Episode 39: How Training Actually Builds: From General to Specific (And Why It Matters)

Training isn’t random—even if it sometimes feels like it when you’re in the middle of it.

In this episode, I’m breaking down how a training block actually builds over time so you can stop second-guessing every shift in your plan. From early intensity to later volume, from general fitness to race-specific prep, this is the big-picture view of what’s happening and why it matters—especially when life is full and you’re just trying to keep showing up.

I recorded this one in the middle of Cocodona prep, so you’ll also get a little behind-the-scenes of what that looks like right now…including a dining room that looks like trail running exploded all over it. 

In this episode, I talk about:

•  How training moves from least specific to most race-specific 
•  Why volume increases while intensity comes down over time 
•  What you’re actually building in each phase of a training block 
•  Why working on weaknesses early matters more than you think 
•  How to stop panicking when training starts to feel different 
•  What it really means to trust the process (without overthinking it) 

If you’ve ever wondered if you’re doing enough…too much…or the “right” kind of training—this one’s for you.

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If this episode resonated, share it with a friend. Make sure you’re following or subscribed so you don’t miss future episodes. Ratings and reviews help more than you know.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey y'all, welcome back to Dirt Nap Diaries. I'm your host, Brittany Olson, Trailrunner, Women's Trailrunning Coach, Hypewoman, and Professional Overpacker of the Midrun Snacks. This show is for the everyday trailrunner, the ones training on real-life legs and real life time. You've got work, relationships, laundry, pets, a group text that never shuts up, and maybe a big goal sitting quietly in the back of your head that you're not totally sure you're allowed to want. You're not out here chasing podium spots, you're chasing finish lines, sunrises, and maybe a little sanity. This podcast is about trail running, but it's also about navigating life. The hard seasons, the joyful ones, and the ones where everything feels like too much. So let's get into it. Alright, y'all. It is Tuesday evening, 7.20 p.m. uh my time. And so a little late for this podcast, but uh it is almost Kocodona time and things have been busy. We worked um Cactus Man, Triathlon, um on Saturday and Sunday, and that's a pretty big event to put on. So uh no time to record then, and now it's just getting all the Coca-Dona stuff ready. Uh working still, coaching still, doing all the things. Um, but I promise to podcast every Tuesday, and that's what I'm gonna do until I have to break that promise one day, maybe, and in like 50 years, we'll see. But um, yeah, but I got a good one for you today. Uh not quite as long, but definitely it's got a lot of good information. But um, you might hear a dog panting occasionally in the background. I think Kai wants a little attention right now because I just got back from an amazing massage by Drew. Um, y'all should see him. I've tagged him before in the show notes. If I remember, I'll tag him again. Um, but feeling good. It's all my PT Megan Slavin on Thursday too. So everything is ready to go. Monday at 5 a.m. I start the race. So uh really just look aiming to uh get some good sleep over the next few days, get everything packed up. Our dining room table is just like it looks like a trail running uh vomit everywhere, uh lots of food, uh outfits that I'm gonna wear, socks, uh sports bras, um, I don't know, all the things. There's some bread there, I think, even to make grilled cheeses. So so many things. But uh yeah, I'm super excited, super ready. Um so the next podcast you will hear after this one, I will be running Coke Donut. So that's pretty cool. Um and then the next one after that, I will have finished Coke Donna. So yay! But all right, now let's actually really get into it because it is late at night for me here. Well, not really late, but late to be recording a podcast. So what I was thinking too, and I actually just thought about this on the ride home because I had a totally different idea in mind, but I want to talk about like how training isn't random and give like a general overview about how things do look um in these training blocks. So we're not gonna get into like a lot about like VO2 max and and tempo runs and steady state runs and like easy runs and that this time. We're gonna talk about how it's really like stacked um month over month and week over week um and how that looks for you. So, but we do progress with it with intention. So we start, and I'm gonna lay lay all this out and then we'll break them apart. But we start at least specific, so least race specific if you're going for a race, and we go to most specific. We start with lower volume and then we get to higher volume. We start with higher intensity and then go to less intensity as we move forward. Um, and then we also work on our weaknesses in the beginning, and then we will sharpen our strengths later. Uh, so again, gonna break these apart, but that's what we're those are really the four main pieces that I'm gonna talk about today. So earlier in the block, um, it's not really about race day yet. We want to build that aerobic capacity. We want to push our ceiling up a little bit, those are those VO2-max workouts. Um, and we're just like getting in the in the flow of how the the weeks are gonna look. Typically, you might even run less days, it just depends on how your experience and background. This is also a great time to work on consistency and finding the right days for you