-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining
articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485
Running – The
Program (part 1)
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=2545826#2545826
Okay,
I’ve been sitting on this for a while. Hawaii is done, the season is over, and
more and more people are talking about improving their running for next year. I
thought it might be nice to try to put everything together into a “one stop”
place to lay it all out. I'd like to thank Desert Dude up front for his input
as I put this together.
What
I really hope to accomplish here is to offer a basic philosophy to cover the
standalone 5K all the way to the Ironman. I would like to warn readers up front
that this in no way pretends to be the be-all, end-all of run training. There
are many right ways to train, and even more wrong ways to train. All I hope to
do is give you one “pretty good” way to train. If anything, I hope to get you
to think about how training is applied and how it changes from slower to faster
athletes, shorter to longer races, lower to higher volume training weeks, and
how to adjust everything once swimming, cycling, and LIFE is thrown into the
mix.
I
also hope that people understand that, though what I write here may be somewhat
different, I do not disagree with Lydiard, Daniels, Pfitzinger,
etc. If you were to read those three books, you would find on the surface some
contradicting advice. All of their advice is grounded in the same fundamentals,
as I hope mine is, but they do have slightly different approaches to how they
implement them. I plan to offer my own method which helps bridge the gap
between the books written for runners and the triathletes
who run, as well as offer some common misconceptions and mistakes that are
unique to triathletes.
I’d
also like to warn you up front. This is LONG, so make sure you have a chunk of
time allotted. ; ^ )
Target Audience
For
starters, I am not an elite coach nor do I pretend to be. I have no experience
coaching elite triathletes or high level runners and
though I would like to think that we could share our training ideas, I in no
way assume that they should be looking to me or especially this thread for
advice. This thread is intended for the other 98% who don’t have years and
years of a solid running background and who haven’t pushed their bodies near
their potential.
On
the other end of the spectrum, this is not intended for brand spankin’ new beginner runners. If you fit into this
category, feel free to read along, but note that there are some threads out
there that are more appropriate for you (like the following):
Basic
Running Recommendations
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=2434248;search_string=barryp%20basic;#2434248
“Advance
Beyond Beginner Stage” Running Program
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=1949381;search_string=runtraining20;#1949381
This
plan is intended for runners/triathletes who have at
least a modicum of running experience and are hoping to make some improvements
in this area.
How Long is the
Plan?
5+
months.
For everything short of a marathon I feel pretty strongly that a well put
together training routine will look 6 months in advance. Marathons and Ironmen
can take even longer. I don’t do 3 month training advice! If you are looking
for that, this is the wrong thread for you, though I can give you one piece of
good advice right here: Don’t think short term.
Notes about Triathetes
It
won’t take long for many of you to begin to think that you either don’t have
this much time to devote to running, or that your
biking and swimming needs are in conflict with what I write below. Continue to
read through anyway. I cover these issues and how to make adjustments at the
end of this series of posts.
Let’s Get Started – The Need for
Structure
My
little brother gave me a good piece of advice a few years ago that has stuck
with me. You need a plan. He actually told me this with regard to his
profession as a trombone player. There are many different ways to hold the
slide of a trombone with different philosophies behind each method, but at the
end of the day you need to pick one. Once you have picked a method, you can asses how to improve upon it, fix your mistakes, and hone
your skills. Without a method, you will be making mistakes with no fundamental
basis for identifying them or correcting them (coincidentally I just started
taking drum lessons and am going through this process with stick technique).
One
of the biggest problems I’ve seen with triathletes is
that their running schedules are willy
nilly fly by the pants lets
see if I’m in the mood to run tomorrow. Get yourself organized! No matter what
plan you follow, even if it is the complete opposite of the philosophy I
outline below, what is most important in your run training is that you dial in
the proper training load. Whether you use a speed approach or a volume
approach, the best way to improve is to take your body to 95% of its potential
every day. Any more than that and you risk over training. Any less and you
leave potential on the table.
What
exactly do I mean by 95% every day? You aren’t going to do the same workout
every day. Some days will be designed to be harder than others. On a week to
week basis, you will need to listen to your body and tell if you are pushing
too hard or not enough. In a given workout, however, this can be difficult to
tell. How will you know that at the end of a 4 mile run that you’ll be recovered
enough to do tomorrow’s workout? If your plan is structured well, you will know
this because last week you did 3.5 and sprung out of bed the next day, or maybe
you did 5 and dragged yourself through the next workout. Without any structure,
unless you have years and years of experience under your belt, you’ll be taking
wild guesses, and probably getting them wrong.
Caveat: Don’t Write Your Plan in Stone
I
do believe that a solid plan is a great idea and fully support the notion. I
also think that if you dial everything in correctly, that you should be able to
stick to your plan. However, you absolutely need to listen to your body and
make adjustments accordingly. The structure is there to give yourself a basis
from which to compare how your training is going. Often times your adjustments
will be with regard to training pace or weekly volume, but it is also quite
possible that permanent changes will be implemented into the plan. Perhaps my
suggested long run hurts you too much every week. Maybe you need to knock it
back a mile or two. Maybe the recovery days are just too short for you. Feel
free to make theses adjustments, but be smart about
it.
Six Days a Week (not a Beatles song)
The
first part of my philosophy is to train 6 days a week. I don’t care how busy
you are, how hard your bike sessions are, or how old you are, you are going to
get the most out of your running by running every day. Do you really *need* a
day off? Not really, but I think it’s better to be conservative and also to
allow yourself some flexibility. Pretty much the only people who I think should
be running 7 days a week are people who are too experienced to be reading this
thread. ; ^ )
Unlike
swimming or cycling, running is an impact sport and will beat you up. There is
a much lower limit for how hard you can push yourself in a given workout before
having detrimental effects. Improvement in running comes best from lots and
lots of smaller chunks. Many of these days (identified below) can be quite
small chunks…..so small that you can do them as a brick, a reverse brick, or
even an aqua brick. You would be better off running 10-15 minutes on the
treadmill before a swim workout than to not run at all.
