Forums >General Running>10 day training cycles?
I have done a 10 day plan & actually prefer it. not able to get in all the wo's that I like to do within a week. have not been able to really sustain it because my work schedule is usually all over the place, otherwise would still be doing it. gives many options as to the wo's. Within that 10 day cycle I liked to have 1 LR, 1 mid length with some type of tempo, 1 harder speed type wo, & 1 complete day off, everything else easy-usually 45-60 mns.
basically 3 mod to hard effort with 1 day off within the 10 days. of course with me everything needs to be taken into the context of not being an elite, so my mod to hard efforts would be easy for a highly competitive person at top of the AG in races. have seen others from time to time on RA talking about 10 day cycles. if it works for you, go for it. I think 10 day cycles give you more options & flexibility to adjust as needed
Wondering if anyone has tried a 10 day (or longer) training cycle as an alternative to a regular weekly cycle. Seems like it would have advantages, but it would also mean doing a long run during the week sometimes.
For most people, the issue of 10-day cycle is inconvenience. It does make sense to do the long run on the weekend. There are some pro runners who believe 10-day cycle work better and, of course, they can afford to do so. But when you think about it, those pro usually train 7-days-a-week (most of them twice a day) while many of "us" would do 5 or 4 days...some even as little as 3-days-a-week. I think it's safe to say that, if you're training 5-days-a-week, you can think of it as 2-week cycle (10-workouts) which I actually like--I like to give a quality workout spread out; i.e., do interval one week and do tempo run the next...something like that. Of course, this way you'll be doing long run on weekend either way but you can always do the longest long run one weekend and then medium long run the next weekend...something like that.
If you're not training every day, I'm not sure if it's worth thinking hard to establish 10-days cycle when things get so complicated. Just look at it as 2-week cycle and carry on. Certainly it's a heck of a lot more convenient and, in terms of physiology of your workout and recovery, probably makes more sense for people who don't train every single day.
I think it depends on what else is going on in your life. As Nobby said, elite runners can use a ten day cycle if they prefer since they have time during the week to do their long runs. For someone with a wife, kids and a 9-5 job, midweek long runs or long interval sessions may not be practical.
I do like the idea of a ten day cycle in principle for the simple fact that it spreads out the frequency of your hard workouts, allowing for better recovery.
Since January, I've been on a work schedule where I work 12 hours per day, 5 days one week and 2 days the next. For a while I tried to fight it and keep to my usual schedule, but lately I've decided to work with the situation that I'm in and schedule all of my hard workouts and long runs for my days off work and just do a short, easy jog on the days that I work. I guess if nothing else it gives me a built-in hard/easy weekly pattern. The plan after I get through my races the next two weeks is to add a morning run on my non-working days to make up for some of the mileage lost on the working days.
Ultimately, it just comes down to what works best for each individual.
Full Stride Running
I've changed my microcycles across the years as I entered retirement and also changed what I was training for. As already mentioned, what works depends a lot on what else is going on in your life. While working, most of my runs were in evenings and on weekends with a fairly predictable work schedule. In first few years of retirement, I had a lot more flexibility and commitments mostly in evenings and weekends. Now it's shifted to more business hour-commitments - but no predictability.
I've generally aimed for a 2on/1off running frequency with 1 of the 2 days being a "key" workout. I like 4 key workouts in a 12 to 14-day microcycle. The other day of each pair may be recovery, easy, or moderate - depending on lots of things - anything from recovery time, other commitments, or snowstorms. In reality in recent years, I may run as many as 5 or 6 days in a row, esp. if snow is poor - but the quality usually decreases. I never (well, maybe once a year or two) go 2 days in a row without running. (philosophy in winter is "run now because tomorrow the conditions could be worse")
My key workouts are long run; flat/fast (usually on grass); big hill (700ft run/power hike or 3000ft power hike); and rolling hills. If I'm training for something shorter so my long runs aren't as long, then one of the other hill workouts becomes hill repeats. (I'm usually training for trail races with lots of hills, sometimes short ultra. Hills have downhills which need recovery / adaptation time.)
What I've found is the predictability of setting up a schedule may be more important than the length of the microcycle. And my other commitments may make it easier to do a long run Mon-Thurs (at least they used to). (trail work days on weekends, not to mention idiot drivers on long-run road as weather gets nicer)
At some time in the past, I think I was using 9-day microcycles with 3 key runs.
Thanks for the replies. My schedule could handle a 10-day cycle; we don't have kids and I work from home. But maybe for now, if it ain't broke I shouldn't worry about fixing it.
I know this is an old topic, but I do a 9 day cycle in marathon training... works best for me. Allowing for high mileage and 2 recovery days between stress workouts
http://www.elitemarathoning.com/training_cycle.html
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flashlight and sidewalk
Kind of off subject, but there has been some research that has indicated that humans may have a "circaseptan" rhythm. This is like a circadian rhythm that spans a 7 day period. My initial reaction prior to knowing of this possibility would have been to say "the body doesn't know if you are doing a 7 day training cycle or a 10 day training cycle", but that may not be true.
I don't work my running around circadian rhythms, so I see no need to work it around a circaseptan rhythm...I just thought it would be interesting to share that the body might know what "7 days" is.
**Ask me about streaking**