Forums >General Running>Workout or Mileage This Winter?
This winter I created a plan where I'm running only 25 or so mpw. I have a race every other saturday starting jan.6th, and a workout every monday starting dec.25th (mostly track intervals, a couple of tempos in there) My track season starts Feb.26th. Should I take out the tempos, do a track workout only on non-race weeks and fit in mileage that I'll increase over the winter? I am training for the mile and 2mile this spring and want to do whats best for my spring season.
XC Season I avged around 35mpw and I've run up to 50mpw before
Goals:
1600m- 4:59
3200m- 10:45
Can you talk to your outdoor track coach to get their perspective on what you should be doing over the winter? They are going to be more familiar with your situation and what they advise you to do is likely going to be better than advice over the Internet.
If you are sure you want our advice, then we need some more information.
(1) What has your mileage been for the last 6 to 8 weeks? How has that mileage been broken down in a typical week?
(2) How many days a week do you run?
(3) What is your longest run in the last 6 to 8 weeks?
(4) Have you been injured in the last 6 months? If so, what type of injury?
(5) How is your planned 25 mpw broken out in a typical week? Why 25 mpw and not 35 mpw?
(6) What races do you have in the schedule? At a minimum need to know distance and type of terrain.
(7) What type of track workouts are you planning to include? (Length of intervals, tempo distance, etc.)
(8) How did you arrive at your goals of 1600m - 4:59 and 3200m - 10:45?
(9) Did you take a break between cross country season and now?
(10) How many years have you been running track?
In general, you want to build/rebuild an endurance base over the winter with a mix of 2 to 3 short easy runs, 1 to 2 faster medium runs, and 1 easy paced long run each week. You probably do not want to get on the track at all during this time. The races will serve as speed work and you do not want to do too much speed work until you start outdoor track practice. Instead do 4 to 10 100 meter accelerations a couple days a week instead. Of course this is based on the assumption that none of the races this winter are meant to be goal races for you.
Just remember this "training plan" I provided you is worth what you paid for it (nothing). I know it would work for me, but I am a 55 year old male who runs marathons.
Can you talk to your outdoor track coach to get their perspective on what you should be doing over the winter? They are going to be more familiar with your situation and what they advise you to do is likely going to be better than advice over the Internet. If you are sure you want our advice, then we need some more information. (1) What has your mileage been for the last 6 to 8 weeks? How has that mileage been broken down in a typical week? (2) How many days a week do you run? (3) What is your longest run in the last 6 to 8 weeks? (4) Have you been injured in the last 6 months? If so, what type of injury? (5) How is your planned 25 mpw broken out in a typical week? Why 25 mpw and not 35 mpw? (6) What races do you have in the schedule? At a minimum need to know distance and type of terrain. (7) What type of track workouts are you planning to include? (Length of intervals, tempo distance, etc.) (8) How did you arrive at your goals of 1600m - 4:59 and 3200m - 10:45? (9) Did you take a break between cross country season and now? (10) How many years have you been running track? In general, you want to build/rebuild an endurance base over the winter with a mix of 2 to 3 short easy runs, 1 to 2 faster medium runs, and 1 easy paced long run each week. You probably do not want to get on the track at all during this time. The races will serve as speed work and you do not want to do too much speed work until you start outdoor track practice. Instead do 4 to 10 100 meter accelerations a couple days a week instead. Of course this is based on the assumption that none of the races this winter are meant to be goal races for you. Just remember this "training plan" I provided you is worth what you paid for it (nothing). I know it would work for me, but I am a 55 year old male who runs marathons.
My coach in not a resource I can use
(1) Last 3 weeks I've done minimal running to take a break after my cross country season, and for 3 weeks before that I had been running 35-45mpw
(2) During competition I run 6 times a week (occasionally 5 times if I'm resting) and this winter I planned to run 3 times for 2weeks, 4 times for 2weeks, and then 5 time until the weeks before track where I run 4 times, then the week before 3 times
(3) Longest run was 12miles
4) Not injured but when I went into my 3 week rest I had tightness in my left shin that resting seemed to help, and I started running this week (Monday, below is my training plan) and it feels fine.
(5) Here is my training plan. I only got 25mpw in with my layout, it was sort of hard to ramp up mileage, but I think I might want to
(6) you can see that in the plan^ 2mile races and there is two road races (RR), a track race (TR), and a cross country race (XC) and they have no time goals, they are for fitness, really.
(7) Track workouts included in the plan^^
(8) I arrived at my goals by accessing what's in the possibility range and what I want to see my self accomplish. It puts me where I want to be this spring, really
(9) Yes I took a break as I said earlier
(10) This will be my 3rd season of track but last season was my first season committing to distance events after doing XC, and I had a crappy winter that season.
The advice I provided earlier is still valid:
In general, you want to build/rebuild an endurance base over the winter with a mix of 2 to 3 short easy runs, 1 to 2 faster medium runs, and 1 easy paced long run each week. You do not want to get on the track at all during this time (except for the track race). You want time to rebuild your motivation and "love of running" out in the fresh air and not rigidly adhering to a plan. The races will serve as speed work and you do not want to do too much speed work until you start outdoor track practice. If you do too much too soon, you could very well peak too early in the season. Instead do 4 to 10 100 meter accelerations a couple days a week instead.
You should be looking at this as periodization of your training. You need periods where you concentrate on building/rebuilding your endurance. You need periods where you concentrate on speed and peaking. And you need periods when you are concentrating on resting and just doing enough for maintenance of fitness or complete time off.