I recently took a walk with Luke Nelson, head of the Alpenglow Sports Mountain Running Club, to learn more about training and preparation for run club. We took a walk because I am not currently a runner! My goal was to learn some strategies and tips that I could use to be ready to run come June. Wednesday, June 4th is the first run club run. It’s a mere 4.5 miles and 856 feet of elevation gain. Would I be ready? Here’s what I learned.

Luke is an ultramarathoner and the main thing he does to prep for race day is to train up to about 70% of the total mileage of the race. You do this incrementally. One strategy for training in increments is to increase your goal mileage of each run by 10% per week. This steady increase in mileage ensures that you don’t over train and helps your body cope with new stresses in a progressive manner. Applying this to my own training was where I got my first laugh. If I’m starting at zero miles, what’s ten percent of zero?? Luke advised that I start with a two mile run and increase from there.

When starting with small numbers, this strategy slows your progress. You can expect quicker progress than 2 miles in week 1 and 2.2 miles in week 2. Imagine how long it would take for me to get to my 4.5 mile goal for the first run! The solution to this is to focus on time.

Time goals should increase in the same 10% increments. Fortunately, this math is a bit easier too. Your runs might increase from 50 minutes to 55 minutes week-over-week. Focusing on time also allows you to move at a slower pace compared to a focus on mileage. Luke recommends traveling slower than you would think. The goal is to make it feel easy. If sustained running is difficult, it's okay to do run/walk combos. You’ll want to stay in zone 1 and zone 2 for the duration of your run. If you find yourself red-lining, switch to walking until your heat rate returns to rest.

With a goal time of one hour for the first 4.5 mile run, I am focused on the following time goals. These goals are total run time per week.

Week 1: Apr 27 - May 3: 40 mins

Week 2: May 4 - May 10: 44 minutes

Week 3: May 11- May 16: 48.4 minutes

Week 4: May 18 - May 23: 53.24 minutes

Week 5: May 25 - May 31: 58.56 minutes

Run Week: June 1 - June 7: 60 minutes

Then Luke hit me with the bad news: I would benefit from structured strength training in addition to run time. He softened the blow by saying that ALL runners would benefit from the following exercises: Squats, lunges, bicycle crunches, bird dogs, and planks. Many mountain athletes are the disciplined type and would take to a new workout regime readily. I will drag my feet and do the fun things instead of the structured training. Ask me about my strength training at our first run. Hopefully some accountability keeps me focused.

The joy of running is that it doesn’t take much to get it done! Good shoes, water, and nutrition are often the only specialized things that a runner needs. Certainly a comfortable top and running-oriented shorts make for a nicer experience. Let’s learn how to check our shoes for wear so that we have adequate protection for run club runs. The midsole of a shoe is (often) large piece of foam between your foot and the ground. The midsole is the first part of a shoe to wear out, so we will focus our attention here.

Are there large cracks spanning the midsole of your shoe? That is the first sign of shoe wear. To analyze the protection still offered by your shoe, you’ll want to asses if the shoe sits "neutral" or not. Place your shoe on a flat surface and try to asses if the shoe is standing upright or not. Almost all shoes have a seam at the back of the shoe (heel) that you can use to gauge this. Is the seam leaning left or right? If so, your shoe is worn and is no longer as protective as it could be.

Most runners have slight pronation or supination when they run. We either put more pressure on the inside or outside of our feet and that will wear our shoes down on one side or the other. The wear will be expressed by compacting the foam, and that compaction eventually results in the shoe no longer sitting neutral (flat). If your shoes lean left, right, fore, or aft, it’s time to replace your shoes.

The outsole of a shoe is more commonly known as the tread. Many of our customers use tread wear as an indicator of shoe wear. In almost all instances this is a mistake! The outsole of a shoe will be designed to remain grippy for the life of the midsole. Since most midsoles wear out between 300-500 miles that means most outsoles don't show wear until 500 miles and beyond. Using the outsole as a wear indicator means you could run on a poorly-protected shoe for 200 miles or more. That greatly increases your chance of injury and stalls out your progress.