Hey, on advice from someone on this message board I looked at the McMillan Running calculator and having been folliwng the output/paces that it suggested for me. I am training for multiple Oly Tri’s this summer and wanted to use this for my run training.
I had few questions.
A) how often should I be doing each type of run (long run, easy run etc.) Currently I run 3 times a week…Sunday is usually long run (8ish miles) and then maybe Tues and Thursday 3 to 4 miles. Is this good? And if i keep within the recommended speeds will my 10k time get faster?
B) should I ever be usuing the Speed/Sprinting workouts? I have not been, are these necessary to become faster?
c) is McMillan Running even a good plan to be following?
I was pretty much running the same amount before the plan but just at a much higher pace…pretty much balls out all the time
There are plenty of variations, but most running plans for distance runners are built around three key runs: a long run, tempo run, and some type of intervals/speedwork. If you’re only doing 3 runs per week that pretty much gives you a basic week. I don’t know what type of speed you’re doing, but your volume sounds pretty low to me. For an Olympic, I’d build up to a long run of 12 mi or so, tempo runs of about 4 mi straight at tempo pace (w/ warmup & cooldown), and intervals totaling at least 4 mi fast (i.e. 4 x 1 mi, 8 x 0.5 mi, etc.) again with w/u and c/d. This is just a bare bones program, along the lines of the FIRST program. The McMillan calculator is a good resource for paces, but on its own isn’t a program.
There are plenty of variations, but most running plans for distance runners are built around three key runs: a long run, tempo run, and some type of intervals/speedwork. If you’re only doing 3 runs per week that pretty much gives you a basic week. I don’t know what type of speed you’re doing, but your volume sounds pretty low to me. For an Olympic, I’d build up to a long run of 12 mi or so, tempo runs of about 4 mi straight at tempo pace (w/ warmup & cooldown), and intervals totaling at least 4 mi fast (i.e. 4 x 1 mi, 8 x 0.5 mi, etc.) again with w/u and c/d. This is just a bare bones program, along the lines of the FIRST program. The McMillan calculator is a good resource for paces, but on its own isn’t a program.
I’d throw in at least one, preferably two easy/recovery 30 minute runs in there two for a 4-5 times a week schedule, that should get you want your looking for.
I’m in late base and training for sprints, but here’s what a week is looking like for me now:
Tues:
15 minute warmup
3x(2x200m rep with 200m recovery 1x400m rep with 400m recovery) working distances all done at repetition pace (faster than VO2, but short and plenty of rest in-between)
15 minute cooldown
Thursday:
15 minute warmup
20 minute tempo (about 10 seconds off 10k pace)
15 minute cooldown
Saturday:
90 minute easy long run
This gives me a good 23-25 miles depending on if my long run is on the trails or on the road. I’ll keep up the repetitions for a couple more weeks and then trade them out for 1200m VO2 intervals. Just think of the repetitions as extended strides in the same way (developing economy and speed) and in no way taxing or hard.
If I were you, I would familiarize myself with BarryP’s run plan. It helped me steer clear of injury last year, and enabled me to shave an incredible amount of time off my PR’s. For example, I shaved 3 minutes off my 5k time in 12 weeks, from 23:14 to 20:04 over the course of the series.
A few suggestions from a McMillian fan and follower (I use his personal coaching plan).
You said you were always running balls to the wall, that should not be the case. McMillian is all about the easy run 3-4 times a week.
The calculator is to determine speeds based off your last race, not your goal pace. You should go do a 5k and use that time as your input.
If you are only running 3 days a week, don’t do the 3 hardest workouts from the plan. You should be running more but if only running 3x per week, you should be running the long run (at a slow pace), one of the speed or interval workouts, and one of the recovery runs. You should not be doing the long run, the speed run, and the interval run.
Run more. Try to run 5x per week and keep the easy runs easy and the hard runs hard and the long run slow.
McMillian works. It is easy to get beat up on this plan if you try to go at the fast part of the ranges all of the time. You really need to shoot for the mid/high paces of the ranges.
Obviously I’m a fan of my own plan, so I’ll steer you to it in my sig line. ; ^ )
In general, no, 3 days of running are not enough. If you are training for Oly’s I’ll give you a very, very basic outline right here of what I recommend:
Three phases of training.
Base building - all easy running, 6 days a week, with a mix of short, medium, and long runs.
Transtion phase - add one tempo/threshold run a week. I use 3 distances - 20, 40, and 60 min runs. Use the McMillan zones. 20 min is the fastest end of the tempo run, 60 min is the slowest end of the steady state run, 40 min is in between.
Race phase - add in a second workout a week. This workout will be a variety of paces from 5K race pace up to a little faster than 20 min tempo pace with very very small bits of faster running mixed in.
