[00:00:00] Okay, so you wanna run longer or farther or run your next race faster, all without blowing up halfway or feeling broken and destroyed the next day. So naturally you start looking for the fix speed workouts, form drills, maybe a brand new training plan, or better pair of running shoes and some glasses, or the thing that goes over the pros head that keeps them cool and looks like a crown.
[00:00:21] But here’s the truth, most runners are skipping the one thing that actually works, not because it’s complicated. But because it’s boring, they chase better and new when they haven’t done more. It’s like upgrading your headphones when you haven’t even hit play on the track. ’cause in running, volume is what builds durability, efficiency, and fitness.
[00:00:42] It’s the unsexy foundation that lets you run longer and feel better doing it. So what you’re gonna learn in this episode, why doing more beats, doing better and new until it doesn’t. The three step model that fixes plateaus and prevents burnouts a super simple. Framework to know exactly when to level up your training and are free.
[00:01:00] Run far without getting tired. Base training plan you can start using right now. Today, I’m Daren D Lake coach, lifelong runner and training nerd who’s mastered the whole more, better new framework through my own journey and allow me to run a sub throughout marathon and complete an Ironman in 10 hours.
[00:01:18] But my goal is to help 10,000 self-coach runners use mental frameworks like this to get 1% better each day. And you’re gonna be able to help me stick around to the middle. No hacks. Just consistency. Let’s get into it. So one of the runners that I coached, Brenton, who I did an almost sub three hour marathon with back earlier this year, he asked me about working on weaknesses in the off seasons.
[00:01:42] And he was reading Jack Daniel’s book on training, which is a great book to learn the, uh, basics and fundamentals of training. And VO two max. But it sparked this whole framework when I was giving him my answer, uh, that I use and it’s called more better new. And he actually goes, well, my strengths are sprinting like a hundred, 200 meters because he has fast twitch.
[00:02:00] Uh, and then he’s like, should I be working on my endurance now? And then he goes, well, maybe not. Like my threshold is my weakness. And he is a bit confused. So his actual aerobic base is strong, but his. His, I call it top aerobic. His actual marathon pace slightly faster than marathon pace. That’s his weakness.
[00:02:16] And there’s another problem that he has where his threshold is actually his marathon pace. So I think he needs to do way more sub-threshold work to really bump up his threshold and then marathon pace should feel much easier. And I’ll get into a bit of that a bit later, but. Let’s go back to the more better new framework so that you can apply it to your own racing.
[00:02:37] So I basically said, look, do more, which is volume slash frequency. Build up your engine, then do better. Only when you do more, you do better and more is like 80% and then do better, which is like technique and execution and getting really precise. So let’s call that the transmission. Then only do new. So better is like, I don’t know, let’s say it’s 10 to 15% and then new is like 5% and that’s when you do a novel.
[00:03:00] Brand new stimuli, let’s call it the nitrous boost if you wanna stay with it. The car analogies need for speed, fast and furious, et cetera. But a lot of people skip straight to better and even new because more feels too simple and boring. They go, well, surely more can’t work. And it does because adaptation science, run science, et cetera, shows volume drives the vast majority of progress.
[00:03:22] So there’s actual science to back all of this and the more actual tasks for you. If you’re watching or listening, track your weekly volume miles slash kilometers and just increase it five, 10% a week. You can even do 15%. Some people, uh, I try to stay around the 10% mark for safety while maintaining your current running routine.
[00:03:40] All you’re doing is adding on. Like, you know, whatever, one, two miles here and there, and that should get you up 10%. I like to pull back every three or four weeks. So three weeks on one week off. Some people do four weeks on one week off. Some people do two weeks on, one week off. You can adjust that around your training so you get the idea.
[00:03:57] You need more volume before fancy techniques, but where do you even start? How do you build that foundation without burning out or getting injured? Don’t worry. I got you covered with my run father. Feel better. 30 day free base training, building plan. It includes progressive weekly mileage or kilometer targets, strength routines that actually matter for runners, proper recovery days, and even I’d say game changing strides that bridge the gap between easy volume and speed work.
[00:04:23] So grab it free at the QR code here, or check the link in the show notes below, or video description. It’s the exact framework I use to help dozens of runners break through their plateaus without the usual burnout cycle. And if you’ve gotten this far in the episode. I appreciate you, thank you, and want to help 10,000 other self-coach runners get better, and we need to get past this algorithm.
