Table Of ContentCONTENTS
Foreword
Preface
S I: T P
ECTION RAINING WITH URPOSE
Chapter 1: The FIRST 3Plus2 Training Program
Chapter 2: Realistic Goals
Chapter 3: First Steps for the New Runner
S II: H F FIRST T P
ECTION OW TO OLLOW THE RAINING ROGRAM
Chapter 4: FIRST Fundamentals
Chapter 5: Three Quality Runs
Chapter 6: Essential Cross-Training
Chapter 7: Rest and Recovery
Chapter 8: Year-Round Training
S III: P F
ECTION ERFORMANCE ACTORS
Chapter 9: Running Hot and Cold
Chapter 10: Running Injuries
Chapter 11: Running Nutrition
S IV: S T
ECTION UPPLEMENTAL RAINING
Chapter 12: Strength Training for Runners
Chapter 13: Flexibility and Form
S V: B B
ECTION OSTON AND EYOND
Chapter 14: Triathlons, Trails, and Ultras
Chapter 15: The Road to Boston Is Steeper
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
APPENDIX A: How to Calculate Paces
APPENDIX B: Road Age Standards WMA 2010
APPENDIX C: Road Age Factors WMA 2010
APPENDIX D: Pace Tables
INDEX
FOREWORD
I have long been a fan of the FIRST (Furman Institute of Running and Scientific
Training) training program, and the dedicated people who created it (and
continue to improve it). Still, after the first edition of Run Less, Run Faster was
published, I started getting lots of questions from personal and email friends. In
addition, I heard similar questions over and over again when I spoke at clinics
and runners’ expos.
Does the FIRST training program work? How could it, given that it focuses
primarily on just three workouts a week? Seems too easy to believe.
We runners are skeptical. We don’t believe in free lunches, shoes guaranteed
to prevent injuries, or foods that “melt away” the pounds.
We believe in a consistent, disciplined work ethic. We know that’s the way
to improve. How could the FIRST promise of fewer miles and workouts possibly
succeed? Sounds shady.
I found the questions easy to answer. To begin, I told everyone, the FIRST
program isn’t easy. Just try a few of the workouts—they’re tough! Second, many
runners fail to reach their running goals because they overtrain—they run too
many mediocre workouts and not enough targeted workouts. As a result, they’re
always tired but haven’t necessarily boosted their fitness and their racing
potential. That’s where the FIRST approach shines.
Happily, I’ve been able to convince a fair number of runners that less can be
more. And almost invariably, the runners who tried the FIRST training program
described in Run Less, Run Faster reported that it was a great success.
No, I’m not going to exaggerate and say they all set personal records. Many
did, but some didn’t. However, even those who failed to get faster said they
learned much about themselves and the best ways to train by following the
program. They often recommended it to friends, which explains why Run Less,
Run Faster has been one of Runner’s World’s best-selling books for the past 5
years.
Now here’s the new edition. It’s got all the great workouts and schedules of
the first edition, along with new findings Bill Pierce, Scott Murr, and Ray Moss
have gleaned from countless email exchanges with FIRST training program
users and from annual running camps they have organized each year at Furman
University.
Below is the introduction to Run Less, Run Faster that I wrote 5 years ago. I
feel even more positive about the program today than I did then, because now
it’s been road-tested by literally thousands of runners.
Amby Burfoot
Editor-at-Large, Runner’s World
June 2011
Given the time-stressed lives that we lead, all runners have the same goal: to run
the best we can with the limited amount of time at our disposal. After work,
family, daily errands, and keeping up with piles of laundry, how ya gonna fit in
enough good workouts to reach your goals? It’s the biggest running challenge
we face. And Bill Pierce, Scott Murr, and Ray Moss have the answer with the
FIRST training program. I know no other training system that comes close to
providing the proven, efficient one you’ll discover in this book.
But I don’t want you to think that the FIRST training program is easy. It
isn’t. I learned this the hard way a couple of Aprils ago when I visited Bill and
his colleagues at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, and spent
several days training with them. In particular, I ran with Bill and his brother,
Don. We learned that we’re all about the same age and ability level over a low-
fat Italian dinner on my first night in town. The next day, we ran one of Bill’s
favorite interval workouts, 5 x 1000 meters on a gorgeous curving path along a
tree-lined lake on the Furman campus. We warmed up with a relaxed mile or
two, and then began the 1000-meter repeats, I thought I was in good shape at the
time, but it took all my resolve to match strides with Bill. While I wouldn’t say I
was running 100 percent, I certainly wasn’t lollygagging. Call it a 98 percent
effort. I was pooped.
Fortunately, the FIRST method conceived by the team of professors and
coaches at the Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training (FIRST)
provides plenty of recovery between hard efforts. I was happy to take the next
day off and simply stroll around campus for 30 minutes. Bill played tennis.
That brought us to Day Three, a tempo training day. After another several-
mile warmup, Bill and Scott took off on a steady 4-mile run that was supposed to
be hard but controlled. For them, I think it was. For me, however, it was too
much. I lagged about 30 seconds behind Bill, wondering how he could run hard
again just 48 hours after our 1000-meter repeats. The obvious answer: He’s been
training this way for nearly 20 years. He has adapted to the FIRST program and
gotten stronger and faster with it. I hadn’t been following the FIRST program …
though it didn’t take me long to decide that I should. Who doesn’t want the most
fuel-efficient car, or mortgage with the lowest interest rate, or the runners’
training program that provides the best results in the least amount of time? I
most appreciate that the FIRST approach is scientifically based and meticulously
measured. Many coaches and personal trainers develop their plans according to
their “proven successes.” Unfortunately, they’ve got no scientific or statistical
analysis to back up their claims. They might be good enough coaches, but
they’ve never actually studied how well their plans work.