A
final IMPORTANT note about 6 day training – do not increase your mileage when
initially adopting this plan. In other words, if you are running 15 miles a
week on 3 days of running, then you should begin with 15 miles a week on 6 days
of running. The workouts will seem ridiculously short at first. Just be patient. It won’t be long until it feels natural.
Base Training - 1:2:3
The
structure I have adopted is centered around the
concept of 2 workouts, a long run, and 3 recovery run days. It follows the
basic easy-hard approach. During the base building period (the earliest part of
your training) these will be long, medium, and short runs following a ratio of
1:2:3. A medium run is twice as long as a short run, and a long run* is three times
as long as a short run. In my experience as a coach and an athlete, amongst all
the different ways I have experimented, this formula seems to work out quite
well, whether you are doing 10 mile runs with 5 mile recovery runs and a 15
mile long run, or 20 minute runs with 10 minute recovery runs and a half hour
long run. Definitely space the long and medium runs out evenly with the
recovery runs sandwiched in between. Play the day off by ear and see where it
fits best into the routine.
*Many
have asked about how the “25% rule” applies to triathlon. It has taken me a few
years to figure out how to answer this question, especially considering that a
long run that is 25% of the weekly mileage makes no sense for a triathlete who runs 3-4 days a week. As it turns out, if
you take my 1:2:3 plan and work it out over 7 days, the long run is 27% of the
weekly mileage. So as long as your long run is about 50% further than a typical
run, you are in the right ball park.
How
long should this base training phase be? It depends on a lot of factors and
this is where the art of training and the concept of individualization come
into play. I typically like to have at least 12 weeks
worth of workouts before any race shorter than my longest run. If you haven’t
developed the base big enough such that your long run is at least 80% of your
race distance (ie 10 mile for a half or 21 miles for
a full), you may want to extend the base period to attempt to develop this much
needed base. For athletes that are in better shape, the base period can be as
short as 4-6 weeks.
Training Pace
Before
I get ahead of myself, let me introduce you to a very, very valuable website.
This is Greg McMillan’s pace calculator:
Plug
in your best estimate of a stand alone race time, and
calculate the paces you should be training at. For the base training phase you
should be looking at recovery run pace, long run pace, and easy run pace.
Many
triathletes are shocked at how slow they should be
running. All of these runs should be at a pace where you can comfortably carry
a conversation. How can this make you faster? You don’t run slow
for the sake of running slow. You run slow so that you
can run more. Hammering through 25 miles a week for an above average male triathlete is only going to hinder improvement. You
shouldn’t be thinking about how to get more out of the running you do, but
rather what you can do to run more. As your mileage builds toward 35-40
miles/wk, your paces will naturally come down as your aerobic system improves.
Building Volume (phase 1)
Now
that you have your structure down, a concerted effort at slowly and gradually
increasing your weekly volume should implemented. Add no more than 10% from one
week to the next. Keep in mind as well that many weeks should be repeated with
no increase in mileage at all. It won’t be long before you hit a plateau where
mileage increases don’t occur for months at a time. What
ever you do, be conservative and think long term.
Introducing Threshold Training (phase 2)
For
all race distances shorter than 80% of your long run, many many
weeks of threshold paced training are going to be essential to running faster
times. You may have heard many terms to describe this time up training: lactate
threshold training, T pace, LT training, Maximum Lactate Steady State (MLSS),
sweet spot training, tempo runs, zone 4, steady state runs, threshold runs,
etc. No matter what you call it, it boils down to a solid hard but controlled
effort for an extended period of time.
Jack
Daniels has a nice chart on page 114 of his 2nd edition Running Formula to
cover the different paces one should run for different durations. Greg McMillan
also covers these paces in his pace calculator.
The
chart in Daniels’ Formula is pretty self explanatory. Regarding McMillan’s
site, use the tempo run pace to describe sustained 20 minute runs, and the
steady state pace to describe threshold runs from 40 minutes (lower range) and
to 60 minutes (upper range).
Once
you have moved out of the base phase, I recommend throwing in a single
threshold workout each week in place of a medium run. I recommend a mix of the
lengths described above (20 to 60 minutes) at the corresponding paces. However,
the entire workout, including warmup and cool down,
should be at least a mile or two shorter than your medium run. For many of you,
this will limit you to shorter workouts (20 minute range). I also recommend
giving yourself at least 2 weeks to adjust to this workout, starting off with
half the distance the first week, and then ¾ distance
the next. Overall weekly mileage should not be increased at this time as the
added intensity will lead to an increased training load. In fact, a *reduction*
in mileage may be necessary and should be considered the day or two after this
workout is introduced.
Racing Phase (phase 3)
This
is the last phase of training when race specific workouts are added in addition
to the prior training presented above. I will talk in more detail about this
later as the second workout will depend entirely on what the race distance is.
As you might have guessed from above, depending on the race distance and your
fitness level, it is entirely possible that you will never get to a point where
you are doing two running workouts a week in addition to your long run. In
fact, for many Ironman athletes, and a lot of other long course athletes, your
training may consist entirely of base training.
Part 2 -
Description of different types of training
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=2548469#2548469
A Quick Summary of Part 1
Phase
1 – all easy paced training using the paces @ www.mcmillanrunning.com.
