10K Training Group, 8K's are welcome too

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back to back hard days (Read 298 times)

    I was looking at eispickel's log and saw you did tempo runs two days in a row. This got me to thinking about my plan for my 10k training. I do my LR's on Sunday. My plan was to ease into speedwork by doing Friday tempos for a few weeks before adding intervals on Tuesdays. I always do a medium/LR on wednesdays at an easy pace. I have agreed to do these with a friend at another location. It is a hilly course. While I don't plan on doing these runs fast, should I consider the hills a hard workout? I take off Saturdays unless I race, then I take Friday off.

    crb81 2008 goals sub-20 5k, sub-43 10k, 1:35 half, 3:20 marathon

      I am no expert, Clay, but if you run the hills hard I wouldcall it a hard workout, if you keep your heartrate in the moderate zone then not. Just an opinion, Simon.

      PBs since age 60:  5k- 24:36, 10k - 47:17. Half Marathon- 1:42:41.

                                          10 miles (unofficial) 1:16:44.

       


      Marquess of Utopia

        Yeah I don't like running tempos two days in a row. Running a tempo yesterday was dumb, but testosterone and peer pressure got in the way of common sense. (It's a long story) Running hills at an easy pace should not be considered a hard workout; but I would listen to your body especially if you're not accustomed to running on hills.
          Clay, I would classify the Wednesday run as more in the moderate range, but to cram the Tue-Wed combo together with a long Sunday run, plus a Friday tempo might be pushing things. I know I woudn't want to do it for very long. The closest I come to doing anything like that is a Saturday hard wokout or short race, followed by long Sunday run, plus a track workout on Wednesday. On weekends when I race 10k or farther I would skip the long run, but possibly do a longish cooldown immeidiately after the race. This kind of a week I can manage over a period of months without burning out as long as I run very easily on the in-between days. An idea for you might be to alternate the tempo and intervals from one week to the next. Here's something I took from Advanced Marathoning by Pfitzinger/Douglas on back-to-back hard days. Interestingly, it was borrowed from Jack Daniels' book: “…coach Jack Daniels recommends back-to-back hard days during race weeks rather than alternate hard and easy days (Daniels’ Running Formula). For example, say you’re following a strict hard/easy schedule and have a race on Saturday. If you did a long run on the previous Sunday, then you would run hard Tuesday and Thursday and easy on the other days. Doing a hard session on Thursday, however, doesn’t make sense because you would still be tired from that effort for Saturday’s race. If, however, you do back-to-back harder workouts on Tuesday and Wednesday, you would still get your hard sessions in but would have an extra day to recover for the race. Although this modification doesn’t provide the optimal amount of time to recover from Saturday’s race, it’s an intelligent compromise that allows you to get your high-quality training while also racing reasonably well.”
          Age 60 plus best times: 5k 19:00, 10k 38:35, 10m 1:05:30, HM 1:24:09, 30k 2:04:33
            I would classify the Wednesday run as more in the moderate range, but to cram the Tue-Wed combo together with a long Sunday run, plus a Friday tempo might be pushing things When I read that it looks like a recipe for injury for me. I like the idea of alternating tempos and intervals. Besides, the guy I am going to run with just did 3:13 at Disney and he is three years older than me. I try to run this area once a month and it is hilly. Thanks again.

            crb81 2008 goals sub-20 5k, sub-43 10k, 1:35 half, 3:20 marathon