I tend to think most plans/books are geared to much faster and younger runners than me. After actually reading Daniel's and other books, the take on rest is very different from what the "experts" on RWOL and less so here proclaim. I can't remember which book, but it says for someone doubling and doing 12+ miles per day, a single, very easy paced 5 mile jog could be a rest day. I've seen the 5 miles part quoted a lot over the years and no one ever seems to mention the caveats in the book. The "beginners " forum on RW was particularly bad for this sort of stuff.

 

As a slower runner, the plans that are mileage based,  especially on a day to day basis, don't take time on your feet into account.  I've figured out what is truly easy for me and it's far less than what most plans say.

This is a good point.  Hansons discusses time on feet in the context of the long run, pointing out studies that say beyond a certain time the increasing risk of injury outweighs the incremental training benefits.

My interpretation is Hansons is big on "active" recovery.  In the speed/strength work you continue to run between distances while some plans allow for static recovery.  Similarly, a recovery day in Hansons may be an easy run rather than a day off.

 

As a slower runner, the plans that are mileage based,  especially on a day to day basis, don't take time on your feet into account.  I've figured out what is truly easy for me and it's far less than what most plans say.

This is even more an issue for me and others my age. I shake my head sometimes at plans for "older" runners when I see that they're adapted for runners in their 50s.  What about those of us in their 70s and older.  I still use mileage with my interval workouts, but pretty much everything else is time based. I wouldn't even consider adding a 20 mile run to my schedule because it would take me 4.5+ hours. But then I never did 20 mile runs when I was a sub-3:00 marathoner either, since I was more a Hanson type trainer, though that was well before Hanson.

 

Same for me on a 20 mile run now. Wondering what to do if I get back to marathon training. 3 hours will only take me to 15 if not less. Although I wouldn't mind just running 15 for a marathon.

I did a very short ramp for my 1 full, but did 90 minutesoir so on Saturday and 3 hours on Sunday. Worked out to 7 or 8 and 15 or 16.

I'm using Daniel's 2Q as a rough guide right now. It's a marathon plan, but I am modifying the workouts when needed for a HM as well as the slow runner mod of 1 mile = 5 minutes.

I'm currently following Daniels for 5k but it can be confusing because, like you point out, he assumes 1 mile = 5 min. So for a 3 x 1 mi at threshold workout...should that be 3 x 1 mi for me? Or 3 x 5 min because my reality is it ends up as 3 x 9 min.

I've tried to follow Hanson's several times but it was too demoralizing and I gave up. I can't run the same pace every week but with increasing distance...my fitness does not improve that quickly. I guess I could start by running the intervals super slow but that's not really the point. I also need the workouts to vary more week to week to keep things interesting.

 

I limit myself to 3 hours max and I'm training for ultras.  For several years now I've added back to back long runs to compensate for the lack of distance on a single run by running 2.5-3 hours on consecutive days.

This sounds like my hell 

 

That might be a good choice for me. Starting with 1.5 through 2.5 as the training goes.

Keep in mind I'm on a 10 day training cycle, not the traditional 7 day week.  You might want to do that every other week and stick with a normal long run the other weeks.