Run 6 days a week using a 1:2:3 ration (ie short runs
of 15 minutes, medium runs of 30 minutes, and a long run of 45 minutes....just
as an example). Gradually increase mileage, but by no more than 10% from one
week to the next.
Phase
2 – replace one medium run a week with a threshold workout of 20-60 minutes
long.
Phase
3 – replace the other medium run with a race specific workout.
Some
people will never reach phases 2 or 3.
Working Toward a Goal Race
Every
now and then I’ll get someone to ask me how to train for a sprint triathlon in
2 months and then get ready for a half marathon 6 weeks after that. My answer
is I don’t know. My training strategy is geared toward an end of the season A race. Everything else in the plan is secondary to that.
You can either train for the sprint tri and run the
best half marathon you can 6 weeks after your peak, or you can train for the
half marathon and run the best tri split you can in the middle of phase 3 of
your half marathon training.
Nevertheless,
your goal race will largely determine what kind of workouts you do in phase 3
of your training plan. I will address each race distance below and do my best
to account for different ability levels and how one should adjust their
training.
Training Balance
I
started an entire thread on this here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=1600721;search_string=runtraining11;#1600721
Too
many athletes compartmentalize training into an either-or approach. Do you need
speed, or do you need distance? You need both. The question is how much of each
do you need, and that largely depends on your level of fitness as well as the
race distance you plan to run. See the chart below for a graphical explanaition:
Allow
me to briefly explain this chart. To put it simply, the shorter your race is,
the more speed and less endurance training you are going to need. The longer
your race is, the more endurance and the less speed
training you are going to need. Somewhere in between the two extremes you will
also need a mixture of threshold (those 20 to 60 minute sustained hard runs)
and V02max training (efforts at 3K to 5K race pace).
What
mixture would that be? It all depends on how long it is going to take you to
finish a race. The actual length of the race is not necessarily that important,
nor is how long it will take you to finish it. It’s really about what energy
systems your body will be utilizing while racing, which can be predicted by the
two previous variables.
I
have circled above an athlete who runs about 33 miles a week and is in phase 3
of his training. His goal race is a stand alone 5k,
which will take him about 20 minutes to complete. Looking at the chart above
you can see that he will want about an even mix of threshold and V02max
training, and a good portion of speed work (efforts at 1k to 2K race pace),
while still maintaining a large amount of easy running to build the aerobic system
(reminder: all of this training develops the aerobic system. The easy training
targets it best because you can do lots and lots of it). What’s most important
to understand here is that if this athlete was, instead, training for a half
marathon, he needs more threshold training and more easy running while
requiring less V02max and speed training (look just to the left of the 60
minute mark). If he is training for an Ironman, he will mostly need lots and
lots of easy running (speed work to run 10 minute miles? Nah.)
Standalone Training versus Tri-Training
The
above chart is meant for standalone races. I use a really simple conversion to
compare stand alone training to tri-training. The run segment of a triathlon is
equivalent to double that distance as a stand alone
race. In other words, in order to be properly trained to run the 5K segment of
a sprint triathlon, you should train to be in 10K stand alone racing shape. For
a Half Ironman, you want to be in marathon shape.
This
has little to do with being able to run twice as far and more to do with
training the proper energy systems. Triathlons are simply run slower than
standalone races, so using the chart above, everything slides to the left. The
5k segment of a sprint tri is going to require just a little less speed and a
less trained V02max than a stand alone 5K, while
relying more on your aerobic conditioning.
Interval Training
Below
you will see recommendations for two types of interval training: V02max
intervals and threshold/V02max borderline intervals.
I
typically recommend that V02max intervals be done starting at around 5K race
pace and done for a distance that takes 3 to 3 ½ minutes to cover. For most
people this will be 800m. I like the recoveries to be 2 to 2 ½ minutes, or
300-400m. Begin at 5K race pace on the first interval and gradually work your
way down to 5-10 sec faster than that pace per interval (or 10-20 sec/mile
faster). Be very careful to stay under control. The intent is not to kill yourself during these interval sessions. As a general rule,
if you can’t go immediately into a jog after your interval, you are working too
hard. Some good coaches disagree with me on this point, but I find that the
potential reward of training any harder does not outweigh the risk of over
training if the intervals are run to the point of exhaustion. Always remember,
if you leave the track a bit undertrained, you can always just run more mileage
the next day.
The
threshold/V02max borderline intervals are run at 45 minute race pace and are
typically done at a ratio of 100m jogging for every 500m running. I prefer
1500m intervals with 300m jogs. You will find this workout
to be a bit less stressful than the above intervals and the jog breaks will be
rather short.
Speed Training
What
I call speed training is what Jack Daniels refers to as Repetition training. He
typically recommends them as 200-400m intervals, while Pfitzinger
and Galloway (from his first book) recommend them in 100m chunks. Either way, I
like to do these with easy jogs of equal lengths in between each one. The pace
should be pretty close to mile race pace, which is a pace that is pretty quick
yet not really close to all out sprinting. I don’t really recommend much of
this for longer race distances as its benefits become less and less important
for the longer distances. Striders (explained later) are used in place of speed
for these distances.
Threshold/Tempo Runs
From
part 1:
Jack
Daniels has a nice chart on page 114 of his 2nd edition Running Formula to cover
the different paces one should run for different durations. Greg McMillan also
covers these paces in his pace calculator.
The
chart in Daniels’ Formula is pretty self explanatory. Regarding McMillan’s
site, use the tempo run pace to describe sustained 20 minute runs, and the
steady state pace to describe threshold runs from 40 minutes (lower range) and
to 60 minutes (upper range).
