"Outside" Explains It All For You

Beginning a few months ago, I started receiving Outside Magazine in the mail. If you have never seen Outside Magazine, it is kind of like Runner's World for gear heads, with beautiful people who promise to tell you how to "stay fit forever." I don't remember subscribing -- maybe it was a perk from some race I entered or maybe someone signed me up for a gift subscription and I forgot about it -- I don't know, but I don't have much interest, and I pretty much just toss them into the recycle bin.

But something about the cover of the latest issue caught my eye. There was the usual photo of a rugged, but handsome outdoorsman smiling as he contemplated the number of summits he had summited, or the number of grizzly bears he had fought off using nothing but a tent peg... but that wasn't what drew my attention. It was the headline "How to Do Everything," and the promise to teach me all the really important stuff in life, from "How to Fake a Sick Day" to "How to Fix a Motorcycle With Your Teeth" (I am NOT making this up)... And there it was, listed as #18 of the things every Outside reader should know: "How to Run Faster."

I couldn't ignore that, so instead of recycling the magazine immediately, I turned to page 78 and eagerly began reading the keys to running like the wind. Since I am a generous guy, I will share what I learned so that you don't have to go out and buy a copy of "Outside" for yourself. Ready? Here are the three secrets of running faster:

1. Do strides (4 x 20s, work them into normal runs)

2. Skip (2 sets of 3 x 30s, work them into a few runs a week)

3. Build core strength through doing "planks" -- a kind of isometric exercise that resembles a push-up frozen in mid-push.

That's it. There's nothing else left but to rue all the days I have run without the benefit of this advice. Why, I could have been faster decades ago if I had only known. Outside Magazine, where were you when I needed you?

But seriously, these might be perfectly helpful tips, and I'm sure they are well-intentioned, but what really annoyed me was that they chose to illustrate this 100-word treatise on developing speed with a photo of Steve Prefontaine jogging on the infield at Hayward Field at the U of Oregon. Prefontaine? An advocate of skipping and planks? Hmmm...

Actually, a couple weeks ago I got my hands on a copy of a book called "How They Train" by Fred Wilt. Wilt compiled the training schedules of the great runners of his day and days of yore. Thanks to Wilt, I can actually look up what kind of training Prefontaine did around the time of his freshman year at Oregon. It's a little bit different than what Outside Magazine recommends:

Mon: AM: 4-6 miles easy; PM: 4-8 miles at 5:30-6:00 pace
Tue: AM: 4-6 miles easy; PM: 10 miles at 5:00 pace (!)
         6-12x300m @52s
Wed: AM: 4-6 miles easy; PM: 5-8 miles at 5:30-6:30 pace
Thu: AM: 4-6 miles easy; 
     PM: 24x300m (6@52, 6@48, 6@46, 6@44) with 100m jog rest
         4-5 miles easy, 
         6-12 x 300m in sets of 52-50-48-46-44-all out, 100m jog rest
Fri: AM: 4-6 miles easy; PM: 4-6 miles easy
Sat: AM: 3x1M @ 4:24, 4:22, 4:18, with 800m jog rest, 
         4-5 miles easy, then 18x300 (6@52, 6@48, 6@46)
     PM: 4 mile run
Sun: AM: 15 Miles @6:30 pace

So there you have it: two training philosophies. Run faster by striding and skipping, or run faster by working your butt off with 90-100 miles per week, and a lot of very fast running. I think the choice is clear. If only Pre had known these secrets he could have saved himself a lot of trouble.