“Advance Beyond Beginner Stage” Running Program
I wanted to put together a simple plan that people can reference to try to push their running out of the “struggling why do I suck” stage into the competent arena. As you may have seen me write many times before, I find that most people struggle because they simply push themselves to hard in the few runs that they do and, as a result, end up running a lot less than they should. Keep in mind that your weekly goal is simply to train just hard enough to stimulate the body to improve, and then let it rest and improve. In the short term it will seem like you just aren’t training enough, but given enough time this “Chinese Water Torture” approach to training will have you in excellent shape.
I also want to give you a quick reminder that unlike cycling or swimming, you can’t simply hammer your way into running fitness. Your body will break before you know what hit you.
Phase 1 – building mileage and frequency
Since this is admittedly a cookie cutter approach to training, I can’t take into account your starting point. That is something that you will have to subjectively decide on your own. I recommend, however, that you look at the amount of time you currently spend running each week and move to that part of the plan. If you are truly a beginner and run less than 90 minutes a week, simply scale back the first week to a desirable starting point.
The main goal here is to slowly build your mileage at a rate that is gradual enough for the body to recover from. I also incorporate a hard/easy approach and focus on building the long run. Keep in mind that every run needs to be done at a conversational pace which should put you at ~1:30-2:30/mile slower than 5K race pace or 65%-80% of maximum heart rate.
Each day’s run is listed in time spent running in minutes.
Week 1: 15 – 15 – 15 – 15 – 15 – 15 – 0 = 1:30
Week 2: 16 – 15 – 16 – 15 – 15 – 17 – 0 = 1:34
Week 3: 17 – 15 – 17 – 15 – 15 – 19 – 0 = 1:38
Week 4: 18 – 15 – 18 – 15 – 15 – 21 – 0 = 1:42
Week 5: 19 – 15 – 19 – 15 – 15 – 23 – 0 = 1:46
Week 6: 20 – 15 – 20 – 15 – 15 – 25 – 0 = 1:50
Week 7: 21 – 15 – 21 – 15 – 15 – 27 – 0 = 1:54
Week 8: 22 – 15 – 22 – 15 – 15 – 29 – 0 = 1:58
Week 9: 23 – 15 – 23 – 15 – 15 – 31 – 0 = 2:02
Week10: 24 – 15 – 24 – 15 – 15 – 33 – 0 = 2:06
Week11: 25 – 15 – 25 – 15 – 15 – 35 – 0 = 2:10
Week12: 26 – 15 – 26 – 15 – 15 – 37 – 0 = 2:14
Week13: 27 – 15 – 27 – 15 – 15 – 39 – 0 = 2:18
Week14: 28 – 15 – 28 – 15 – 15 – 41 – 0 = 2:22
Week15: 29 – 15 – 29 – 15 – 15 – 43 – 0 = 2:26
Week16: 30 – 15 – 30 – 15 – 15 – 45 – 0 = 2:30
I would certainly consider this a conservative approach. If you really feel that you are recovering quickly and want to progress a little faster, feel free to skip ahead some weeks, but make absolutely certain that you don’t increase your total running time by more than 10% from one week to the next.
Once you reach week16, I recommend you start building on the easy days as well:
Week17: 32 – 16 – 32 – 16 – 16 – 48 – 0 = 2:40
Week18: 34 – 17 – 34 – 17 – 17 – 51 – 0 = 2:50
Week19: 36 – 18 – 36 – 18 – 18 – 54 – 0 = 3:00
Week20: 38 – 19 – 38 – 19 – 19 – 57 – 0 = 3:10
Week21: 40 – 20 – 40 – 20 – 20 – 60 – 0 = 3:20
Etc.
You might have figured out by now that you can’t continue this process on to infinity and beyond. At some point (dictated by experience and talent) your body is going to start to plateau. It will be many years before you reach your limits, but the rate at which you progress will certainly slow down. Keep this in mind and listen to your body. Don’t push your self to the next level just because you wrote down that you wanted to on your personal training plan. You will eventually reach a point where you may want to stay at the same level of training several weeks in a row.