Once
you have moved out of the base phase, I recommend throwing in a single
threshold workout each week in place of a medium run. I recommend a mix of the
lengths described above (20 to 60 minutes) at the corresponding paces. However,
the entire workout, including warmup and cool down,
should be at least a mile or two shorter than your medium run. For many of you,
this will limit you to shorter workouts (20 minute range). I also recommend
giving yourself at least 2 weeks to adjust to this workout, starting off with
half the distance the first week, and then ¾ distance
the next. Overall weekly mileage should not be increased at this time as the
added intensity will lead to an increased training load. In fact, a *reduction*
in mileage may be necessary and should be considered the day or two after this
workout is introduced.
Cruise (threshold) Intervals
Some
people prefer to do threshold training as intervals. The nice thing about
cruise intervals is that you can do about 50% more work than you can with a
tempo run. There is a compromise between the two workouts. Cruise intervals
allow you to do more work, while tempo runs allow you to mimic race conditions.
I recommend a mix of both. The rest should be kept very short for cruise
intervals. A ration of 5:1 is appropriate (5min working, 1min jog, or 10min
working, 2min jog, etc.)
Tips about Steady State Runs
60
minutes on a track? Are you kidding me?! I prefer to do these near a track and
then map out a course that I can run off of the track to try and break up the
monotony. I’ll run my first mile on the track to dial in the pace, and then 1-2
miles off of the track at that same effort, and then another 1-2 laps on the
track to make sure the pace is still good, and then back out onto the course.
Rinse and repeat for 60 minutes.
The Training Continuum
In
the above chart I talked about endurance, threshold, V02max, and speed training
as if they are four completely separate concepts. There is no magic black line
that compartmentalizes one training zone as being completely different from
another one. It's presented this way as a means to be able to talk about
different types of training and how and why it is done, but if the chart above
was to be drawn more accurately, it would be more of an overlapped mishmashing of the different colors. Training at mile race
pace will improve all of the energy systems that affect your body’s ability to
run an ultra marathon just like easy running will improve your mile time, when
compared to doing nothing at all. Running just a little less a little faster or
a little more a little slower will have very similar effects.
And
that last sentence I think is very valuable information to know. If you ever
get into a workout and find that you have run it faster than you should have,
simply cut the workout short and know with confidence that you had a good
workout.
Weather Considerations
Heat
and humidity slow you down. Remember this on workout day.
Ultra Long Runs
For
longer races (mainly half and full marathons) it may not be possible for you to
get in an adequate length long run following the advice laid out here (a long
run of at least 80% of the race distance). In this case, I recommend an ultra
long run every 2-3 weeks with a normal long run on the in between weeks. The
ultra long run should increase by about 1-2 mile increments on the alternating
weeks and build toward at least 80% of the race distance, or 3 hours, whichever
is less. In the case of a half marathon, if possible, the ultra long run can be
pushed up to 13-15 miles.
An
example of a long run progression for a 4:8:12 athlete might be as follows: 12
miles one week, 13 the next, 12 the week after that, 14-15 following that week,
back to 12, etc. Back out of the goal race week enough weeks using this
progression to see at what point you’ll need to begin your ultra long runs.
Warning
about ultra long runs – During the course of an ultra long run there often
comes a point where the body starts to feel pretty bad. I never recommend
running for more than 10 minutes beyond this point as it will dramatically
affect the rest of your week’s training. This may prevent you from reaching
your eventual goal ultra long run, but you simply can’t force your body to be
more fit than it is and your goal in training is to do the training that you
are currently prepared for, not the training you want to be prepared for.
Striders
2
to 4 times a week finish your run with a set of three to six 50 meter striders.
This is a short fast run (but not a sprint) where you concentrate on form to
the best of your ability. The theory behind striders is that at higher speeds
your body self corrects it form and teaches you to run more efficiently.
Races as Workouts
Always
remember that on any week that you run a race that you should eliminate one of
your workouts. For a 5K race (not a sprint-tri) I recommend eliminating the
interval workout for that week (if one is scheduled). For anything longer,
eliminate a threshold workout. For harder races, keep in mind that you may need
several days or longer of recovery. The key concept to take away here is to
make sure you don’t boost your training load as a result of not compensating
for a race with the rest of your week’s training.
Tapering
Always
include a taper before your goal race. Shorter races like a 5K need only 4-9
days for a taper. Longer races require more….2 to 3 weeks for a marathon and 3
to 5 weeks for an Ironman. Keep in mind in the following sections that whenever
I refer to periods before the goal race, I am actually referring to the number
of weeks before the beginning of the taper.
Runtraining - The Program (part 3)
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=2554998#2554998
In
this section I map out specific recommendations relative to the fitness level
of the athlete and the goal race distance. Though the fundamentals are similar,
an athlete who runs 80 miles a week and is training for a stand
alone 5K will have different requirements than an athlete running 35
miles a week and training for an Ironman.
Keep
in mind this is very difficult to do, but I have made my best attempt at trying
to address the needs of everyone who is better than beginner and slower than the
FOP runner. Again, these are meant to be guidelines and, if anything, give you
a reference point rather than to use ambiguous terms like "fast," or
"a lot."
I
actually attempted to draw a graph showing how training changes as a result of
fitness and goal race distance, but unfortunately failed. In a nutshell, the
longer your race is, a smaller emphasis as a portion of your total training is
made on speed and intervals, and a larger emphasis is given to endurance
running. As your fitness increases, the larger training load you can handle. In
this respect, a marathon runner who is very, very fit may actually do more
speed than a 5K runner who is not very fit. This is purely because the very fit
runner can handle a higher training load. However, the proportion of the speed
will be much lower for him than it will be for that 5K runner. It's al about where you want to invest your training, and a fit
runner simply has more capital to invest.