Bill, Ray, and Scott have—extensively.
The members of the FIRST team were college professors before they became
coaches and have always approached the FIRST system as a scientific
experiment. They’ve measured all their runners before and after beginning the
FIRST program, and the results could very well have proven the system an
absolute bust. But that’s not what happened. Instead, the experiments have
produced consistently spectacular outcomes. The runners train less than they
used to, and 16 weeks later they’re running faster.
It sounds like snake oil, but it isn’t. Just ask Bill for a peek into his bulging
folder of thank-you letters and emails. A runner’s success can never be
guaranteed. Life happens to us all—we have to change jobs, we get injured,
we’re waylaid by a family health crisis … the list goes on and on. But the FIRST
training program is more closely studied and more guaranteed than any other
running program I have ever seen. What’s more, you’ll spend less time training
than you are right now. You’ve got nothing to lose. It’s a win-win program that
has worked for hundreds of other runners, and there’s no reason it can’t work for
you.
PREFACE
The first edition of Run Less, Run Faster elicited an overwhelming response:
More than 7,500 messages from runners on six continents provided us with
valuable feedback to the FIRST (Furman Institute of Running and Scientific
Training) training programs. The daily messages from around the globe have
given us insight into the challenges runners face whether they’re training in the
sweltering Philippines or South Florida, in subzero, snow-covered Canada or
Scandinavia, in the desert sandstorms of Iraq, or on an oscillating ship in the
Persian Gulf. Others have needed to deal with living in a town with no running
track or traveling on business with access only to a hotel treadmill. Equally
daunting are the problems that face a mother of five who must train between
4:00 and 5:30 a.m. or a second-shift worker who begins training at midnight.
Many have special medical problems; others describe how professional
obligations have left them sedentary for years and others want to know how to
begin or enhance their training. Runners faced with all of these special
challenges have sought advice from us on how to use the FIRST training
program effectively.
We have responded to every message. In quite a few instances, an initial
message has resulted in exchanges of questions and advice lasting several years.
We have filed and kept notes on all of the inquiries. Those many questions, as
well as our readers’ reports of success and failure, provide the basis for this
revised edition.
The popularity of the first edition gave us many opportunities to speak at
race expos, clinics, and professional meetings. At those engagements we met
many midpack runners, as well as noted authors and elite runners. These
interactions enabled us to learn more about what runners seek and how we might
better meet their needs.
In 2003, when the Running Institute was established, we declared that our
mission was to promote lifelong participation in running and physical activity,
while helping runners of all ages and abilities realize their potential through
individually tailored training programs. Even though we had been providing
such help to local runners for years, it was through the press that our message
became global. Without a doubt, the article that Amby Burfoot wrote in the
August 2005 edition of Runner’s World ignited the interest of runners in the
FIRST Training Programs. Runners still write that they began training with our
program because of it. That article also appeared in multiple international
editions of Runner’s World; thus we began hearing immediately from runners in
Australia, New Zealand, Southern Africa, the United Kingdom, Germany, and
other European countries. The Runner’s World article spawned a proliferation of
articles in daily newspapers across the country including the New York Times,
the Chicago Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, and magazines including
Bloomberg Businessweek, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Parade, and National
Geographic Adventurer, all of which magnified interest in FIRST.
An intriguing opportunity growing out of this exposure is FIRST’s
collaboration with Running Buddy Sports in Bangalore, India. Running Buddy
Sports is a venture established by Ashok Nath, Bhasker Sharma, and Rajesh
Vetcha, all committed runners themselves, who came to Furman University in
the summer of 2011 and were trained in all aspects of the FIRST program. Using
FIRST training programs, these successful business executives plan to promote
running in India and enable Indian runners to stay motivated, active, and injury
free. Mass participation in competitive running is just beginning to grow in
India, and FIRST is pleased to help encourage it.
We are excited about the opportunity to update our first edition because we
are eager to share what we have learned. From the thousands of email messages,
from the hundreds of runners who have traveled to Greenville, South Carolina,
to visit us at Furman University, and from the hundreds of runners we have
coached and the many conversations we’ve had with runners at race expos and
clinics, we realized that there were important unanswered questions about the
FIRST training programs in the first edition of Run Less, Run Faster. In this
edition we address those questions. In addition, we have tweaked the tables and
training programs based on runners’ reports of their experience. Because of the
international interest, we have also provided a metric version of all of our
programs.
Don’t be surprised if you find repeated mention of the key elements of the
program: the importance of intensity, the integral role of cross training, the
critical role that recovery plays, and the importance of pace selection and the
avoidance of injuries. As anyone who has played on a high school or college
team knows, that’s what coaches do. Coaches want to make sure that athletes are
getting the message and incorporating it in their training on a routine basis.
The core of the FIRST 3plus2 Training Program remains unchanged from
the first edition—quality over quantity with individualized training goals for
every run. While the first edition of the book focused on the research studies that
convinced us of the program’s efficacy, this second edition is focused on the
practical aspects of using the workouts and reflects the thousands of success
stories runners have shared with us. Nothing is more gratifying than receiving a
heartwarming message from a runner describing how the FIRST training
program enabled him or her to achieve a lifelong dream.
As I did in the first edition, I will represent my coauthors, Scott Murr and
Ray Moss, as the voice of the book. As narrator, I will share with you our
personal and professional experiences in exploring how to train efficiently.
Bill Pierce
October 2011