Phase 2 – improving running economy and lactate threshold
Unfortunately I can’t account for individual abilities in this post so I can’t recommend an ultimate goal for mileage. I do feel, however, that most people should be able to run 3-5 hrs a week before they hit what you might consider “the right amount of training.” This would put you in the “average high school runner camp” in my opinion.
Once you have built up your base of mileage, its time to add two more critical components to your program.
1 – Striders: 3-4 days a week I recommend a series of 3-6 striders at the end of your run to work on running form and, hence, running economy. Stand up nice and tall, keep your pelvis in line with your body (not rotated forward creating an over arch in your lower back and not rotated backward creating the granny guy below your belly button), hold your arms in a comfortable position at about the level of your jacket pockets, hold your hands as if you are holding a potato chip between the thumb and the 1st knuckle of your index finger (trying not to break the chip), lift the knees, pick up the feet toward the butt, and place the feet on the ground with minimal ground contact time but not clomping or pounding….and take off at a very fast (but not sprinting pace). Do this for 40 steps, rest, and repeat. The purpose here is to work on an efficient running form. You want your motions to move forward and back, not side to side.
2 – Tempo Runs: 1 day a week (one of the medium length days) warm up, run 20 minutes at “one hour race pace”, and cool down. One hour race pace is a pace that you can hold for one hour. This will often correspond to 10K race pace for slower runners and 10 mile race pace for faster runners, or 5K pace + 15 seconds for slower runners and 5K pace +25 seconds for faster runners. The first time it will be a little difficult, but it will get easier. If all of your other runs are “conversational pace,” the tempo pace is where your breathing rhythm will shift to every 3 steps instead of every 4. Conversation could be had, but only in quick sentences with long breaks in between.
A 20 minute tempo run is the equivalent of adding an additional 20 minutes to your weekly training load. Take this into account on the week that you add this workout. I recommend that no additional training time be added to this week when compared to the previous week. Also be sure to run fairly slow the following day to recover from this workout.
To be quite honest, though there are other important elements to training, provide you’ve dialed in your training load properly, 90-95% of your potential can be realized by simply running a lot at an easy pace and do one tempo run a week, 40-50 weeks a year.
Hope this helps some of you. Good luck.
Runtraining20
-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485
I wanted to put together a simple plan that people can reference to try to push their running out of the “struggling why do I suck” stage into the competent arena. As you may have seen me write many times before, I find that most people struggle because they simply push themselves to hard in the few runs that they do and, as a result, end up running a lot less than they should. Keep in mind that your weekly goal is simply to train just hard enough to stimulate the body to improve, and then let it rest and improve. In the short term it will seem like you just aren’t training enough, but given enough time this “Chinese Water Torture” approach to training will have you in excellent shape.
I also want to give you a quick reminder that unlike cycling or swimming, you can’t simply hammer your way into running fitness. Your body will break before you know what hit you.
Phase 1 – building mileage and frequency
Since this is admittedly a cookie cutter approach to training, I can’t take into account your starting point. That is something that you will have to subjectively decide on your own. I recommend, however, that you look at the amount of time you currently spend running each week and move to that part of the plan. If you are truly a beginner and run less than 90 minutes a week, simply scale back the first week to a desirable starting point.
The main goal here is to slowly build your mileage at a rate that is gradual enough for the body to recover from. I also incorporate a hard/easy approach and focus on building the long run. Keep in mind that every run needs to be done at a conversational pace which should put you at ~1:30-2:30/mile slower than 5K race pace or 65%-80% of maximum heart rate.
Each day’s run is listed in time spent running in minutes.
