Much thanks to djm2150 who found these for me. I wanted to steal it and put it my own post only so that I can keep the list updated. I found some older ones (13-16) that I’ve attached the search link to.
I’ve learned a lot since writting a lot of these and hope to go back and edit them to make sure that the best information gets across. Anyone who reads these for the first time keep in mind that I in no way pretend to be an authority on elite running. These posts are mainly intended to get runners who don’t have a strong background in distance running to begin to understand how they can structure their training to get faster. Those that seem to be fishing in the dark tell me that these have ben beneficial. For more advanced runners the threads provide a medium to compare and contrast ideas about training.
Hope you enjoy. Any hate mail can alway be PM’d directly to me.
Reorganized to bring more appropriate threads to the top:
thanks for this! i’ve only been running 6 months, but it looks like i might actually be doing some stuff right
generally monday is LSD day - now up to almost 12k (stalled at about 10k for awhile due to bad shoes whose cushioning wore out after 9.5k, every time. new shoes only purchased in time for taper for 10k race 1.5 weeks ago, so this week was my first real LSD with them @ 11.7km. went well, felt good). hope to be up over 20km before fall by increasing gradually.
wednesday i do a hill workout - live on top of a huge one, so (apart from my jogging-in-place in my livingroom warmup) i get about 1km of flat running to set pace, large downhill, 4-6 minor uphill/downhills depending on distance (did 6.95km last night - have done up to 8km), then back up the huge hill and 1-2km of more or less flat running to end it before cool-down walk and stretching. i try to keep PRE steady uphill instead of pace, and concentrate on form (getting knees up). used to try to maintain pace, and i can do it, but it burns me out pretty badly.
saturday i do a tempo run of 7 or 8km, and your note about it being a pace you can maintain for 60mins is very helpful - a website i use (runningroom.com) tells me my tempo pace should be much slower, but i don’t really consider it a tempo run unless i’m at around my 10k race pace (about 5:46min/km or 9:17min/mile). based on 57:39 finish in recent 10k, runningroom.com says my tempo pace should be 6:16min/km or 10:06min/mile, which is more like my LSD pace.
this is in addition to any bike/run bricks i do…trying to do 1 per week…
20 minute tempo should be at about 1 hour race pace (10K race pace for you).
A 40 minute tempo will be 7-15 sec a mile slower.
A 60 minute tempo will be abother 7-15 sec a mile slower than that.
Good luck.
thanks for that! guess i need to slow it down a bit…not very good at that, always feels like if i’m doing less than about 10:00min/mile pace i’m just gonna drop to a walk…my LSD pace and 5k race pace are less than 2 minutes per mile apart
How about a “How to Taper” article? In addition to being a good conclusion to the others, it has a certain timeliness for me and my marathon 17 days from now:-)
This leads me to The Zatopek Paradox. Emil Zatopek DOMINATED the running scene in the early 1950s winning gold in the 5,000, 10,000, and marathon in the 1952 Olympics and broke 18 world records. If one wanted to become faster in 1952, they’d be wise to take a look at Zatopek’s training (but beware…see The Khannouchi Paradox coming soon
But I see no article about the “Khannouchi Paradox”. Is there one?
I should probably re-write both of those. I’ve seen both runners used as examples of ho wto train, and many people train incorrectly because of it.
Zatopek ran intervals all the time. There are some quotes from him about the uselessness of training slow. The problem is, as I pointed out in the post, is that 99% of all competetive distance runners today train in an approach that is completely contradictory to his program. There’s a reason for that.
Zatopek was very inovative for his time and I think took running to the next level. Intervals were a great idea, but he likely did too much, hence his times, though the class of his era, plae in comparison to what can be accomplished today.
Lesson from the story: don’t follow advice from half a decade ago.
Khalid, OTOH, would do insanely difficult long runs. 1) They aren’t as insane as one might think relative to his ability and 2) he’s REALLY talented and a REALLY seasoned veteran athlete.
Lesson from the story: don’t try to follow insane training protocols from freaks of nature.
I’m a sub 10 IM, but a very mediocre runner (3:5x marathon) and after 6 Months of NO running I’m just about to dust off the shoes. I think your frequency programme will help me going forward, but wonder if I should start at the very beginning (Week 1), or jump in somewhere further up the table. I guess I know the answer but am in danger of getting impatient before I’ve even started!
Barry, I ran a 22:30 for a 5k this past weekend. I am 54 and run 38 miles average for the last six weeks. The thing i do not understand is if i run vdot pace for any training everything is way too hard. I can run near max for an entire 5k (max HR 180) I just don’t get it. What do you think. I would pay for your advice to get better on the run
www.mcmillanrunning.com and go to his pace calculator. You shoul dbe somewhere between easy/long run/recovery paces. As long as you are in that range, there’s no need to worry about it.
