Well, I mentioned in my last post that I’m making an attempt to follow the FIRST training method in my run-up to Big Sur. This has generated some discussion among my running friends as well as quite a bit of thought in my own little mind. It might be beneficial for me, and possibly others, to spell out some of these thoughts.

First of all, I’m not shooting for a PR at Big Sur. I’m using this training cycle to get stronger and faster and Big Sur is just a mile marker on the road to some future PR destination. I’m really beginning my training for what I hope to be a Boston qualifying attempt in 2011. Seeing as how I need to shave nearly 30 minutes from my current marathon PR, I’ve got a long, long way to go, so I’m not looking for this program to be the end-all, be-all of my future running goals.

Maybe because of the way it’s marketed, the most appealing element of the FIRST program may be it’s apparent promise of faster running with less effort. This was my assumption as well the first time I heard about FIRST and was the primary reason why I did not look into the program more deeply at that time. I am immediately suspect of anything that promises better results with less effort.

Eventually, though, I began reading positive accounts from other bloggers and I did some of my own investigation into the program. The biggest “Aha” moment came when I realized that, although you run fewer days in the program with less overall mileage, the overall aerobic work rate is probably higher in this system than others. The idea is not that you work less, but that you take some of the stress of running off your legs and feet without reducing your overall cardio-vascular effort.

So the “run less, run faster” title of the book only tells part of the story. “Run less, work just as hard, if not harder” might be more accurate, but might not sell as many books.

Also significant, at least to me, is the fact that the program utilizes a significantly greater number of 20 mile runs. The first and shortest long run of the program is 13 miles, so if you’re used to building up the longer runs gradually, that’s a pretty good jump. Because I’m coming off training for the Santa Barbara Marathon, the 13 miler this weekend doesn’t look especially daunting. In fact, I’m kind of looking forward to it as a break from the faster stuff I’ve experienced so far this week.

And that brings me to the main reason I am attempting the FIRST program, speed. I have little experience when it comes to planning and following through on speed work of any kind: tempo runs, track workouts, whatever. It’s all very foreign to me, and that has its good and bad points. The fact that I’ve never done it means the probability that speedwork will improve my running is huge. The program uses a great variety of track and tempo workouts that make virtually every run different.

I haven’t yet finished my first week of this thing, so any detailed thoughts and impressions will wait until I get further into it. Let’s just say that so far it has not been easy. My body has gotten very used to running within a pretty small window of paces and I have no history of cross-training so there are some major adjustments underway. I’m throwing in some light core work just to confuse my body even further, so I’ll be reporing on that a bit in the future as well.

Stay tuned!

This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 3:44 pm and is filed under Running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.