The Standalone 5K
This
is the only race distance that I will recommend any significant quantities of
speed work. For this section I will be assuming that you are capable of running
a 5K in 16-25 minutes. For slower people who are approaching 30+ minutes, I
recommend that you follow the 10K training recommendations in the next section.
As
stated above, the plan assumes that you will spend 6 months to prepare for this
race. The first 6 weeks is an easy running only phase in which you run 3 short
runs, two mediums, and one long run every week, while gradually building volume
at increases less than 10% from one week to the next. This base period can be
as long as 14 weeks for a less developed athlete.
In
phase 2 a medium run is replaced with a threshold run (20-60 minutes at the
paces described above) every week. This can begin as early as 6 weeks into the
program, but no later than 12 weeks from the goal race.
Phase
3 will last 6-8 weeks (as much as 12 for very well trained athletes). Replace
your other medium run with a 5K race pace interval workout every week. In
addition to these race pace workouts, a spattering of speed training will be
mixed in as well.
Phase 3 plan for 4:8:12 athletes
(athletes who have short, medium, and long runs of 4, 8, and 12 miles)
Each
interval workout should comprise of about 5-6,000m of total interval work. 800m
of speed training can be tacked onto the end of this workout if shortened to
4-5,000m.
Speed
work can be done up to 4,000m in one session. Feel free to knock out some
intervals and replace them with speed repetitions, or to do an entire workout
of speed provided that you only average 800-1,000m a week of speed during this
phase. If this week you do 3,000m of intervals and 1,600m of speed reps, then
next week should have no speed reps.
Hopefully
by this point a solid foundation of endurance and threshold training has been
put in. This training is still very important to maintain throughout the final
phase, but feel free to replace one or two threshold workouts or long runs with
another interval workout.
Phase 3 plan for 3:6:9 athletes
You
can pretty much follow the plan above, but be sure to scale everything back to
the conservative side. 90% of the above workouts should be sufficient.
Phase 3 plan for 2:4:6 athletes
Hopefully
you have made some real progress and are moving in the right direction, but
your aerobic base is not large enough to warrant two workouts a week. In this
phase you will want to alternate your weeks. One week run your normal threshold
workout and replace the medium run with 10x100m speed repetitions (cut the
medium run back by ~10 minutes this day). On the alternating weeks do 5,000m
V02max intervals and run the medium run as normal.
The Sprint Tri and the Standalone 10K
This
section will be similar to the 5K training, except that more work will be done
at 10K race pace and less speed will be needed. For this section I will be
assuming that you are capable of running a 10K in 33-52 minutes. For slower
people who are approaching 60+ minutes, I recommend that you follow the Half
Marathon training recommendations in the next section.
The
preparation done in phases 1 and 2 are the same as described in the 5k training
section above.
Phase 3 plan for 4:8:12 athletes
Keep
the threshold workouts as normal but alternate the 2nd workout of the week. On
one week, do 4-5,000m of V02max intervals with 800m of speed training tacked on
the end. On the alternate weeks, replace that workout with 3-4x1,600m at goal race pace. For faster athletes, this will require
up to 400m of jogging recoveries in between. Athletes who race 10ks at
45minutes or slower should only need 300m of jogging recoveries.
Phase 3 plan for 3:6:9 athletes
You
can pretty much follow the plan above, but be sure to scale everything back to
the conservative side. 90% of the above workouts should be sufficient.
Phase 3 plan for 2:4:6 athletes
Much
like in the 5K plan, you will be alternating your workouts and sticking to one
solid workout each week. Speed work will be eliminated altogether and covered
with a healthy diet of 50 meter striders every week.
Every
other week run your threshold workout as normal. On alternating weeks, run 2-3
by 1,600m at goal race pace with 300-400m jogging recoveries in between.
Additionally,
if training for a standalone 10K, every other week start pushing your long run
by half mile increments while returning to your normal 6 mile long run on the
alternating weeks. So one week you might run a 6 mile long run, followed by a
6.5 miler the next, followed by a 6 miler on the 3rd
week, followed by a 7 miler the week after that, etc. Try to build up to at
least 7.5 miles for this alternating long run. Be sure to take off what ever extra mileage you add to it the next day (so the
day after a 7.5 mile long run would be just a ½ mile run to shake the legs out
before you stretch).
The Olympic Tri and the Half Marathon
Here
there will actually be some significant differences from the 5K and Sprint/10K
section. For this section I will be assuming that you are capable of running a
Half Marathon in under 2 hours. For slower athletes I recommend that you follow
the Marathon training recommendations in the next section.
The
preparation done in phases 1 and 2 are the same as described in the 5k training
section above.
You
might have noticed above that each training plan begins with building an
aerobic base and then phasing in threshold training. This really is the foundation
of all distance training from which every plan is built off of. From there you
move into race specific training to prepare your body for the specific demands
of that event.
The
Olympic Tri and Half Marathon are different than the shorter events in that you
are already doing race specific training. Your threshold training is very
specific to these races. In that regard, I don’t get too concerned with speed
or interval training, though I do make sure that enough gets worked into the
plan. It is very important to remember for these events that it is aerobic and
threshold training that is going to make the biggest difference for these
races, not speed and V02max intervals.