[00:04:44] Just do one of these things. Watch this all the way through, please. Again, it helps the algo that you can, like, that’s easy. Hit the thumbs up, subscribe. Share this out to someone that you know that wants to be 1% better, or just comment below or in Spotify and tell me why it’s so hard for you to stay consistent.
[00:05:00] Let’s get back into how to do better. Do one thing better each week and after 10 weeks, see where you’re at. So we’re not gonna do everything better, just one thing. And then the new actionable task is to change all of it up. And it’s just like brand new training plan. We’re gonna flip things, go reverse inverse things.
[00:05:18] So if you start with aerobics, slow stuff, base stuff in the off season, maybe do speed stuff in the off. But we’re not there yet because I wanna go back to like. Why volume actually rules everything. And the more and more, more actually wins this whole game. Even though I’m a less is more guy science to back this up.
[00:05:34] I’ll get into that study in a second. More seems to always win with running and distance running and endurance running, but there’s nuance to everything. So I’m gonna put a little asterisk on all of this, is that it’s best to use all three as a tool in your toolbox. So use more as a tool, use better as a tool, and use new as a tool.
[00:05:54] And again. The more tools probably gonna come out the most. Sometimes when you start something you want to get in sloppy reps, a lot of them, because you’ll start getting better and refining that more muscle. That’s pretty much everything. There’s actual studies where photography classes, they have, uh, two sets of photography students.
[00:06:12] They have one. Set that goes out and just takes a whole bunch of pictures, as many as they can and get reps in. And they have another set that tries to get the best picture. And they’re brand new photography students. And they actually found that the people that didn’t try to be perfect in the beginning, they just got reps in, ended up being better than the people got that got the perfect stuff in.
[00:06:28] So that is perfect testament. And again, I’ll get to that study ’cause it was a study that just came out in the last few years that kind of blew everyone’s mind. People already knew it, but it was like. Confirmation and affirmation about it all. So again, back to the tools in the toolbox, you need to remind yourself to get better sometimes.
[00:06:46] So it’s like, hey, the more is working. Ah, lemme refine this here and there. You might not even know you’re doing it. It might just happen naturally. And then. A beginner runner. So this is me kind of going against this whole more better new thing. The beginner runner might benefit from new in the beginning, so it depends on the type of person.
[00:07:03] Most people need more in the beginning and not new, but some people, they might need change all the time to really stay motivated and inspired and to keep going. ’cause consistency is all you have because if doing something different keeps you consistent, then let’s do that. So it’s not a law, it’s just a guideline.
[00:07:17] Use it as you see fit. So why volume usually rules. Here’s the evidence. Your aerobic system responds to time under tension, not complexity. This is called progressive overload through volume. This is the The run science definition. It’s through volume and slightly adding more. You can either add. More reps or make it harder or the intensity harder, and you gotta do it really slow as you progress it.
[00:07:43] That’s called, it’s called progressive overload, so that you don’t injure yourself, you don’t burn yourself. It’s the boring middle where real fitness is built. That’s what I think. That’s what I know. I’ve seen it in my own experience. Talk to people. All the research and consistency always beats out intensity.
[00:07:58] For long term adaptations. And the study is the, I’m gonna destroy the name, haka, do marathon study back in 2017 where they had 587 runners and the volume was the predictor of race time. So it was all these people that ran three hour marathons, low three hour marathon. So a lot of age groupers, I call them sub elite.
[00:08:16] And they were like, what’s the, what’s the consistent thread through all of this? Volume, they ran a lot. I think they ran a hundred Ks a week, 120 Ks a week. So you get in a 60, 65, 75 miles weeks. And those are the people that were able to run fast marathons. So it, it’s like the proof is in the pudding. I have yet to see not a lot of people stay injury free.
[00:08:38] That could run. Let’s say 25, 30 miles a week. That’s 40 to 50 Ks a week run very fast. Marathon times, four years on end. So they might do it once, twice, but they can’t do it years on end. Uh, the next section here kind of idea is the earning system. So I feel like you need to earn the right to optimize by first maximizing, we’re optimizing, which is the better, so we can only maximize the more, and then we optimize.
[00:09:04] Most people, they quit. Volume progression at like 70% of their potential. They leave gains on the table better only matters once. Volume is absolutely exhausted and you only know that and maybe a coach that’s been around you a while, and you need to do that over and over and over many seasons and many training periods and many training blocks to know like, okay, more isn’t working.
