MFP - Your Minimal Form Pace: This is the slowest you can run while still incorporating all of the elements of good form.  This is highly dependent on the athlete.  With slower athletes often not being able to sustain the effort of MFP for long, hence they will need to integrate walking, whereas a faster runner will be able to sustain MFP "all day."  Here is a great article that includes a video on Minimum Form Pace running.

Endurance Effort:  This is typically related to Zone 2 effort, but the most important component of endurance running is that you are able to sustain the effort for extended periods.  We have a common mission at Purple Patch, which is to run “as well as you can, as long as you can, as often as you can.”  For some, this means simply remaining form-focused while at a conversational pace, but for slower runners, it will likely mean integrating a walk-break to manage stress and facilitate insurance that running steps are executed with good form.

Walk Breaks:  Almost all Purple Patch athletes use walk breaks in training.  It is not a sign of weakness, rather it is smart training. With this, a walk break is utilized to manage global stress (bring heart rate and breathing stress down) or reset the elements of good form.  This means that a proper walk break is purposeful and focused - great posture, strong striding, and thinking about driving off the big toe of the rear foot. You can then transition those elements into good running.

Bounding:  The brain isn’t great at "talking" to the posterior chain (back of the body), but bounds help sharpen the form elements we want to spark.  Bounds are executed uphill and focus on the "drive" or propulsive elements of running. Extended stride length from the push/drive off the big toe and a focus of jumping over a "ditch" (long and far) versus jumping over a bench (short and high). Watch this video on bounding. 

Strides:  All about leg speed and neurological connection, strides are very much like bounding but executed on a flat surface. The intention is high speed, fast foot speed, and a supple body.  We can only execute a stride for a short time (7-15 seconds).

Arm speed = leg speed:  Your running performance is directly related to your ability to retain good foot speed, but we don’t want you to "think" about the feet to get to improve speed.  Instead, by thinking of getting the arms moving (with ⅔ of the swing occurring behind you!) we will facilitate a pick up in leg speed.

Building Effort:  If we ask for a building effort, this means you would start the interval or run at an easy or endurance-based effort, then gradually ramp effort as you progress through the interval, intervals, or run duration.  You should note that increased effort should always mean an increase in speed!  That is your barometer of success.

Race Effort:  If we ask for race effort, there are two ways to think about this.  The first is via metrics, in which we align your suggested pace to just faster than your aspirational and realistic pace of your main or upcoming distance race.  An example might be that you have executed a 1 hour and 36-minute IRONMAN 70.3 run, but have a realistic aspiration of running 1 hour and 29 minutes. Your race effort would be about 6 minutes and 50 seconds.  The second, and typically preferred, is the feeling of race effort.  We want you to mimic the effort of your upcoming race then measure what pace and other metrics come out of that effort on the day.  This is how we train awareness. Many believe "specificity" is optimal in the first scenario, but true performance tends to arrive in a more predictable fashion from the second route.

Technical: We aim to remove physical stress and allow a focus on running form, technique or lower stress running for resilience or recovery.  Some of these sessions may include focused walking, hops, bounds or very easy running. For more advanced runners, elements of good running form may need to be removed, with intent, to allow easy enough running.  This may include leg propulsion and foot speed but never posture or proper arm carriage.

• Recovery:  True recovery in the run means really keeping a lid on intensity and pace.  Make sure these easy runs are truly easy in nature, even if you remove aspects such as high leg turnover or leg propulsion.  You may need to integrate plenty of walking in this session to retain the low-stress goal, which can still be valuable globally.  Overall stress should be very low here.
• Prep:  These runs are typically short and designed to retain the neurological, or feeling, side of the run.  These runs are placed to help you feel good in the days following, and often precede key run training or races.  It is important to develop a sense of what works for you here, and there will always be options on how to truly approach these runs.
• Activation:  As with our other disciplines, this is a great chance to do some strides, over-recruitment running, and efforts that will not leave you tired or sore, but will simply improve the dialog between the brain and muscles, hence readiness for upcoming key work or racing.

Smooth: Smooth running usually aligns with about Zone 2 effort — but the real key is it is a CONVERSATIONAL pace and in flow.  Here we think and implement elements of good form, without being obsessed on pace specifics.  Another cue is it is a ‘go all day pace,' which is very controlled conversational pace with a focus on good form.  The use of walk breaks to reset and maintain effort are absolutely fine in this effort.

Endurance: Remembering that the run is the last piece of the triathlon race, you must retain great cardiovascular and muscular conditioning. The backbone of your successful run training is a development of these qualities (hence a large amount of your running is about successfully developing consistency). This will create the platform of resilience needed to be successful.  

• Over-Distance:  Realize that over-distance in our run training is built around an extended duration of time, not necessarily running longer than the distance of your race. The key here is form, self-management, and form under fatigue.
• General:  The goal in these sessions is to develop resilience while maintaining good form.  We will reference a lot of Minimal Form Pace (MFP) running, or as much time of the session as possible while retaining as many of the elements of good form as possible.

Interval: This could be called variance, as this family is all about varying speed and effort in a wide range of intensities depending on the goal of the session.  Realize that it isn’t just about effort, but it is interval based training while retaining awareness and form.

• Strength:  Generally executed on hills or a loop that you can repeat, the intent is not necessarily just about becoming a powerful hill runner, instead, it is a great way to develop the strength and form in the legs that will translate to how you run on the flats and varying terrain.  
• Tempo:  A central tool to pace and overall development is sustained efforts at an uncomfortable but sustainable pace/effort.  Challenging, but sustained.
• Speed:  While I prescribe in small doses, you can expect some sustained higher than race effort running, which as a stand-alone workout we would label as a speed session.  

Event Specific: We spend time practicing the style and personality of running that we will apply specifically in the race you are training for.  This training is fundamental to race execution, as we aim to develop the experience of what you will race on the race day itself.

• Building:  You will begin these runs smoothly, progressing the effort and tempo all the way through the main workout.  In other sessions, we aim to develop ramping to race pace quickly, but in these sessions, the goal is to train you to have your best running occur in the last third of the run, in terms of both form and pace.  
• Interval:  Different from the interval workouts themselves, event-specific intervals would have a personality always focused around race effort/pace.  Expect to see some longer intervals that are focused around race effort.
• Brick Run:  In their nature, all bricks are specific due to the nature of the sport itself.  I don’t believe in simply adding a run onto the bike, but utilize these sessions to add resilience, sneak running frequency and duration in a block, but also train you to simulate ramping to pace quickly off the bike.  Don’t forget to work on the transition piece also, which can be a great place to save time on race day.
• Race Simulation:  Quite simply, these sessions are designed to prepare you for the experience of race day and should be treated as mini-races.  A time to practice race day breakfast, fueling, equipment choice, and race-specific terrain when possible. Tune into the feeling side, and self-management, for your best route to success.