For
phase 3, I generally like to get in a healthy variety of different threshold workouts,
plus one threshold/V02max borderline workout. Using the paces outlined above, I
like to do 20 minute tempo runs, 40 minute long tempo runs, and 60 minute
steady state runs. In addition, I will do a set of 1,600m repeats with 300m
recovery jogs done at 45 minute race pace. This is (in theory) fast enough to
stimulate V02max improvement, while still slow enough to allow for a quick
recovery from the workout allowing one to maintain a good level of weekly
mileage. That, plus it’s much closer to your projected race pace than faster
intervals.
In
addition to the above, late in phase 3 a couple of mix workouts that involves
some 5K paced running is good to simulate the effects of chasing down those
last few places in the last miles of a race. One of my favorites is a 400 at 5K
race pace followed immediately (no rest in between) by a 400 20 seconds slower.
Repeat this until it gets pretty hard (3-4 miles is usually enough).
It
doesn’t really matter how the above workouts are structured, other than that
they fall on the medium days. I do, however, like structure in my plans, so I
like to put the 40min and 60min threshold sessions on Tuesdays and run the
faster ones on Thursdays.
Phase 3 plan for 3:6:9 athletes
Your
aerobic base really isn’t high enough to endure the volume of higher intensity
running as listed above. For you I recommend a single workout a week and using
the other day to try and push for a little extra mileage (7-8 mile runs).
In
addition, your long run is a little weak for a Half Marathon. I suggest
following the ultra long run schedule laid out in part 2, trying to push your
ultra long runs up to at least 11 miles.
Phase 3 plan for 2:4:6 athletes
Same
recommendations as for the 3:6:9 athletes, except that you will be limited to shorter
threshold workouts until your base improves.
The Half Ironman and the Marathon
Hopefully
by this point you are realizing that there are some significant differences in
training protocols (though still many similarities) when moving from fast stand
alone 5K races to the longer, slower HIM and Marathon. For this section I will
be assuming that you are capable of running a Marathon in under 4:10. For
slower athletes I recommend that you read the section on Ironman training and
consider adopting a hybrid of the two plans depending on how much slower you
run.
Because
of the great endurance demands of these events, I recommend that phase 1 be
extended as long as possible, building as much weekly mileage as your body can
handle. For most athletes, phase 2 need not be introduced until 12-16 weeks
from goal race.
Phase
2 is as described above, but may be shortened due to an extended phase 1.
In
Phase 3 many veteran athletes and elites have the foundation to run two solid
workouts a week in addition to a regular long run of 18+ miles when preparing
for these events. I feel that most athletes lack this foundation and are better
served by running one race specific workout a week while reserving the second
workout day for a second long run that is half way between your normal long run
and your usual medium run (for example, if a normal long run is 12 miles, the
second long run would be 10 to 11 miles). It would not be unreasonable for
athletes with a little more experience to alternate their 2nd long run with a
threshold workout.
For
athletes who have not reached a long run of at least 13-14 miles for the HIM or
21-22 miles for the Marathon, I recommend following the ultra long run plan
laid out above. Due to the time required to build the long run for the
marathon, the ultra long runs may need to be started as early as 3-4 months out
from your goal race.
Many
coaches recommend mixing threshold runs within the long run. I recommend using
caution when using this technique, though agree that
in can be very effective. I feel this should only be done only after a solid
foundation of endurance running has been established and that a weekly dose of
long running has been maintained for quite some time. To put it in context, a
typical threshold/long run mix might include two 20 minute sessions @
McMillan’s tempo run pace (see link above for paces) within a 14 mile run. In
order for one to be able to reasonably finish such a session without
significantly compromising the rest of their week’s training, I think that the
athlete should already have established that he can finish an 18-22 mile long
run without too much strain.
A
typical Daniels’ training plan actually has what I have termed the “ultra long
run” every 3rd week, with the other two weeks being more conservative long runs
mixed with threshold intervals. I don’t have a lot of experience with this kind
of training, however Desert Dude has proclaimed this workout to be one of the cornerstones of success for his
long course athletes. It is possible to get yourself into trouble while doing
these so definitely leave your ego at home and use some good sense while
listening to your body during these workouts. I can’t hammer home anything more
important than the idea that it is what you can do week in and week out, year
in and year out, that is going to make you a better runner, NOT how hard you
can hammer yourself in a single workout.
I’d
also like to comment on the use of V02max intervals when training for these
races. There are plenty of examples of elite distance runners who will run
intervals once a week and win top races. I want to stress that for every
example that you can find, I can probably walk down to the local running club
and find a guy who blows up in his marathon because he was spending too much
time worrying about his interval training with his track group when he should
have been building his endurance base. An elite athlete who has been running
120 miles a week for the last 7 years already had his foundation built and is
capable of handling more intense interval training. They are doing this in
addition to the more important endurance and threshold training, not at the
expense of it. If you do wish to add this to your training regime, please be
very conservative approach the workouts with caution.
The Ironman
I
would like to warn up front that I don’t consider myself an Ironman coach, but
I have competed in one myself and have done a fair amount of reading on the
training for an Ironman. If anything, I see no reason why the principles laid
out above would be any different for this event. IOW, there is no magic that
occurs at the iron distance that will all of the sudden make one want to ditch
their foundation work in exchange for high doses of speed training.
As
I mentioned about the marathon training, you will see elite iron athletes who
are capable of handling high doses of threshold training as well as doing a
fair amount of mix threshold/long run workouts. These guys have a much more
solid training foundation than most athletes and are training not to finish the
run segment in 4-5 hours, but rather dip below 3 hours. For this reason their
training will be somewhat different than what you should probably attempt.
I
wrote coach Gordo a few years back to get his insight on run training for my
first Ironman and his suggestion was that the overall training load (including
biking and swimming) was going to be too much for a novice IM athlete to
concern themselves with higher intensity run training. From my limited
experience with this event I tend to agree with him, though I don’t think that
limited amounts of threshold training would be harmful for slightly more
experienced athletes who intend to run their run segment in under 4 hours.
