harder to race a mile on the road than the track sometimes in that kind of racing environment where you know you're on the road, you might have a little bit of hilly terrain, you might have some weight uh wiggle room to weave. Um, you know, there's yeah, it's just not as controlled and you're not running loops. Uh and yeah, it takes the guessing game basically out of everything running on the track. Um, and it's cool to have someone call out your splits. So taking a full year to focus on everything from the 5K down on the track, applying block periodization, um, there's different forms of periodization. What that just really means in a nutshell is taking time throughout the year to focus on specific things in your training, not throwing in random workouts together, uh, very simply put. So, what I mean by that is maybe focusing on training one stimulus, which could be um anaerobic capacity, which is speed endurance, where we could be doing a lot of 300s, anywhere from 30 to 30 seconds to two minutes, let's say, with at least double the rest between those intervals, like for your track workouts, um, to trade train speed endurance. It's anaerobic, there's no oxygen present, and it's training your anaerobic metabolism, so it's what's going on inside your muscles, and so you could, you know, do that on the track. Um, that is like a very, very good um workout to do to train this component. Uh, well-known coaches like Bill Bowerman, um, you know, was very big on, everyone knows him, he's amazing. Um, was uh everyone, you know, knows that he was very big on not going to the well in training and just progressing your training um and using a periodized approach. So block periodization is helpful um for focusing on training one stimulus at a time. The downside of that is you might be neglecting another stimulus, like maybe doing a lot of zone-tune training, which is not as important for training the mile, like as much of it, but you still need to have that aerobic base to have the anaerobic um power and capacity. Uh, so maybe focusing on a linear periodization approach, just think progressive overload, taking four to six week mesocycles and focusing on, you know, building either intensity or volume week over week and definitely having a down week within those four or six weeks. Um, yeah, so focusing on the mile for a year, getting that faster, and you know, doing those kinds of workouts, um, and also like a lot of strength training, um, two to three times a week, uh, definitely including pliometrics while training for the mile, which is still aerobic, but it's pretty explosive and it's if you depends how run fast you run it. Uh yes. Two would be to combine the mile and the half marathon type training, the track work and the road work uh in different parts of the year. So I'm very actually big on the second one because I personally tend to work with runners who love the half marathon and the marathon distance. But in order to get those two distances faster, you gotta work that speed if you haven't. And there's many ways to do that. Strength training brings it out. Um, working on those shorter, faster intervals bring it out, but not arbitrarily. Like really focusing on like doing enough volume um week over week, year over year, um, and even month over month between that. Um, so like having that system first half of the year, you're focusing on 5K downward. You're doing mixed workouts on the track and the road for the mile, right? Only focusing on that, not throwing in like a half marathon race into the mix because that's not conducive to the mile goal. Um, and also you're training a different stimulus. It's anaerobic capacity that you're training. So you want to really get that speed endurance and get those quick workouts. I said 300s, even 400s. Um, you know, you're running them fast enough under two minutes and doubling the rest between those reps, that's an excellent workout uh for training that speed endurance. Um also, you know, again, keeping your base mileage not too high, where it's you're gonna experience diminishing returns on the mile. But yeah, um definitely, you know, including some recovery runs around those workouts two to three times a week, and being in the gym doing um heavy and explosive lifts two to three times a week while training for the mile. Um, while transitioning to the half marathon type work, the aerobic type work, meaning BO2 max, and then training a percentage of that known as your anaerobic threshold, which many of you know that term. Some know it as LT1 and LT2. LT2 is more tapping into a your anaerobic zone. So basically it's when you're running and you're you can't clear lactate at the same rate as you're producing it. And so you're redlining and like you kind of probably have to stop soon. LT1 is right when you're getting to that zone two to zone three um area, and you might be able to like still speak, but you're you know, you're still tapping into a higher aerobic zone than zone two training, which is you know, 60 to 75 percent of your max heart rate if you use heart rate or just like very easy running that's building your low aerobic base, um, so that you're able to