I finished the Red plan in edition 2 and am considering the Blue plan. The 5-15k plan just looks like too much for me. Of course I have to laugh at the Blue plan cause it says you should be running about 5 hours per week, which is about 40 miles. There's no icon thingie for ROLMFAO, cause 5 hours for me is not close to 40 miles.

But anyway, here's my question. The repetition of the Red plan started to bore me. Basically you do the same workouts (in that case, either 2 tempo or 1 tempo & 1 interval) each week for 4 weeks. That got old, especially in the early weeks where it was 2 workouts of tempo intervals. So is the important thing that when the plan calls for an interval workout, I do an interval workout? Or do you think there is some greater importance in doing the I workout in the plan; for the first quarter of the Blue plan, I think the I workout was 4 or 5 x 1200m? As an aside, I'd be modifying that workout cause 1200m will take me more than the 5 minutes Daniels uses as a maximum for intervals (my I pace is 8:05).

I was thinking about subbing in the I workout from the 5-15 plan for the I workout in the Blue plan because it seems like there was more variety in the 5-15k plan. Basically whatever option I do, I am going to need to scale the workouts a bit.

Yeah, 40 miles in 5 hours is a 7:30 pace and that's scootin' along.  I know some guys who run easy at that pace and they're doing sub 18 5K's.  I'm not entirely sure what you are asking but one of the major differences between the Blue Plan and the 5K-15K plan is that the 5K-15K plan will call for two quality days with a long one week and then three quality days with no long run the next week.  I honestly don't see a problem with doing the 5K-15K plan and just modify the workouts to fit your weekly mileage and your pace.  Remember the guidelines.

 

1.  No more than 10% of weekly mileage at T pace

2.  No more than 8% of weekly mileage at I pace

3.  No more than 5% of weekly mileage at R pace

4.  Modify R workouts so the workbouts are a maximum of 2:30

5.  Modify I workouts so the workbouts are a minimum of 3:00 and a maximum of 5:00

6.  L run no more than 1/3 of weekly mileage (Daniels says 25% but that's not realistic for a lot of recreational runners).

I don't have the book in front of me, but the gist of the the blue plan 1st quarter is:

1 E run, 60 min

1 E run, 30-45 min with 6 or 8 strides (can't remember)

Long run, 60-90 min

8x 400 m R pace, 400m recovery

4 or 5 x 1200m (I think)

You can add in E runs. 5 runs per week seems to work for me. I also do 2 strength training workouts each week. This spring/summer is the first time I have run 5x per week on a regular basis (up from 4).

So I'd be looking to sub in the I workout from the 5-15k plan to avoid to repetition. And frankly, the long intervals in the summer get really old, really quick.

The repetition of the Red plan started to bore me. Basically you do the same workouts (in that case, either 2 tempo or 1 tempo & 1 interval) each week for 4 weeks. That got old, especially in the early weeks where it was 2 workouts of tempo intervals.

There is irony there...

I went right to his 2nd edition 5 and 10k plan because the 5k was my focus.  I did not use any of the colored plans and in fact probably could not recite a full sentence from them collectively.

The most I know of them is that the color system was used during his school years and that is where he got the idea from.

Somewhere in all of his babbling he states that his plans are written for the high school and college aged athlete. I took that to mean my old ass should tread cautiously and that is what I did.

So I did not always do the volume of his workouts nor did I do the three quality workouts that is listed in that plan per week and I did not run 7 days as he assumes you are.

I just kind of did what was challenging for me using his percentages of weekly miles (the ones LtH listed) as my guide.

That he gives those percentages is what makes his ideals ideal.  You can take his principles and based on those percentages craft your own workouts without ever looking at the plan again (once you have a full grasp of those ideals and principles that is).

That 24 week plan is designed for you to peak at the end of it which is what I did scoring PR's across three distances in a three week span.  The problem with that though was that I did peak, and was not worth a shit for the next two months!

This year I did not follow his plan (nor look at it once) because my season is longer than 6 months so I just kind of did my own thing to ensure I would train well, but remain fresh and spry usually doing you guessed it; some sort of tempo repeats and intervals.

4 x 1200 at tempo pace, 5 x 1000 at I pace, and 8 x 400 at R pace or some variation thereof is pretty much all I do.

Sometimes I combine them in a single run (a pace ladder) going 3 easy + 2 x 1200 at tempo + 2 x 1000 at I + 2 x 400 at R pace.  Or  again, some variation of that.

The irony in your statement is that all most runners do is a tempo run and an interval run once per week whether they are following Daniels or never heard of him, because it works.

If I were you (or anyone) I would go right to the 5 and 10k plan and modify it as you go along, doing only one or two of the three quality runs as your fitness allows.

I think I skipped phase one and jumped right into phase two.

I did the I workout from the 5-15 plan yesterday. I'll call it a confidence boosting failure. It was the first workout that I have done where I have run faster than what is called for. As in the 2 min interval was actually at I pace, the 1 min and 30 second ones were at R pace or faster. Oops.

I know that workout well!  2 minutes hard, 1 minute jog, 1 minute hard, 30 second jog, 30 second hard, 30 second jog, repeat.

What you are trying to do with that workout is run by effort, which should prevent you from running the short portions too fast.  I had the same problem though and modified the workout to 2 minutes hard, 1 minute jog, repeat X number of times.

I found it much easier to find my effort that way and no one says you have to do it exactly the way that Daniels lays it out as other coaches do it differently.

The most important aspect of VO2 max work is to recover no more than half the time you run, if you do that then you are doing okay regardless of how you actually run it.

As for recovery, this is from page 124 of the 2nd edition:

 

"The amount of recovery you should take between repeated runs in an interval session should be equal to, or a little less than, the time spent performing the preceding workbout."  I think a lot of people take too little recovery in VO2max workouts and then have to either slow the workout below the desired intensity or cut it short.  I find that half distance recoveries work perfectly.  For example, if I'm doing 800's at "I" pace, that will make each repeat around 3:00 for me.  If I jog one lap around the track, that jog will last around 2:30.  The workbout portion of a 1,000 will take about 3:45 while the 500 recovery will take about 3:05.

Yeah I got that recover half the time of the interval thing from somewhere else.  I am not sure where I read it but it made creating my own shorter VO2 max workouts much simpler than the hard 2 mins, jog 1 min etc. workout referenced in K2's earlier post.

With the limited recovery, you get right back to VO2 max quickly once the next interval begins and are thus getting a good, solid VO2 max workout in despite the shorter intervals.

I run the shorter intervals coming off of a race, high mileage week or run where I do not want to risk running the longer intervals in a weakened state, but still want VO2 max work.  Or when I attain a new VDOT value.

As for longer intervals like 1000's yes, I recover for 3 mins with my target splits usually around 3:37 to 3:39.  I would flame out rather quickly if I recovered for only half the time of the 1000's.