Using a Marathon to Prepare of an
Ironman
Bad
idea.
Sometimes people think that running the Boston Marathon would be a great way to
prepare for IMWI in September. A Marathon will beat the hell out of your body
and require you a good month to recover from. Why lose so much training time
during the most important part of your IM training?
Final Note about Ironman Training
Keep
in mind that an Ironman requires a large volume of total training from month to
month. A lot of this high volume training intends to be done in the months
preceding the goal race. For this reason, many IM athletes will do much more
training during these months than in the earlier phases of training.
In
addition, many IMs are done in the summer time leaving the early training
periods in the winter time while it is dark and cold outside. For this and
various other reasons, a lot of coaches like to have more intensity and less
total training time done during this time period.
From
a pure running standpoint, I feel that most triathletes
would benefit not from increasing their intensity during this period, but
rather from using it to build their much needed mileage base that has been
missing so far during their careers. Having said that, there are many coaches
and athletes who have succeeded off of a lower mileage, higher intensity phase
in the winter months.
Phase 2 ½
Though
I feel a solid endurance base is critical to distance running, once a person
has a few years of running under his belt, he may benefit from adding a second
workout during phase 2 of training. A healthy mix of training between 45 minute
races pace (as cruise intervals) and 2 hour race pace (as a 60 minute steady
state run) is a good way to continue to improve endurance race fitness without
too much risk of over training or burnout. It is up to the athlete to asses the benefits of a two workout week versus a single
workout week with a focus toward continuing to increase overall weekly mileage.
I often get asked at what point is the mileage
sufficient. The answer to that is, IMO, is typically at least 4 ½ hours a week
of running consistently for months at a time. Though there are many good
reasons for training less, I don’t believe that one of those reasons is that
you are running enough already.
Dipping
below 45 minute race pace to do interval workouts at 5K race pace or faster
speed workouts is very risky when done over long periods of time and can
quickly lead to over training. I know that there are some coaches who do it
with success and some books that recommend it in their training plans, but over
my years of experience I have seen it cause more harm than good and don’t
recommend it for inexperienced athletes or athletes not under the guidance of a
good coach. It is just too easy to do too much and to compromise your long term
training goals. I have seen more athletes than I can count (and I can count
pretty high) who have finished a season slower than their beginning races as a
result of too much intensity too early. If you do insist on doing these types
of workouts because of a social track group that you belong to, I highly
recommend that you keep the dosages low, the paces on the conservative side,
and make up the difference with longer warm ups and cool downs, at least until
you are within 6-12 weeks of your goal race (phase 3).
As
a general rule, 5k paced and faster training will reap most of its benefits in
6-8 weeks, and will lead to burnout in 10-14 weeks. It’s not specifically the
faster paces that do this, but rather the effects of how most people apply
them.
Triathlon Adaptations 1 (removing workouts)
As
promised early on, I am providing recommendations for how to adapt the above
information into a tri-plan. Unfortunately, you will have to look elsewhere for
any specifics on your bike and swim training and how to mix it with your
running. I do understand, however, that heavy biking and heavy swimming will
affect your run training, as will the realities of your work and life schedule.
I
will mention up front, however, that there are no short cuts to fitness. Though
picking up the kids from dance lessons might be a perfectly valid excuse for
skipping 2 workouts a week, the body does not compensate in a positive manner
simply because you have a valid excuse. Training less than
optimal results in less fitness regardless of the extrinsic factors.
Cutting Down Recovery (short) Runs
Though
you may have the fitness to run on a 25:50:75 (in minutes) level, you may
simply not have the time to devote 25 minutes of running on your three short
days due to time spent cycling and swimming. If time dictates, feel free to cut
these runs back, though I still urge you to keep them in the plan. Even a 10 to
15 minute run before or after a swim or bike still has value. Three short days
of 15 minutes versus three days off is a difference of 45 minutes of running a
week. 50, 15, 50, 15, 0, 75, 15 is 25% more running than 50, 0, 50, 0, 0, 75, 0
and will have an effect on your run fitness.
Even
though you are cutting these runs down, I still like to think of it as a
25:50:75 fitness level with the caveat that the short runs are cut down. Again,
the structure is there to give you a fundamental basis to begin from and from
which adjustments can be made. In this case, you aren’t randomly assigning
training distances. You are beginning from a starting point and then making
adjustments to make your plan work for you. From here you may find that the
shorter short days allow you to run 55 minutes on the medium days without
affecting your long day.
Cutting Out (some) Short Runs
Though
I still recommend if at all possible to run 6 days a
week, you may find that it just isn’t realistic given your schedule. Again,
take the above plan and simply cut out a day or two. The concepts and the
ratios still apply, and as stated in the previous section, you may find that
you can make minor adjustments by adding a bit more mileage elsewhere in the
schedule.
Cutting Out a Medium (or workout) Day
Cutting
out a medium day will more than likely be the result of needed recovery from
hard cycling or swimming workouts. It is possible that you simply don’t have
the fitness to run a long run, and two medium runs or two workouts in the same
week that you are doing heavy cycling and swim workouts. In this case you will
simply need to cut out one of these workouts. Depending on which plan you are
following (per goal race distance), you will want to alternate the workouts on
your workout day, or potentially lean toward utilizing more of you race
specific training on this day as you approach your goal race (for example, in
the case of the 5K, you may want to do 5K paced intervals in the last 4 weeks
of your training, while alternating interval training and threshold training
earlier in phase 3).