that work for running. Um, we are everyday people, and sometimes it's very hard to figure out what what works for you, like what days are gonna work for you with running. Um, I typically say, hey, pick your long run day. Like what day is that? Is that Saturday? Is that Sunday? Some people it's Wednesday. It depends on what's your life and your work, if you're retired, just how things look, but pick that long run day because that is a key workout. Um, and then you can build around that. So that's also a great time whenever you're in the beginning when you're being least specific about the race, um, that you can actually figure out what days work best for you. So again, we we this this part in the beginning, uh, that least specific spot and the lower volume and the higher intensity, that means we're gonna do those VO2 max workouts. Those are shorter efforts and high intensity. Uh again, that is to raise that ceiling. So we are limited uh by our VO2 max. Um, I don't know what mine really is. I think my watch might actually tell me I'm not sure. I haven't seen it in a while, but um, it does. It basically we are building up that engine and we're raising that ceiling. So it makes everything else feel easier later, is really the point. Yes, there's scientifical things going in there. Yes, I know scientifical is not a word, uh, but it works on like getting that heart to pump more efficiently, that blood to move through more efficiently through your body, um, which also comes in handy there. Uh so, but this this also this piece where it's least specific, lower volume, and higher intensity. Um, it's also where you're addressing more weaknesses. Uh so maybe you've been avoiding hills. So you're like, you know what, I want to work on running uphill or even hiking uphill. Maybe you're just not a strong hiker and you want to want to focus on that because you know you're gonna be hiking in your race. Um, so that's a great time to do that. Maybe you're um struggling with like running downhill on technical. It's a great time to really work on those technical pieces. Um, you may not have a technical downhill race like one that has a lot of that, but there could be places where that's at, and it's better to work on that in the beginning because as we get to that more specific um and higher volume and then less intense, you're gonna go into that already being comfortable and confident that you have gotten better at that. Um also this is also where we can talk about like if some people do struggle with pushing a little bit harder, so doing those VO2 max workouts can really show how hard you can push. Because a lot of times those get up to three minutes, sometimes four minutes, depending on who you are. So it can help you like work on that pushing piece too. But anything that you're weak at, maybe it's even your pulls, right? I can't give every single example, but it's a great time to work on those weaknesses. Maybe you run out of food a lot, maybe you don't eat a lot. Like you're gonna be working on eating, by the way, throughout the whole block, but this is a great time to start that because your runs aren't quite as long. So just so you know, this isn't really we're not really training for the race race yet. We're really training for your ability to handle the training block. So that's how I like to think about this first part of like being least specific, lower volume, higher intensity weaknesses first. It's we're working on your ability to handle the training that's coming up. And it doesn't matter what your distance is, y'all. This is how I typically like look at things. Obviously, there are some shorter races if you have a lot of experience. It will be a much shorter like time period, but like this is really how we stack. Um, so when we think about this though, like we think about uh there's different kinds of structure to put around this. So when we move into more, we'll say like sustained efforts. So that first part where we said least intense, all of that, or I'm sorry, most intense and the least volume, and then least specific to race, we did the VO2 max. Now we shift into the um lactate threshold part of that, which is a lot more sustained efforts typically in the typical in the tempo area. So we're talking an effort around like seven to eight. Um and I say seven to eight because I uh some people use the RPE scale exactly as it's published on the internet. Some use it a little bit differently, um, which is fine. But the whole point is it's still a hard push, but it's not as intense as a VO2 max. Uh, and those intervals will also be longer than what you did before. So basically they're less spiky than that VO2 Max. Uh, you're learning to hold effort, um, and you're starting to get more comfortable being uncomfortable. So this is that midway between um the least specific to most specific. You might do a little bit more, um, you might start getting on terrain and do a little bit more that's closer to how your race is, but you still don't have to be exact. We are still working on you handling that as the training goes on and on. Um, the intensity, like I mentioned, does come down slightly and the control and the durability do go up. So you're not just hauling ass, you know, raising that ceiling. What happens here is where you've raised that ceiling with that VO2 max piece, your tempo efforts are going to help push up and get you to um that VO2 max ceiling. We want that lactate threshold to go up because we need your body to clear that lactate out. There is more to that, again, more science behind that. Um, but basically it helps you um not be as sore early. Obviously, when you are running further and further, you know that a lot of times you are gonna get sore, but this helps you so you are not sore so