Forums >Running 101>Running plan reset
I received alot of advice as a beginner to run more miles. So 6 months in to that approach I built up to running 4-5 days a week and 20 miles with a long run 7-10 miles. Stamina improved and my splits were getting better but it seems I get locked into the same pace regardless of distance. Is this normal, is there something in my training to improve speed or mental approach? Right now I am focusing on 5k distance and would like to get to 25:00. My best is around 29:00 but I just tried a track time for giggles and was 30 seconds 200 and 130 is 400. Any advice thanks
Runs in the rain
My first thought is 20 miles a week is not very much and your long run should be like 1/4 or even 1/5 of the weekly total. So increase weekly distance to like 30 or more miles and gradually you will see improvements in pace! Another thing would be to add segments where you run at a faster pace. I'd start by doing like a quarter mile at a faster pace. After a few weeks you can gradually add on more sections or increase the length of the sections. Eventually you will get habituated to the faster pace.
Long distance runner, what you standin' there for?Get up, get out, get out of the door!
Are we there, yet?
Given 20 mpw, long run of 7-10 miles, and running 4-5 days per week, that would imply that your other runs are 2-4 miles with an average of about 3. Bumping up the mileage on one or more of your shorter runs should help. Also make one of those runs a fartlek run where you run easy for a mile for warm up, then pick up the pace to a comfortably hard effort (not a sprint, more like 80% effort) for 1-2 minutes, drop back to an easy run or jog for a couple minutes to recover, repeat as many times as needed to start feeling tired, then cool down at a slow easy run for 5 minutes.
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03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
I do at least 3.1 miles on all the runs and if I only get 3 days in before my long run I stretch that out to hitvthe 20 mpw target. So i can try add a little more each run. 30mpw would be tough with my schedule. Thanks for the advice sounds like mixing up the pace during the run will be the goal. When is a Runner ready for speed work. I I haven't tried that yet
Add in some strides at the end of some of your runs. You can search old threads for how to run them "correctly".
When is a Runner ready for speed work. I I haven't tried that yet
That's as much a matter of how one defines speed work, as it is physical readiness. If you define it as formal interval workouts, especially on a track, and tempo runs, consider that with warm up, intervals or tempo, active recovery, and cool down, such a workout can easily be 4.5-5 miles in total, so you'd have to be comfortable with running that kind of distance with some of it being at a hard effort. However if you define it as including some running at a faster than normal pace, which can include strides and fartlek workouts, there's no reason why you can't include that almost from the beginning.
First week trying to increase to about 30 MPW 6 days of activity. Sunday long run 8 miles was really slow but I finished. I will see how the next few days go to determine if I can handle the extra miles