The 4-Hour Body_ An Uncommon Guide to Ra - Timothy Ferriss [160]
22. Not defined here as L O2/min.
ULTRAENDURANCE II
Going from 5K to 50K in
12 Weeks—Phase II
We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves.… The more restricted our society and work become, the more necessary it will be to find some outlet for this craving for freedom. No one can say, “You must not run faster than this, or jump higher than that.” The human spirit is indomitable.
—Sir Roger Bannister, first runner to break the 4-minute mile
To get to 50K in 12 weeks, you first need to understand some normal limitations of the human body. Only then can you overcome them.
The liver and muscles can only store 1,800–2,200 calories of carbohydrates in the form of glycogen. In simple terms, if your running becomes an anaerobic process (literally, without oxygen) you have to pull from these limited stores. Remember what happened to Brian’s 43-year old female runner at the outset of training? She “had no gears” because she became anaerobic as soon as she attempted to increase her per-mile speed.
Even if you refuel 200–600 calories per hour, all the stomach can handle, it’s likely you will run out of glycogen before the finish line of an ultramarathon. This is called “bonking” and usually means game over.
Force feeding during the race is one option, but it pays to flip another switch.
One pound of fat, used during long-state aerobic exercise, contains roughly 4,000 food calories, the same energy density as gasoline. Even if you’re a lean 5% bodyfat at 150 pounds, your available 7.5 pounds of fat can keep you humming for several hundred miles.
The trick is, of course, that you have to remain aerobic at higher speeds, which is the fundamental goal of all of Brian’s training. Incredibly, some of his athletes are able to remain aerobic throughout eight rounds of sprints at a 12% incline with just 10 seconds of rest.
His athletes are using a near-endless supply of fat calories, when you or I would be choking on carb-based fumes.
The training used to get them there is predicated on two assumptions:
1. The muscle soreness runners feel after long distances is primarily from a weak sodium-potassium pump. Strength training is what improves the sodium-potassium pump, and what allows Brian’s athletes to walk around the day after an ultra instead of lying in bed: “If I can get a runner’s back squat up, I see their marathon time drop. It’s crazy, but it works.” Maximal strength training will improve endurance recovery.
2. If you can run a decent 10K, you already have a sufficient aerobic base to run a 50K. The training should therefore focus on getting you to move at faster speeds while remaining aerobic.
Point 2 is called “moving the aerobic line.” It sounds more pleasant than it is.
Moving Your Aerobic Line
Brian produces fast-recovering 100-mile runners on less than 30 miles of total running per week, including the intervals and sprints.
His recipe is deceptive in its simplicity: focus on improving all of the energetic pathways, performing no runs over 13.1 miles and seldom doing more than 10K.
The lactic acid system is one of several pathways that Brian aims to conquer. According to Brian, becoming “competent” in all these systems takes six to eight weeks for a lower-caliber runner:23
In simplest terms, an energetically comprehensive program might take the following form, with at least three hours between A.M. and P.M. workouts:
Int = “Interval” training is often in a total that equals 1,600 meters, such as: 8 × 200 m (90 secs rest between), 4 × 400m (90 secs rest), or 2 × 800 m (2–3 min rest).24
CF = “CrossFit” (2–10 minutes of metabolic conditioning; examples are provided later in my 12-week schedule).
TT = “Time Trial,” used to test progress in a distance such as 1 mile, 5K, or 10K.
Alternatively, you might use the popular “three-on-one-off” schedule for CrossFit, making sure to include two to three intervals and one time trial per week:
If you don’t have a track nearby for measuring distances, use GMaps Pedometer online25 or a Keson