Specific Strategies

Simulating race conditions for optimal performance

January 1, 2006

Training programs should be designed to optimize your race performance. Training errors often result from not following the Principle of Specificity of Training, which simply holds that your body adapts very specifically to the types of training that you do. If you do not prepare your body for the demands of racing, then you cannot expect it to be ready to handle those demands. Therefore, the more specific you can make your training to the terrain, pace, environmental conditions, etc. of your key competitions, the more effective your race preparation will be. 

Beginning runners will improve by doing almost any type of running, and they benefit from the general aerobic fitness provided by cross-training activities. Specificity of training becomes increasingly important as you become more fit because the potential incremental gains from training are so much smaller. Here are six strategies for applying the Principle of Specificity of Training.

1) Simulate the course: Although it should be an obvious training strategy, many runners do not bother to prepare for the idiosyncrasies of the courses they race. If you train exclusively on flat terrain, then you will not be ready to handle uphills in a race, and you will be even less prepared to handle the muscle soreness and damage caused by fast downhill running. In preparing for the dead-flat World Cup Marathon in Hiroshima, I made a similar training error, finding that hilly training in New Zealand did not prepare my hamstrings and quadriceps for 26.2 miles of flat monotony. One of the brilliant philosophies of Bill Squires, who coached the Greater Boston Track Club in the 1970s and ’80s, was his focus on developing specific workouts to simulate racing conditions. Squires’ simulation workouts prepared Bill Rodgers, Bob Hodge, and many others perfectly for the demands of the Boston Marathon—and led to many victories and top-10 finishes in major races. With a bit of creativity, you can design workouts to mimic almost any race course.

2) Prepare for heat and humidity: Heat acclimation is crucial for successful racing. That is why 80 degrees in April is brutal but the same conditions feel relatively pleasant during August. Studies have found that two weeks is enough time to adapt to moderately hot conditions. The ability to perform well in the heat is specific to the level of humidity, however, so if you have trained in hot and dry conditions, you will not be prepared to handle the stress caused by high humidity. One way to simulate humidity is to train wearing extra clothing, reducing evaporative cooling. This was reportedly part of Meb Keflezighi’s preparation for the Athens Olympics, when he was training in relatively dry conditions in California, and was also used successfully by Benji Durden two decades earlier.