Smaller By The Day
While I've run some 5K's and a 10K, most of my time as a runner has been spent training for either a marathon or a half marathon. Now, that's resulted in my 5K time dropping from a 31:02 to a 23:36, and that's been pretty darn exciting. One thing I noticed while training for my marathon was that I didn't have a lot of time for shorter races. On the day I ran the 23:36, I really didn't have much motivation either after my long run.
Well, I like racing, and I've found that I like running fast (relatively speaking of course). So, in 2014 I want to focus on distances between 5K and HM. Basically, I want to race a bit more frequently, and run faster. I've already bet a case of beer on a 10K next year with my neighbor.
Anyway, now I have to decide how I want to go about this. I'm resting up a bit this week after the marathon. So, I have some time to think about it. I'm just curious to hear some thoughts from others. Should I go back to a Daniels plan? How would you go about structuring a week if you don't follow a plan? What do you got?
Improvements
Weight 100 pounds lost
5K 31:02 Sept. 2012 / 23:36 Sept. 2013 (Same Course)
10K 48:59 April 2013
HM 2:03:56 Nov. 2012 / 1:46:50 March 2013
MARATHON 3:57:33 Nov. 2013
I followed the Daniels 5k plan but there are dozens of plans available. Even without following a structured plan however, focusing on the 5 and 10k will do wonders for your overall development, and make race day much more predictable.
I ran 6 days doing speed work on Tuesday and Saturday. I capped my long run at 10 -12 miles averaging around 40 miles per week and could literally race any distance from the half marathon down at any time.
I raced every other week (twice a month) without any issues with stamina or endurance following that schedule.
That sounds amazing. Thanks LRB.
I like to loosely follow the idea of part of the year devoted mainly to aerobic basebuilding and part of the year devoted to more race-specific stuff. Because of race schedules, weather, etc. (it is hard to do much speedwork when the roads are icy or when the temperatures are very high) that tends to be (for me):
winter: basebuilding
spring: race-specific
summer: basebuilding
fall: race-specific
That doesn't mean there aren't harder efforts during the basebuilding period, and I do race (about once a month) but it's less structured, and I try to limit the amount of long, hard efforts. The first 6-8 weeks of any Daniels plan is pretty much 'lots of easy running, some strides, some longer efforts' so that's where I would start. Some people like to train a pretty similar way the whole year round, though, so whatever works for you.
After my first marathon, I had a goal similar to yours, to improve all my times at shorter distances. So I decided to start with the 5K and work my way towards the HM, get my VDOT to 35 in each of them. This year (or at least the first part of the year) I'm planning to do the same thing except I want to get times that would give me a VDOT of 42 in all of them. That's roughly a 23:00 5K, a 48:00 10K, and a 1:46:30 HM-- though I may revise that goal to a 43 VDOT, which would give me a sub-1:45 HM, which would be pretty cool.
http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/solving-5k-puzzle - Great stuff from Magill.
And, a lot of my own shorter race success comes down to loosely follwing this Jen Scherer sketch: http://www.tips4running.com/5K-Training-Schedule.html
Basically:
Two workouts: one tempo, one “interval” (time based on/off so sort of more like fartlek, but whatever you want to call it, at faster than tempo pace)
One “long” run: 10-14 miles moderate (like around or a few tics slower than marathon pace)
Fill in the rest with easy, two days a week running doubles.
Strength - doing the circuits from Pfitz’s Advanced Marathoning twice a week.
My october (see log) culminating with 5 mile race at end of the month is an example of how it might look.
Come all you no-hopers, you jokers and roguesWe're on the road to nowhere, let's find out where it goes
I got humbled at my 9th marathon recently so I'm using the rest of the year to figure out how to increase my energy level. Matt Fitzgerald has a book out on just that which is being delivered to my library soon.
My long run will be 10 each week for the rest of the year and I will do some 5ks before I start training again.
Are we there, yet?
It's been a while since I looked at Daniels' plans, but in general the plans I've seen are all focused on preparing for a goal race and aren't always conducive to racing frequently. You might want to read this article on RT, Always Ready to Race.
2024 Races:
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 not have my book with me so I would have to double check, but once you are in phase 3 of his 5k plan you can substitute one quality workout for a race once a week.
But yes, the endgame is too peak at 24 weeks for your goal event, which is where I set my current 5k PR, and my 1 mile PR ten days later.
MTA: I also set my current 10k personal best two weeks before the 5k. So that was PR's across three distances in a 26 day period following that plan.
This is some good stuff. I'm glad I have a little down time to think about it. I haven't done much at paces faster than Tempo since May. So, I feel like easing into intervals is a good idea. There is a 5K next October that I'll probably treat as a goal race.
My thought for now is to work toward the Always Ready to Race schedule that WC linked to, and see how that works for me. I'll give it a good 4-6 weeks. If it's going well, I'll stick with that until I'm ready to start training for the October race, and maybe switch over to a Daniels plan. I can always make adjustments as needed. Right now, I think I should probably get a couple weeks of easy running in, and make sure that I'm fully recovered.
Meahgansketch - It looks like we're shooting for similar goals again. I'll be watching for your RRs.