[00:09:26] I need to now go to better and then new. It’s that cherry on top. So if we have a pyramid, more is the chunk in the middle. It’s that main part. And then you might have a little bit. Of better. And then you have a little triangle or the cherry on top if we have a cupcake or a cake is your new. And the study about this that proves this and supports this, it’s a meta-analysis study on training frequency and volume equated groups had identical gains regardless of session distribution.
[00:09:52] So again, science, my own experience. Talk to run coaches. Seen a lot of my runners out there that I coach. And here’s a practical framework that you can use. You can take it right now. Start with, can I run one more day per week? And then add 10 to 15 minutes to an existing run. Only when volume plateaus.
[00:10:08] Focus on form. Pacing efficiency. So a lot of people wanna go into form drills and all that stuff. That’s great, but just get more. ’cause when you run a lot, you’re actually gonna become a better runner, become more efficient. So I love my form drills. I love my A Skips, B skips. I love my plyometrics and all that, but a little bit.
[00:10:24] Goes a long way, but you need to do that over time and then only when more and better plateau you’re like, it’s not working. And this takes possibly months, if not years, to know. You can introduce new, so brand new training plans, flip them again. You can do new surfaces, new totally new workouts. You can train with a new training partner or a new run club.
[00:10:43] There’s a lot of ways to make. Quote unquote new. You can move to a new city, run in a new place, do different races. Let’s say you were doing marathons your whole life, or the last five years. Do 5K do 1500 meter? Uh, one mile races. Just totally flip it. Most never reached step three because they’ve never fully explored steps one and two.
[00:11:02] So back to Brenton and his training. I basically was like. This is prescribed to him specifically was like, how about you try some Norwegian double threshold stuff? If you wanna shake it up and do something new? How about you do more of this thing that you’ve really never really touched, that will actually help your main objective, which is your goal.
[00:11:22] And I recommended you do the Norwegian double threshold like every now and then, and. Norwegian double sub threshold. That is not threshold runs, by the way. And you need to be very, very precise with this. And I, I always say try to do it on treadmill. I personally only wanna do it on treadmill. Really good heart rate, monitor, chest strap or the arm strap, make sure that it is accurate.
[00:11:43] The batteries are, are good and you know, obviously you’re doing an air conditioning so you. And you, I have the fan on me from the treadmill and make sure that it’s the same treadmill that you do every single time you do that workout. So you know, make sure that you are fresh, and that’s a phenomenal workout to help build his low zone three and high zone two.
[00:12:01] You could do a lot of high zone two runs because that again, that that is what I think is a special sauce that he’s missing. I also think he needs to do form drills and ply metrics because he does have fast twitch. So if he gets more efficient, he could run with better form. And with less energy. So that’s run economy.
[00:12:19] So there’s a lot of things he can do there. I know that after this off season, it’ll be about three, four month off season. Him doing that. High zone two, low zone three. And then really fast twitchy stuff. Even start implementing strides and even touching sprints and skips, which I’ve done full episodes on.
[00:12:35] If he can touch all that, I really think that even though it sounds like he’s doing new, he’s actually just doing more of the things that weren’t working. I really feel like this could elevate him to run sub three hours, start touching 2 57, 2 58 marathon times. But that’s just me. What do you think? Do you agree with what I’m saying?
[00:12:55] Do you disagree? This is actually what I asked him also. I said, go to Chacha bt and tell me, tell what ai, uh, whatever AI using, and tell me, tell me if I’m wrong or not. So you let me know in the comments below. Appreciate everyone and to implement everything that I said. And I’ve already got a. Free training plan for you.
[00:13:10] Go download that, the QR code here, and you can make sure that you run farther or longer with the least amount of energy. You won’t get tired. It’s a 30 day base training plan and habits. We gotta get that mind right. And you also sign up automatically for my newsletter, five minutes or less, and I talk about all this stuff, heart rate training, the VO two max threshold work.
[00:13:31] What is threshold, sprint strides, et cetera. Um, have a bit of fun. Go a bit deep on some things. Again, get that mind right, mental fitness, but this whole more, better new thing is a bit more advanced. If you really want to understand what base training is and low heart rate training, go check out the episode below, or in the links in the video description or in your podcast player show notes piece.
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