get that threshold faster. And that's conducive for the half marathon. So focusing on VO2 max first, which is 95 to 100% of your max heart rate. Great way to do this is mild repeats. It's a go-to workout of mine where you're doing them and taking 60 seconds to a minute and a half of rest. So you keep that oxygen elevated within each rep before doing the next one. So you want to start the next rep on a little fatigued legs, but it's all happening. Uh, VO2 Max takes place here, cardiovascular-wise. So you're really like challenging yourself to push yourself to like a max like max. You should be exhausted after VO2 Max workouts. That's why there's a time and a place for them. I usually like to program them um every, you know, like eight weeks max before maybe sprinkling in one VO2 max workout or a percentage of VO2 max and then a second workout as thresholds while working on that half marathon fitness. Uh yeah, even 10K. Um yeah, and you know, I think that doing based on your training history, based on, you know, things like your goals, um, how you're recovering between your workouts, uh your scheduling availability around work, family, um, lifestyle, those all play a role in your training and like what that'll look like, and therefore the outcome of it. So there's different seasons for training and there's different seasons for different goals. And so setting yourself up for success annually to tackle the mile and the half marathon by one of these two approaches, knowing what else is going into your schedule. Now, most of us on here I'm speaking to, we are not pro-runners and running for a living. Um, yes, so these are all things to consider. Um and yeah, it's not easy. That's why I recommend working with a coach, a training partner, um, a team, you know, just bouncing our ideas off of um one another is like very helpful. I think it's every coach needs a coach. I have one. It's really hard to see your blind spots. Um, and when it's you, it's like very easy to get in your head and stay there and kind of not see where you can improve. So take that for what it's worth. But um yeah, um, I also believe that one very big thing is to not neglect that speed work when you're training for um something like a half marathon. And what I mean by that is like, yeah, throwing in those mile type workouts, like when they make sense, but maybe tacking on some threshold work within that sorry about that. Um, and you could make that a long run. So, like, for example, if you throw in um some mile type work, 300s, 400s, and you do some threshold training, um, sandwich between easy miles right there for you, that's a quality long run. Um, and that's really great to not neglect speed, um, to include a variety of you know variables in your training to get that feeling of pushing yourself at different efforts and keeping it all highly aerobic. Uh, so you know, there's something for everyone. It's really important to kind of look at what's worked for you before and what's led you to success in and outside of training, too, to just add on to this. So these are just like very basic guidelines, but to really to look at you, compare you against you, what I like to do is I like to look at my Strava and look at a year ago, like when I was training for, you know, let's say like a faster mile, but I've I wasn't training for that a year ago. Um, and seeing all the things that I did leading up to that. Let's just say hypothetically, I didn't really get my goal or like where I wanted to be, or I got injured along the way. Um I would like to first understand why and maybe pivot and it try something else that is obviously more conducive to that goal. Maybe something else that's been working for me better, you know. Um, for someone that, you know, is an aerobic animal, let's say I like to call it that aerobic animal and thrives off of high volume and like slower training. You guys should look at Arthur Liddyard's work. He's very, he's very big on this. That might help you to kind of bring out the ability to push it in the shorter distances, like especially the mile and the 5k, um, versus just doing more intensity and less volume. But again, there's something for everyone, and it's important to kind of look at your training history and what has and hasn't worked for you. Uh, so these are great questions. Thank you for joining. Um, a quick short glimpse of Ask Alley. I'm gonna record this on obviously my podcast, which will be up um across all directories, including Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify, yeah, tomorrow evening. Um, and other than that, guys, please keep asking me questions. I'm gonna share this as a collaborator on the Run With Alley Live podcast channel. And I really appreciate you being here. And you know, don't be shy, ask questions. And other than that, I will see you next time. Thanks so much. Enjoy your Thursday, the start to your Super Bowl weekend for all those racing this weekend. Have fun. I know I'm racing a 10K on Sunday, it's gonna be awesome and brutal, and I'm ready for it. So uh on that note, um, hope you guys enjoy your evening or afternoon wherever you're located, and I'll see you soon.