Feeling the growl again
The only change I may suggest is the 5-6 miles of speedwork. If that is the total distance of the actual intervals, I think that's too aggressive for where he is at. 3-4 would be reasonable. My usual speedwork volume is 4ish miles; even handling 100mpw I rarely executed over 5 miles of intervals.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
Thanks for the suggestion. The 5-6 miles of speedwork are workout such as 5-6xmile, 3-4x1.5, 3x2mi at 10k pace. I agree if it's going to be shorter interval sets, a total distance of 3-4 miles would be appropriate. Also thinking that the longer tempo intervals might be better for half training for him at this point in time. I'm not going to mess around too much with his Wednesday routine as he has is work group that he does the running with.
Personally, I think he'd get just almost the same benefit, with less risk, by running those closer to his CURRENT half marathon pace rather than 10K pace.
This is a really great interview with Billy Mills. Touches on a lot of stuff in the interview including Mills' spirituality. Now this is a a role model. I've met him and he is as friendly and humble as they come.
Interview
He ran on a 10-day training cycle during his career.
Ken, thanks for sharing. As I get older that 10-day cycle sounds a lot more appealing. Too bad I am not a pro runner with such flexibility.
Just a dude.
That is a heck of an interview.
Thanks for the link!
-Kelly
Getting back in shape... Just need it to be a skinnier shape...
Yes, thanks for sharing Ken. I love reading that kind of stuff. I've been looking into and reading about 10-day training cycles. Unfortunately, the normal work week and kids activities make a 7-day schedule much easier. The 10-day cycle I've been looking at goes something like this:
1. Easy aerobic pace: AM-5, PM-10
2. Speed: 3 mi warmup, drills, 10 x 100m fast w/ 300m full recovery jog, 5 mi cooldown
3. Long: 16 mi or 95-100 min w/fartlek surges of 30 sec to 5 min or run down to 10mi race pace.
4. Recovery run
5. Tempo run: 6-8 mi tempo w/ 6 x 100m strides before and after
6. Easy aerobic run
7. Economy: 20x400m at 3k race pace w/ 1:30 recovery
8. Recovery run
9. Easy aerobic pace: steady 10-12 w/ 6x100m strides
10. VO2 max: 5-6 x mile at current 8k-10k pace w/3 min rest or 8-10 1k at current 8k pace w/2 min rest
This type of schedule is so much more appealing and brings in all the components. My normal routine seems to be Tue- interval, Th- tempo and weekend long run. I keep wanting to switch to the 10-day but am struggling on figuring out how I can make something like that work.
Yep. The 10 day cycle is hard to pull off when you're working a regular job - though I guess Mills was working pretty regular then (in the Marine Corps)? When I turn Pro I will go to the 10 day cycle (in other words - when Iretire ).
Yeah, I tried working through one 10-day cycle and I couldn't even get that to work. Made it half-way through before work demands and a weekend trip back to Iowa ruined that. Will pick it back up and see what I can do from here on out. It will be tough this weekend as we're going camping in Kentucky....
if one had a workout in mind, look at the watch and know it's not happening, not even close despite the effort, should one just bag it, jog out the miles intended and try another day, or continue and see if the legs wake up?
Did the latter today, and no it was not happening by mile 5 and cut the workout short (of the intended 7), feel like I accomplished neither the easy run so I could try tomorrow, nor the intended workout.
Feel like I am starting my running all over again and having these newbie questions. Could be that the higher mileage of the past couple of weeks has me a bit more tired than usual, but pace is off by 30-40 sec/mile at the same effort despite cooler weather.
if one had a workout in mind, look at the watch and know it's not happening, not even close despite the effort, should one just bag it, jog out the miles intended and try another day, or continue and see if the legs wake up? Did the latter today, and no it was not happening by mile 5 and cut the workout short (of the intended 7), feel like I accomplished neither the easy run so I could try tomorrow, nor the intended workout. Feel like I am starting my running all over again and having these newbie questions. Could be that the higher mileage of the past couple of weeks has me a bit more tired than usual, but pace is off by 30-40 sec/mile at the same effort despite cooler weather.
It's not rare for me to feel kind of sluggish and flat at the beginning of a workout but get into it as I go on. But, at least for me, there's a certain feeling in the legs when you just know that pushing the workout is a bad idea. In those cases I bag it. Sometimes I try again the next day and everything is fine.
This seems to happen more often as I get older. I don't even schedule workouts for certain days anymore, I just wait until I feel up to it and then do them. Sometimes that means one rest day, sometimes two, occasionally three.
Interval Junkie --Nobby
I've experienced this too -- and found it kinda weird. I'll "fail" a tempo run by missing the pace for the distance by a disappointing margin, and then the next day I'll crank out the same workout and have no problem. I'm not at all suggesting trying this is a good thing -- it was good for my confidence, not my training fatigue levels.
Sometimes a night's sleep is really all you need.
2021 Goals: 50mpw 'cause there's nothing else to do
Quick question:
Wanted to do a longer tempo on Friday.. however, its supposed to rain. So, I ran a 17 min tempo today (Thurs). Is there a way to supplement this workout on Friday or Saturday if it doesn’t rain?
And we run because we like itThrough the broad bright land
Quick question: Wanted to do a longer tempo on Friday.. however, its supposed to rain. So, I ran a 17 min tempo today (Thurs). Is there a way to supplement this workout on Friday or Saturday if it doesn’t rain?
Ha. Haha. Hahahaha. You Californians.
I wouldn't do anything Friday then, but you can do any sort of additional moderate workout on Saturday, assuming you typically take 2 days between workouts. Heck I used to do my two hardest weekly workouts on Tuesday and Thursday, but then typically took 2 days recovery until another workout on Sunday.
It's all about recovery over a timespan. You can get away with workouts closer together than normal as long as you catch up on recovery before you push it too far.
Hey! I resent the intended meaning of that statement. My first thought was similar ... "C'mon Ben, man up and run in the rain for once - you'll like it!". But then I forget that you skinny whippets up at the front of the races get cold real fast, us mudders in the middle of the pack have a nice layer of blubber and hold up better in the rainy, cold weather.