early and helps you work through things um later in the race, too. So, again, this is like kind of that what I call this the middle ground, and it's a little bit longer. So that whole when I just mentioned VO2 max, then intensity, that's typically like a three to four week piece of that. This next piece in the structure, the whole like in the middle doing those tempo runs, um, learning how to hold that effort, that typically can be about six to eight weeks. Sometimes it's ten weeks, depending on again that background, that experience. I think you hear me say a lot of ranges here because it does depend on each person, what their goals are, what distance they're training for. Um, so that's why you get those ranges. Uh, but then also as we get into that, so we've we've got the whole like, hey, here's the middle part. We're gonna get into like the more volume and less intensity after that. So earlier when I said we have less volume and more intensity, the reason there's less volume is we really want you to focus on that intensity. So if you are doing too much volume, it is very hard to get intense, to get up that nine or ten on the effort scale that you want to be at for those runs because your body isn't recovering because you're either running too much or running too hard, or both with your other runs throughout the week. So, and the inverse of that, we are going to do more volume and less intensity, and that is that endurance block. Again, depending on who you are, we'll say like 10 to 16 weeks, even. Um, sometimes eight to sixteen. Again, it depends on who you are. Uh so this is the longest part of the phase of the of the training block. So the volume increases. So when I say volume, I mean time on feet. Um, some coaches uh do use mileage, but I use time on feet, especially for ultra running. Um, not necessarily for road marathons, we can do miles, but time on feet, typically. Your intensity drops to mostly easy runs and steady efforts, whether that be steady state runs, which is an RPE around six to seven, and then endurance runs, which is typically around a five to six. Uh, and then long runs become more and more the focus. So we are stacking those days of the week with runs with a workout, and then by the time you do your long runs, whether it's one long run, or they have back-to-back long runs, or they have back to back to back long runs, by the time you hit those long runs, you're feeling that weak a little bit. Not so much that your body's super stressed and you can't handle it, but more that you're feeling a little bit of fatigue as you're in that run. Because when you are racing, you are gonna get fatigued. It happens. That's that's like part of it. We can't help that. But when we stack up those weeks and we stack up those days and the weeks, we can kind of feel what it's like to be in that race, to be in that moment of fatigue. So whenever we do race, we will be ready to handle that fatigue. We can work through challenges because we work through them in that in that more volume, less intense phase. So this is where um you really start to see like where that ultra training is uh paying off. You're gonna see, man, like I'm climbing really well. Like, you know what? If at two months ago I could not have gone for this long. Um, oh my gosh, like I would have been so much more sore at this point if I hadn't done all this stuff. You're so you're building durability here, not that speed. Really the whole block is building some durability, right? But this is where you're out there for longer and longer, and you're really feeling that. It's how you can do a hundred-mile race or any distance without running the full distance. It's all of that stacking up of all of your runs that allow that to happen. And this is a big part of the block. This is one of one of my probably my favorite blocks. I do like running long. Um, but it's really fun for me because if you're really intentional, if you really think about what's going on, you can notice those changes. There are sometimes there are people that always notice that change right away, but when you actually look back at a block, you realize like how much you stacked up and how you were able to run for so long, and how you're able to do things now that you couldn't do in the very beginning, um, and just how things feel better and stronger. So as you are stacking all of this stuff up, you are going to have changes. Um, so I haven't actually talked much about race prep yet either. Um, because but that does, as we get from um least specific to most specific, so that means our volume is going up as we get more specific too, um, because the race is gonna be longer. Uh, we're doing less intensity because the race is not ran, guys, at a 7 to 10 RPE. I mean, a lot of these are ran in that endurance piece, those fives, those sixes maybe. And then depending on how long the run is, or the race is, you're gonna be an easy effort sometimes too, and that's perfectly fine. That's what ultra running is. We get to snack a lot, we get to eat some real food, and then we get to like hike when we need to, and we get to run when we can. So, um, but for most specific, this is really what the race looks like. We do a the endurance block, that's what it looks like. Your long runs should look like the race looks as much as possible. So I feel very fortunate. Um, the 250 that I have come up, yay, have I mentioned that? Oh wait, yeah, I did. Um, but that race that I have coming up, I have been able to get on course in a few places because I live in Arizona and luckily I can drive to these places. That's been fantastic. So I've been able to do actual race specific things. Also, this race is a multi-day one. So when I did back-to-back runs or even back-to-back-to-back long