A 2-hour video program covering the brief course (see above), plus a recorded, in-class conversation between coach Clarke and Charlene R.

Charlene is an avid 35-year-old recreational distance runner, who is learning the distance running game.

The full course consists of five units.  View each part by clicking the following links:

Unit One.  A Marathon is an Exertion Structure.

Unit Two.  Pace Exertion and Race Ability.

Building Race Ability.
The Rules of Right Exertion.
Tempo Intervals.

Unit Three.  Understanding Effort and Energy.

Workout Effort and Capacity for Exertion.
Optimizing Workout Effort.
Scheduling Workouts.

Unit Four.  Training Periods and Training Cycles.

Optimizing Shock.
Establishing New Workouts.
Becoming “Fully Able” to Train.

Unit Five.  The Marathon Revisited.

Course Syllabus

Introduction. How to Read Your Body.
Lesson 1. A Workout is an Exertion Structure.

Part 1. Pace Exertion and Race Ability.

Lesson 2. Building Race Ability.
Lesson 3. The Rules of Right Exertion.
Lesson 4. Tempo Intervals.

Part 2. Understanding Effort and Energy.

Lesson 5. Workout Effort and Capacity for Exertion.
Lesson 6. Optimizing Workout Effort.
Lesson 7. Scheduling Workouts.

Part 3. Training Periods and Training Cycles.

Lesson 8. Optimizing Shock.
Lesson 9. Establishing New Workouts.
Lesson 10. Becoming Able to Train.

Conclusion. The Marathon Revisited.

Note: This course on the Hard-Easy System is intended for intermediate, advanced, and master level athletes and anyone aspiring to effective coaching.

The Hard-Easy System is based on the premise that the fundamental ability-building units of a training program are workouts. You must do workouts to improve your racing ability. Otherwise, why train? You might as well just go out and race.

• • • In the Hard-Easy System, every workout is made up of two ingredients: effort and energy. You can’t do a workout without exerting an effort, and you can’t exert an effort without encountering your sensations of running energy.
    • Your body is a separate entity from your thinking, ego-mind. Your body sends messages to your mind in the form of physical sensations, such as pain, abundant energy, or audible breathing, including many other effort and energy sensations.
    • You are capable of directly experiencing your sensations of effort and energy during a workout. Effective training decisions are based on an understanding of these physical sensations. You don’t need complex instrumentation to train effectively.

Understanding physical sensations requires conceptual interpretation. That’s where the hard-easy system comes into play. The system is fundamentally conceptual, i.e., it’s based on words with precise meanings that bring understanding to your running experience.

• • • The concept “pace exertion,” for example, has four essential ideas: a) the effort necessary, b) to sustain a pace, c) from moment to moment, d) during a running workout. When one of those ideas is missing, the concept “exertion” is missing, too.
    • Scales for Measuring Conceptual Ranges. The course on the Hard-Easy System makes extensive use of scales that measure pertinent aspects of your running experience. A scale is a complete range of five or six levels that describe a running phenomenon.
    • The pace exertion scale (see above), for example, has six (lowest-to-highest) levels: mild, light, steady-state, threshold, ragged-edge, and maximum. You don’t have to use every level in every workout, but you should be aware of the levels and their uses.
    • Understanding “pace exertion” will enable you to structure workouts that build a full complement of racing ability for your next goal race. Thus, being fully able to race separates duffer-athletes from athletes of equal talent who always finish first.

• Our learning project in this course is to use the hard-easy system to understand the following five features of the training process:

1. 1. 1. Steps that must be taken to improve your ability. For example, you must purposely structure the exertion of a workout to build an intended racing ability.
      2. Mistakes in thinking and practice that lead to injury, illness, and exhaustion. For example, doing progressively harder workouts during a training period.
      3. Principles that experience indicates are true about training and racing, e.g., a very slow warm-up during the first ten minutes reduces the risk of injury.
      4. Relationships between factors affecting your training decisions, e.g., the faster you run at the beginning of a workout, the greater your risk of injury.
      5. Questions that must be answered for progress to be made, e.g., how can you optimize workout effort, so your racing ability grows rather than languish?

Thus, you can learn to train effectively by paying attention to your sensations of effort and energy, and thereby learn how to read your body. Some say it can’t be done; we believe this course on the hard-easy system can impart the necessary skills and knowledge.