Week 1: 15 – 15 – 15 – 15 – 15 – 15 – 0 = 1:30
Week 2: 16 – 15 – 16 – 15 – 15 – 17 – 0 = 1:34
Week 3: 17 – 15 – 17 – 15 – 15 – 19 – 0 = 1:38
Week 4: 18 – 15 – 18 – 15 – 15 – 21 – 0 = 1:42
Week 5: 19 – 15 – 19 – 15 – 15 – 23 – 0 = 1:46
Week 6: 20 – 15 – 20 – 15 – 15 – 25 – 0 = 1:50
Week 7: 21 – 15 – 21 – 15 – 15 – 27 – 0 = 1:54
Week 8: 22 – 15 – 22 – 15 – 15 – 29 – 0 = 1:58
Week 9: 23 – 15 – 23 – 15 – 15 – 31 – 0 = 2:02
Week10: 24 – 15 – 24 – 15 – 15 – 33 – 0 = 2:06
Week11: 25 – 15 – 25 – 15 – 15 – 35 – 0 = 2:10
Week12: 26 – 15 – 26 – 15 – 15 – 37 – 0 = 2:14
Week13: 27 – 15 – 27 – 15 – 15 – 39 – 0 = 2:18
Week14: 28 – 15 – 28 – 15 – 15 – 41 – 0 = 2:22
Week15: 29 – 15 – 29 – 15 – 15 – 43 – 0 = 2:26
Week16: 30 – 15 – 30 – 15 – 15 – 45 – 0 = 2:30
I would certainly consider this a conservative approach. If you really feel that you are recovering quickly and want to progress a little faster, feel free to skip ahead some weeks, but make absolutely certain that you don’t increase your total running time by more than 10% from one week to the next.
Once you reach week16, I recommend you start building on the easy days as well:
Week17: 32 – 16 – 32 – 16 – 16 – 48 – 0 = 2:40
Week18: 34 – 17 – 34 – 17 – 17 – 51 – 0 = 2:50
Week19: 36 – 18 – 36 – 18 – 18 – 54 – 0 = 3:00
Week20: 38 – 19 – 38 – 19 – 19 – 57 – 0 = 3:10
Week21: 40 – 20 – 40 – 20 – 20 – 60 – 0 = 3:20
Etc.
You might have figured out by now that you can’t continue this process on to infinity and beyond. At some point (dictated by experience and talent) your body is going to start to plateau. It will be many years before you reach your limits, but the rate at which you progress will certainly slow down. Keep this in mind and listen to your body. Don’t push your self to the next level just because you wrote down that you wanted to on your personal training plan. You will eventually reach a point where you may want to stay at the same level of training several weeks in a row.
Phase 2 – improving running economy and lactate threshold
Unfortunately I can’t account for individual abilities in this post so I can’t recommend an ultimate goal for mileage. I do feel, however, that most people should be able to run 3-5 hrs a week before they hit what you might consider “the right amount of training.” This would put you in the “average high school runner camp” in my opinion.
Once you have built up your base of mileage, its time to add two more critical components to your program.
1 – Striders: 3-4 days a week I recommend a series of 3-6 striders at the end of your run to work on running form and, hence, running economy. Stand up nice and tall, keep your pelvis in line with your body (not rotated forward creating an over arch in your lower back and not rotated backward creating the granny guy below your belly button), hold your arms in a comfortable position at about the level of your jacket pockets, hold your hands as if you are holding a potato chip between the thumb and the 1st knuckle of your index finger (trying not to break the chip), lift the knees, pick up the feet toward the butt, and place the feet on the ground with minimal ground contact time but not clomping or pounding….and take off at a very fast (but not sprinting pace). Do this for 40 steps, rest, and repeat. The purpose here is to work on an efficient running form. You want your motions to move forward and back, not side to side.
2 – Tempo Runs: 1 day a week (one of the medium length days) warm up, run 20 minutes at “one hour race pace”, and cool down. One hour race pace is a pace that you can hold for one hour. This will often correspond to 10K race pace for slower runners and 10 mile race pace for faster runners, or 5K pace + 15 seconds for slower runners and 5K pace +25 seconds for faster runners. The first time it will be a little difficult, but it will get easier. If all of your other runs are “conversational pace,” the tempo pace is where your breathing rhythm will shift to every 3 steps instead of every 4. Conversation could be had, but only in quick sentences with long breaks in between.
A 20 minute tempo run is the equivalent of adding an additional 20 minutes to your weekly training load. Take this into account on the week that you add this workout. I recommend that no additional training time be added to this week when compared to the previous week. Also be sure to run fairly slow the following day to recover from this workout.
To be quite honest, though there are other important elements to training, provide you’ve dialed in your training load properly, 90-95% of your potential can be realized by simply running a lot at an easy pace and do one tempo run a week, 40-50 weeks a year.
Hope this helps some of you. Good luck.
Runtraining20
-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485