runs, uh, the first day, the first long run would be a lot of vert. So I am climbing a whole bunch because how Coca-Dona is set up, you do a ton of climbing in the beginning, like a lot. Um, and then as you get further into it, it does get a little bit flatter and roly. I'm not saying it's easy, right? It's a lot of miles, but the second back-to-back long run would be flatter, roly, like it was the the the intent was not to be do a whole bunch of vertant climbing like day one was, or long run one, long run one. That was hard, long run one, that was hard to say, was long run two was that whole like okay, it's a little bit like flatter, so that's what we're gonna do. So if if you can't like get on course, that's how you mimic that. Um, and you will do back-to-back runs for a hundred mile or two, probably not three back to back to back runs, but um, it can be similar. If you have a race that starts out at like more roly and then ends in a climb, that first long run should be um flat, flatter, and then that second long run should be more vert. Yeah, but if you're so so say you are training though for even a shorter distance, which is very, very normal. We're not always running 200 miles. Uh a lot of times you only have one long run. That still means you make it as race specific as possible. So if you can get on course, great. If you can't, you need to mimic the vert. You need to mimic the descents as much as possible. Can you always? No. But one of the maths, the maths that we do is say you have a race, um, I should have done the math before this. Um, but you have a race that has we're gonna do a thousand of vert because right now math is hard. Um over uh 50 miles, because that's gonna be easy math for me. That is 20 feet of vert per mile. I will let you know for those of you who not been runner long or don't run a lot of trails, that's not much of most are longer than that, but that's what I got right now. So you should be running on trails that give you 20 feet of vert per mile. And if that race is technical, get on trails that are technical. This is also where you're gonna practice your fueling. Um, if you're gonna use your car as an aid station, do that too. We've talked about long runs before, so I'm not getting to all those details, but like this is where you are prepping for that actual race as much as possible. So while that first block there, where it was super intense, was to like get you ready for the training, make sure you're prepped for that, like get you get you in it. This next one is really for that race ready thing. Yes, we need all the other stages to get us to race ready, but this is where you are doing all of that. So again, if you can get on course, great. If not, mimic the race as much as possible. Get on that terrain as much as possible. I know like there's some East Coast races, it's not rocky, it's rooty, and it can be hard to do that, but I will say you're still working your ankles, so it does help. Um, if you can, um, and you're going to be in a hotter place, maybe you can get a little bit of training at least in in the heat. Um, sometimes that doesn't happen. Uh it can be it can hurt a little bit, but then you can also do some heat protocols, which I'll do another podcast on that, but like in that last like week or two before the race, you can actually get in a sauna. You can take a super hot bath after you work out um if you would like to, because then that's called a heat protocol. Um also like if you want to mimic like time of day, if it is safe to do that. Here, sometimes it's 115 degrees, so we cannot do like in middle of the day stuff. Um, but like if it is somewhere that's cooler and you need to get a little bit warmer, try to do it in the middle of the day if you can. I struggle with middle of the day runs only because life doesn't allow for that normally, but that is a way to be race specific. So um also if you want to, you can use your car as an aid station um and the average like mileage between um aid stations or time you think it'll take to get you to an aid station. So if you are running a looped race um and you want to practice like your aid station like that, and they're short loops, you can do that. You can do short loops and have your car there. If you have aid stations that are further apart, but you want to practice that or use that, you should make sure the loop is definitely not just a short like two-mile loop, but it is a bigger loop to mimic that. Remember too that intensity is lowest tier overall. Your goal is to stay in the effort range that is either prescribed to you, whatever your plan says, if you bought one, however that looks, stay in that intensity range because as volume goes up, if you are too intense, you could risk injury, burnout, and you just might not like it that much anymore. Um, but there is also the risk of overtraining where when you get to the start line, you're not even recovered and you're already blowing up way, way early in the race. So, and also here, specificity is the highest. So that race specificity is where we want to be at. It's what we're thinking about. So um again, like this is fairly what I feel like this is very foundational, but it is important to know like how and why we're doing these things. So again, we're starting with that most intense to least intense, least volume to most volume. Um, we're going to the least specific to most specific per year race, and then we're gonna work on those weaknesses first. So I'm sorry guys, like I think my allergies are acting up. I don't remember if I took my allergy pill. Maybe I did, maybe I didn't, who knows? Um, so and then we're gonna do a quick hit here. So, like, so here's what we've done too. Like, we've built the engine, and now like it's gonna run, it's ready