Triathlon Adaptations 2 (adding
intensity)
The
above section listed some short cuts that a triathlete
might have to take in his run training. As I stated, these shortcuts lead to
less than optimal training with respect to running which will likely result in
slower running performances. The most effective way to improve your running in
most cases is to run at least 6 times a week while maintaining three harder
days a week (medium and long runs or workouts and long runs).
As
a result of either cutting down or cutting out workouts above, you will likely
find that you are capable of running just a bit more on the days that you do
run. This is great and, provided that you are recovering well, you should push
a little farther on those days. A person who would normally run 25:50:75 (in
minutes) might find that they are capable of running 57:85 if only running
three days a week.
I
still recommend following the above plan while continuing to extend your weekly
mileage on limited training up to the point of running 60 minute medium runs
and 90 minute long runs. Beyond this point it may be beneficial two continue
increasing mileage for longer races (like marathons, HIMs, and IMs). However,
for shorter races, you may want to being replacing some of your easier runs
with various threshold training workouts.
This
recommendation is more about getting the most out of your training time if
available time becomes a limitation for you. If you only have three days a week
to run and don’t have the time to devote more than 45 minutes on two of those
days, an athlete who is capable of running 60 minutes on each of those days
plus a 90 minute long run will be leaving himself undertrained by simply
running 45 minutes easy.
In
this case, replace one or both of those 45 minute runs with threshold training.
The same can be said for the long run if, again, time is a limiting factor.
Essentially here you are training in phase 2 ½. Continue to follow the
recommendations laid out in the above plan with these new adaptations in mind.
Only add in interval and speed training in phase three
if your goal race distance calls for it OR if you have gotten to a point where,
again, you have maxed out your available training time. Given this example, if
two 45 minute threshold sessions is just not pushing yourself to improve and
you have no more available running time in the week, then start phasing in even
faster sessions, being very careful to make sure that you are able to
adequately recover from them and avoid overtraining.
Again,
I want to emphasize that the above recommendations are not even trades for an
optimal 6 day a week running plan. They are only meant to accommodate people
who have scheduling conflicts. Cutting out workouts and adding intensity should
only be done if the athlete is unable to schedule the necessary running
sessions.
The Long Triathlon Season
I
am not a fan of the concept of a racing season that lasts 6-8 months, however
it is a reality for many triathletes who simply enjoy
hitting a lot of fun races while the weather is good. In the respect, I
recommend staying in phase 2 (or 2 ½ ) for the bulk of
the season while picking a couple of goal races to move into phase 3 for the
weeks leading up to those races. Keep in mind that it will be a lot more
realistic to plan for a solid HIM performance in June and another race in
September rather than trying to compete in a Sprint Tri in August followed by a
Marathon 6 weeks later.
Final Notes
If
anything, I hope that the above post at least gives an approach to training
from which one can compare their own training. From an educational standpoint,
I find it’s helpful to have something that is concrete to give a reference
point from which to discuss. If anything, a post like this will lead to a
debate between those who may largely agree with those who may feel this is
misleading in some way.
RunTraining (the links)
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=1612485#1612485
Reorganized to bring more appropriate
threads to the top:
*
The Program (part 1)
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...%20part%201;#2548394
*
The Program (part 2)
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...%20part%202;#2554186
*
The Program (part 3)
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...part%203%20;#2560901
Swimming: Compilation of some of Doug
Stern's tips:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ring=barryp;#4020943
1)
Runtraining11 - Understanding how to balance your program (Dec 13, 07)
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ntraining11;#1600721
2)
RunTraining19 - Gradual Progressive Training
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ntraining19;#1897663
3)
RunTraining20 - Andavnce beyond the begginer's stage running program
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ntraining20;#1949381
4)
Zero to PR in 7 months - My Training Log
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...t_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;
5)
Runtraining7 - Struggling with running? Many have improved from this simple
fix. (May 10, 07)
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...untraining7;#1311512
6)
Runtraining10 - How can YOU get faster at running - LSD vrs
intensity (Oct 4, 06)
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ntraining10;#1007702
7)
RunTraining16 - REPETITION TRAINING, HILL TRAINING - How to link your base
phase to your interval phase.
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ntraining16;#1029990
8)
RunTraining15 - A VERY IMPORTANT WORKOUT THAT MIGHT BE MISSING IN YOUR
ROUTINE....NEWS AT 11! (Tempo Runs)
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ntraining15;#1020627
Try
this new link
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...t_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;
9) Why Speedwork
is Overrated
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...;;page=unread#unread
The rest (still worth a read....if I do
say so myself ; ^ ).
RunTraining1
- Training for the time limited triathlete (Jan 31,
07)
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...t_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;
Runtraining2
- The Zatopek Paradox (Feb 6, 07)
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...untraining2;#1187478
Runtraining3
- Long Runs (fast or slow?) (Feb 8, 07)
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...untraining1;#1190259
RunTraining4:
Training Stresses for Different Workouts (Mar 26, 07)
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...untraining4;#1250345
Runtraining5
- Some tips for the up and coming season (Apr 13, 07)
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...untraining5;#1274763
Runtraining6
- Optimizing time, setting priorities (May 5, 07)
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...untraining6;#1305376
Runtraining8
- Some tips on improving running form (May 14, 07)
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...untraining8;#1315768
Runtraining12
- A simple model to structure your training (Dec 20, 07)
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ntraining12;#1608381
RunTraining13
- Track Workouts - How fast, how often, what time of year?
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ntraining13;#1014205
RunTraining14
- Hill Training
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ntraining14;#1152546
RunTraining17
- THE FORMULA
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ntraining17;#1832962
RunTraining18
- TRAINING TABLES