Race phase is 4-8 weeks long (unless you are elite). Transition phase is 4-12 weeks long. Base is 6 - 12 weeks long.
If you want to do a long summer season, you might go base, transition, race, transition, race, transition, race. etc.
Read the links for more detail.
Again, summary:
6 days a week with one long run 50% longer than your next longest run.
transition is 1 workout a week
race phase is 2 workouts a week
Workouts are primarily at Oly race pace.
Wow my head is spinning with all this info…I only run 3 times a week because I am into a lot of other stuff, in Spring I will be in on 2 soccer teams with 1 game each a week (just 1 right now). I also box or cross fit twice a week. Then there is lifting and swimming…I am not biking much right now because it is cold here (NY/NJ) been throwing in a spin class now and then.
So If the longest run im looking to do this season will be the 10k, how long should my long run be? I ran 8.5 last Sunday at around a 9 pace based on Mcmillan calculator.
What should my other two runs be? How long and what pace? I was going to do maybe 4 today at the 7:52 to 8:22 pace suggested.
Thanks for all the info…Im really running newb…I have played soccer and numerous sports all my life just never had a detailed runnig plan so I was trying to structure something.
Ohh and if it helps my last 5K was in a Sprint Tri and it was 18:46…thats the time I used for the calculator
So If the longest run im looking to do this season will be the 10k, how long should my long run be?
It obviously depends what your goal is. For a competitive distance runner or triathlete - the answer might be a weekly 2 hour long run of 17-20 miles.
What I mean is that the distance you’re training for is a less important determinent of how to structure your training than many other things. Keep in mind, guys training for the mile might run 100 mpw w/ a 20 mile long run. So there’s no straight answer. 10k = x distance for long run.
If your approach to training is casual (ie running 3 days a week and doing lots of other activities), then why comlicate things? Don’t overthink your training. Just get out the door and run - as frequently as you can. If you decide you want more structure, take a look at barryp’s plan that was referenced earlier. His 3:2:1 ratio is a good way to set up a week.
Thanks. Its not that my approach is casual I am just not ready to sacrafice all other atctivites and just be a triathlete…that just deprives me of too much other fun stuff. So running , biking and swimming 4 times each week isnt going to happen.
I want to be competetive in everything I do and just wanted to see how I could get the most of the training I do devote to Tri’s
A few suggestions from a McMillian fan and follower (I use his personal coaching plan).
…
2) If you are only running 3 days a week, don’t do the 3 hardest workouts from the plan. You should be running more but if only running 3x per week, you should be running the long run (at a slow pace), one of the speed or interval workouts, and one of the recovery runs. You should not be doing the long run, the speed run, and the interval run.
IMHO, if you’re only running 3 days a recovery run is a waste. You recover on the off days or w/swimming etc. Make the runs count.
If you’re playing two soccer games (matches?) a week, then I think you could probably count them as “running” days. (Unless you are a goal tender, I suppose.)
The soccer games are going to be close approximation of the interval work that mcmillian wants you to do.
If you are going to run three times a week in addition to your soccer, I would do a longer run at long run pace, a tempo workout, and then an easy workout at McMillian’s easy pace. While others said they “want to get the most out of their workouts” mcmillian easy runs are key to the program to keeping your healthy and building your base. An easy run has purpose.
Your three workouts:
An easy run of 5 miles at easy pace (based on your most recent 5k time)
A long run (~8 miles) on the faster side of the long run pace but not faster than the easy pace.
A tempo workout that is 50 mins or so. Either a thirds or a progression run or a steady state run. You should target the steady state pace using mcmillian’s calculator for this run.
If you want to get creative, every week switch between an interval workout and a tempo workout. One week do a steady state run and the next do 800’s or hill repeats.
Since most of us are also trying to squeeze biking and swimming into the mix also, how would these fit into a 1:2:3 6x a week running plan? My bike training is always done in the first thing in the morning and 4-5 hours before my runs. For the least impact to my run training and adaptations, which of your running days (short,medium,long) should things like hard bike intervals be done? I would normally think the short days would be ideal but if those days are supposed to be used as ‘active recovery’ runs would trashing ones legs on the bike adversely impact adaptation?
I often wonder if the schedule of my biking and runs are really negatively impacting each other. Any advice on how to blend it all would be appreciated!
Since you can only run 3 days a week, there will obviously be a limit to your success.
Follow what I laid out above but remove the 3 short days.
So that’s a base period of 3 easy runs a week at a 2:3 ratio. So two runs of one length, and one run that is 2:3 longer (50% longer). 4, 4, 6 or 5, 5, 7.5, or 6, 6, 9…etc.
After doing that for a while, make one of those easy runs a tempo/steady state run (see above).
After doing that for a while add in a second workout where you run a mix of 5K and 10K paces, with a little bit of fast stuff. Read through the plan for more details.