to run the race. Like, we've done all that that stuff. But what did I talk about last week? Taper! Yes. So, um, again, well, since since I just talked about it, I'm not gonna talk about a lot, but your volume comes down, your intensity stays, key stays low, and then those adaptations just they let them sink in. You're not gaining fitness here, you're absorbing it. That is it. Like, I am so happy I'm in taper right now. Um, I've been chilling, um, I've been sleeping. Um again, I'm still working and stuff, but it is nice to get that kind of chill going on. So, taper is at the end, and what it does, all that work you just did that I just talked about, all the race, the race specificity, all the all the intensity, all the volume, everything is leading into this taper. And remember, a taper is part of training. It is not the end of training, it is a part of training. So, and it's where you absorb that fitness. Now, you don't need to understand every single detail of what's going on. But I do feel like understanding this flow does help build trust in the process that you're doing. So, yes, you're gonna get more sp specific like details whenever you're being coached or whenever you get a plan or whenever you find something online, it's gonna get more more details. But knowing that you start at least specific is super important because then you're gonna know that you need to focus on intensity. Knowing that as you're later in the block, you should be focused on volume, and then it should be less intense because you don't need to be super intense at that time. You need that volume because you need that durability, you need to build that endurance, that's where we're at. But knowing how these stack and knowing how it helps and knowing how they build on one another, it does help you trust that process. So there are times too, though, when people do panic, when workouts like, oh my gosh, like things are feeling easier. Am I pushing hard enough? Or like when volume starts to increase, you're like, oh man, how can I like, how can how can I manage this? Like, how can I make sure I have time for my family, get my work done, that I'm not exhausted all the time, that I can be present. Um, and people do start to like feel that way. Um, and then also like as intensity disappears, some people feel some kind of way. Um, I've talked about in this past where a lot of people will push above their prescribed effort levels because we are always told push, push, push. This is not just in running, this is in life, too. We're told to be the ones that push, to be the ones that struggle to do this. So when intensity it's taken away or it's lowered, sometimes it feels wrong to people. So they push too hard. And again, that's where that burnout, that injury, that overtraining is. So it's okay to feel that kind of way. It's okay. Like we all feel that way at sometimes, like, right? And a lot of times people in taper, they're feeling kind of crazy because that of the volume decrease. Like, oh my gosh, like ah, I'm losing fitness, or what do I do? But you're not losing fitness. You're just moving, you're just moving into the into the race phase, like you've done all the things you need to do. And now we're in that phase where it's like, okay, let's freaking race. So, again, like I'm just I keep repeating this because I want you guys to get the flow of this. But again, we're starting with that least specific, right? We're not gonna do anything race, we're just getting there, we're building that aerobic race, the this the aerobic thing. So this is where again, you can figure out what days of the week work for you best for running. Um, you can figure out there might be a day where you have to get on the treadmill, there might be a day where you have to be on the road instead of the trail, um, and that's okay. Uh here you also do that lower volume to higher volume. So again, volume is the amount of time you're out there. So it'll be lower in the beginning, so you can really focus on those intense workouts, and then it gets to higher because guess what? You're running a long race. Uh, and then we have that higher intensity, and then we go to lower intensity, so those more controlled, sustainable efforts. Um, and then we work on those weaknesses first. Um, so and again, like with those weaknesses, you could be working on something that's not even race specific. Like it's like you could have you could be working on your climbing, it's on a super climby race, but you just want to work on it. It's a great time to work on it in the beginning. And then as you get more race-specific, when you start doing that, those hills are gonna those those hills are gonna feel better because it's not as verdy as what you worked on in the beginning. So, food for thought there. But here's what I want you to take away. Training isn't about doing everything all at once or everything all intense and all the most. Most is not better. More is more. That does not mean it is better. It's about doing the right thing at the right time. You don't need to force every phase to feel like it's race day. You just need to meet each phase for what it's asking of you. Do the work in front of you and trust that it's building into something bigger. Alright, y'all, that was a shorty for you. I know 23 minutes, 42 seconds is what I'm seeing right now, but thanks for spending time with me. Uh, if you love this episode, make sure you download it, uh, make sure you rate it, uh, make sure you follow the show, leave a rating and review, share it with a friend. It does help more uh this podcast reach more people. Now go move your body, drink some water, stretch your calves, and if you're listening while running, loosen your shoulders. You're welcome. Good effort, positive attitude.