Thursday, August 9, 2012

Ptarmigan and Bottle Peaks and Speed Training Health Benefits

Ptarmigan and Bottle Peaks and Speed Training Health Benefits


Did Ptarmigan and Bottle Peaks this morning. Really hot today, as predicted. There is also a thick haze in the air from fires in Oregon and Montana. You can see the difference in visibility by comparing today's photos from earlier this year when I did the same set of peaks. I improved my time by a little, which was good despite feeling the 3,600' descent on my legs - guess I'm not fully recovered yet from Saturday's race. I did the ~13 miles run in 2:49 today.

In a recent article, it looks like speed training can provide some of the same benefits to one's health as long distance or endurance training.  The authors found that interval training can induce similar or even superior physiological adaptations in healthy individuals as endurance training. The main purpose behind this study was to see if those who could not spend hours running in the woods could gain similar benefits by doing high intensity interval training, and the answer is yes. So, just like another study that showed speed workouts can help boost endurance running performance and health, here is another one that indicates speed or interval training is beneficial. As I've said before, I'm never going to be a speed runner, but it is good to know that if you don't have the time to put in a long distance run, doing some speed work will still be beneficial to your overall running health and performance. This is particularly encouraging for those who travel a lot as it may be hard to do long runs while on the road, but it is relatively easy to do some speed or interval training no matter where you are.
 Byers and Bills Peaks
 Looking at the Gore Range - lots of haze...
 The Valley and the Divide
Nice sweaty brim on Bottle Peak


2 comments:

  1. When training for speed, distance running ought to be kept to a minimum because it decreases explosiveness.

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  2. You are right Gaston, but really only if you are talking about training for track and field events (100m to 3,000m). However, as the article noted above indicates, speed training can help with endurance running.

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