The Breaker
A breaker is perhaps the most feared competitor in long-distance running. A breaker has the ability to change gears within the middle of a training workout or racing effort. It may seem hard to learn how to do this, but it's actually one of the easiest techniques to teach.
How to Become a Breaker
Throw in a simple 45 to 60 second surge every 8 to 10 minutes during two of your weekly runs. These surges should be fairly aggressive. Pick up the tempo 20 to 25 seconds per mile for the surge before returning to your normal aerobic pre-surge rhythm. These pick-ups will teach your body how to change.
Add outlier intervals to your runs. While running your interval sessions, whether it's longer more controlled anaerobic threshold based intervals or VO2 Max stimulus 5K race pace intervals, toss in one repeat every 3 to 5 times. The outlier interval is considerably quicker than the others before returning to your normal target-pace rhythm. For example, a female runner recently did a workout of 12 x 400-meter repeats with 1:30 between each for recovery. Her target pace was roughly 1:45 seconds per 400 (7:00 mile pace). On numbers 4, 8 and 12, she upped the tempo to 1:38 / 1:40 (6:32 to 6:40 pace). These outlier intervals will teach you to surge within a race or training workout, and be able to return to the pre-surge tempo more effectively.
More: Tempo Runs Can Spice Up Your Running Routine
The Kicker
No doubt every runner reading this column has been the victim of a kicker. Kickers typically pounce with a few hundred meters to go and drop the pacers like a bad habit. Fear not pacers and those in doubt of their finishing speed, kickers are both born and can be made.
How to Become a Kicker
It has often been said that the runner who finishes a distance race, be it a mile or a marathon, the best is generally the person who is the least anaerobic, rather simply the fastest. While this may appear to be the proverbial splitting of hairs, it's not. In short, the fitter you are aerobically, the more effectively you will be able to conclude races in their final 10 percent. Look at the final 400 meters of a marathon, you'll commonly see athletes with 5K bests 1:00 to 2:00 slower than the people they are competing with and still finish better. This argument follows the speed through strength side of the argument to which I wholeheartedly ascribe.
Finishing accelerations. Runners at ZAP had a great deal of success with a technique by Hungarian Coach Mihaly Igloi. Even on the most controlled days of training, which to be fair were not that common, Igloi would commonly have his runners engage in strides or relaxed economy based accelerations, 100 to 120 meters, 3 to 4 days a week post run to improve economy. Put simply, finish your run, take a few minutes to gather yourself, then run 8 to 10 x 100 to 120-meters relaxed strides at 90-percent effort, think a touch quicker than your 5K rhythm, with full recovery between each stride. This light economy work, 2 to 3 days a week, will make finishing more quickly a common thing.
Last one, fast one. This final piece of advice is paradoxically the most effective, as well as the most dangerous. In the simplest of terms, finish everything you do a bit faster, particularly your interval sessions. This is not to imply you should leave races in training by running at 100-percent effort to conclude each session, but rather whatever the workout on your plate, a tempo run, an interval session, a fartlek or an easy run, get in the habit of always finishing just a touch faster. This will leave both the mental and muscle memory at the end of everything you do to be the quickest.
Switch up your trainings and adopt the pacer, breaker and kicker techniques to become a stronger, faster runner.
More: 4 Ways to Use Long Runs for Marathon Training
Sign up for your next race.
