March 19, 2013
In the very first episode of the Triathlete Training podcast I give some background on myself in addition to part 1 of my interview with Stephen McGregor. My name is Eric Schwartz and I currently coach triathletes, duathletes, runners and cyclists. In addition, I've been operating Duathlon.com since 1998. Duathlon.com is a source for triathlon & duathlon news and results, as well as training advice. Previously, I ran track and cross-country and Indiana University, lived in Boulder as a full-time professional, won the Duathlon National Championships in 2004, and finished 8th at Ironman Wisconsin that same year. I've been coaching since 2000 and was a member of Joe Friel's Ultrafit coaching group until it disbanded. And that's enough about me. This is the quote that made me want to talk to my next guest: "Specifically, Steve's analysis will lead him to conclude that in the last 10 minutes of the race [Ironman Hawaii 1989] Dave Scott fights as hard against total physical exhaustion as any athlete ever has for as long as human beings have raced." That's from Iron War, Matt Fitzgerald's book about Dave Scott & Mark Allen. The analysis is from Stephen McGregor, a professor at Eastern Michigan and a former professional cyclist. Few people have done more research on running economy than Stephen. In our interview we talk about that quote, plus control entropy and what it takes to become a more economical runner. Triathlete Training Podcast Episode 1 Here is a quote/discussion with Stephen taken from the podcast and also from Iron War, with a little bit of paraphrasing: "The greatest source of energy waste in running is the breaking that occurs when the foot makes contact with the ground. But It is also somewhat necessary... to push yourself off and propel yourself. Good runners minimize that. The trick is minimizing it to maintain speed. Eric: What can an average runner do to minimize the braking and improve form? “With recreational runners they probably run comfortably too much and there is also an old view in training that there is a speed that is no man's land which is too fast or not fast enough. And that’s what a lot of recreational runners do. They probably run fast enough to feel like they are getting a good workout but not fast enough to actually training themselves to be a better runner. So one thing that a lot of runners could do is run faster. Do more speedwork. That means that you actually have to cut back on the overall speed so you don’t dig yourself a hole and don’t get injured, and that probably means slowing down at the same time. Running faster to train the body to run more economically. As a result when you run faster, when you are doing more intense training, that means you have to back off a lot of other days and run slower. And so, coming up with that polarized approach, which a lot of people probably don’t do. I think a lot of people run hard enough to feel like they are getting a workout in, but not hard enough to learn how to run faster." Triathlete Training Podcast Episode 1
