I joined this board last week and have a big training question

[David S]

I am so happy to have found this board.

So here is my story:  I started running about 2 years ago. I am 40 years old and have lost 35 pounds since. I am 5'11" - my weight varies, of course, but is in the 170's.  I have been following a more "workout" oriented training method with easy runs sandwiched in between.  Specifically, our local running group has 2 workouts a week - Tuesdays and Thursdays, plus organized long runs on Saturday's.  These workouts can be hills, 800's, 1200's, 2000's, mile repeats, tempo runs, or core workouts, etc.  There is enough variety to keep things interesting.  The thing is, I have really increased my conditioning and speed through these workouts, combined with the easy runs in-between.  Before I started with this group my best 5k was 25 plus minutes - in November 08 I ran a 5k in 19:33, my 1/2 time went from 1:43 in Jan '08 to 1:29 in Jan '09, and my marathon time went from 4:12 in Feb 08 to 3:30 in Dec 08 - and that was with 30 MPH sustained winds and 90% humidity.  At the same time, I see the wisdom of increasing base mileage as well as running 6 days a week.  I have started both.  On workout days we have enough of a warm-up and cool down that I end up getting in about 7-8 miles total.  Now, I am working on increasing my easy mileage on my other days to 8 miles - this week I will be at 7 miles per day.  The last 3 weeks I have put in 46-47 miles a week, and with the increase I should be at 50 miles this week.  I am quite addicted to the organized workouts because I get to run with others and there is variety. 

Question: As my base mileage is close to 50 should I stick to my current plan with the speed/hills/tempo workouts as well as increase my mileage and run 6 days a week?  Or should I scap the workouts all together and focus on just running 8 miles x 5 days plus one long run as is suggested on this board?  My goal this year is to run Chicago 2009 in 3:10 or under.   

Thanks in advance.

David

[Jon Allen]

If you enjoy the workouts and you think they help you, I don't see any reason to scrap them.  You are at a high enough mileage that speed workouts can improve your times, plus add variety (like you noted).  If you modify anything, I would suggest making your workout days harder- slowly add mileage till those days are 10 miles, or even 12+ if you think you can handle it.  Longer warm up and cooldown, and more repeats.  Maybe make some workouts tempos instead of always hills or track repeats, if you want.  And then make sure your easy days are very easy- shorter, if needed, but definitely slow recovery runs.  And keep your weekly long run (or bi-weekly long run). 

Consistent mileage + 2 workouts + easy runs + long run = marathon success

[Paul (RivertonPaul)]

Jon is a stud, and his advice is consistent with Tinman training principles.

[Jeff Linger]

I agree with Jon in the upping of aerobic based mileage, however, the element you seem to be lacking most is tempo/threshhold work. Jon mentioned it, but perhaps a bit more elaboration. If you're shooting for a 3:10 (7:15ish/mile) then you should be doing some tempo runs in the 6:45-6:55 pace (probably start with 5 miles and slowly up the miles to the point where you can sustain your tempo pace for an hour). If you're struggling to do this, I recommend cruise intervals (2 or 3 x's 20 mins at a touch faster than tempo pace [in your case maybe 6:30-6:45s] with a mile of active recovery between intervals [8:00s]).

[David S]

Thank you for the input.  Yes, I must agree with the tempo/threshold training aspect.  Right now I want to get consistent with my base mileage for a couple more weeks.  Then I will skip one of the group hard workouts and insert a tempo day as suggested.  How often should one run a threshold/tempo run - once a week? Every 2 weeks?  One thing that I have noticed is how helpful the longer easy runs have been.  Yesterday's 7 easy miles was a bit of a struggle after Tuesdays hard workout, but this morning I was amazingly fresh for today's workout.  One more note - I run 13-14 miles every Saturday as my long run.  I don't officially start marathon training for Chicago until June.  Therefore, I don't believe I have a need to run any further for now.  Comments?

Thanks again for all of the valuable information.

David

[Jeff Linger]

How often and how far for a tempo run would depend upon what else you're doing. I do a tempo run no more than twice a week. I do a long run (18-22 miles) every other weekend and every other of those I do 1/3 of it at tempo pace. I only do a tempo run twice in a week on the weeks that my long run is partially a tempo run.

On a side note. I've been running for about 20 months now. About a year ago I took Sasha's advice and bagged all speedwork until I had 2 years of running in the 60 mpw range. In the last year I've dropped my 1/2 marathon time from 1:30:35 to 1:24:55. I ran my first marathon last April in 3:11:30 and am targeting 2:59:59 this April in Boston. During this year I've run about 7 races ranging from 5k-1/2M, in addition to which, I've probably completed 25 tempo runs. The rest of my miles have been at Steady State aerobic zone running. By steady state I mean workouts that are comfortable, but not easy. It is a pace at which I could carry on a conversation, but I would have to space my words sparingly. Once a week I do an easy run. That's it. That's the entire plan. 6 days a week. 4-5 month training cycles building up from 40 mpw in the beginning to 70 mpw at the peak. 2-3 weeks off between cycles. No speedwork. Aerobic base work mostly with periodic tempo runs thrown in.