Daniels' Running Formula

by Jack Daniels

Don’t waste your time wishing for things you don’t have. Do your best with what you do have.

when a new level of fitness is desired, the training stress has to increase.

muscular discomfort associated with a hard session is realized more about 48 hours after the stress than it is 24 hours afterward.

Remember to always try to achieve the greatest possible benefit from the least amount of training rather than getting the greatest possible benefit from the hardest training possible.

pretend you are rolling over the ground rather than bounding from foot

mid- or rear-foot landing

just focusing on taking 180 steps each minute will result in a mid- or rear-foot landing, and you won’t have to think about how you are striking the ground.

Go for 180 steps a minute and learn to roll over the ground with as little effort as possible, and running should be much more enjoyable and leave you more injury free. I sometimes tell runners they should imagine they are running over a field of raw eggs and their goal is to not break any of them; be light on your feet and comfortable in your landing.

The feeling of wanting to breathe harder is caused by an increase in the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in your lungs.

So it is the increase in this gas, not a drop in the amount of O2, that stimulates you to breathe harder. In fact, you always have plenty of O2 as long as you are breathing normal air.

you can race at about 93 percent of vO2max for any event that lasts about 30 minutes, so as vO2max is improved, so is the speed at which you can race for any specific time. I

heart rate is pretty closely associated with how much work you are doing, as well as what your aerobic involvement is at any particular running speed.

maximum force of each stroke of the heart is reached when the heart rate is at about 60 percent of maximum.

not take in any energy drinks so your body learns to conserve carbohydrate.

the duration a person can exercise at O2 max, and that time is about 11 minutes.

Races that last between about 5 and 20 minutes are stressing the aerobic system to its fullest, so these races are the ultimate benefit in terms of what I training does for