Bret

You seem to be recovering well from the stress workouts - must be all those meetings: the sitting about and relaxing etc:)

What happens in the next phase of your training as you move away from the hills and how often do you 'stress' the body?

I am still figuring out the plan - but I think I will begin this part of the training with some anaerobic work in the VO2 variety - perhaps 2 times per week along with a long run on the weekend and recovery runs in between. Second phase will hone in on the thresholds before I move to sharpening. Always open to insight and suggestions.

Sounds like a good plan.

Some suggestions:

1. I'd try and 'do something' in the 2nd half of the long run - at the very least, make sure you're not going slower than your normal aerobic pace: running too slow will introduce bad running form.

Before you introduce your threshold run phase, you could do a progression in the 2nd half or a fast finish in the last 4 miles or so.

2. With the VO2 max, a lot of people say mix up the sessions so the body doesn't become 'comfortable' with the stress.

That's fine for runners who've been running for years and doing rucks of 'speed' work - they need variety to stress the body. But keeping the sessions the same (5x800m - 3k pace and 4x1mile 5k - pace) you can see and measure your improvements. You can also predict what pace to do the sessions at and you can even, to a certain extent, precict your 10k, half, and marathon times, from your 5k session.

3. Stock up on turmeric, ginger, onions (red) and grapes (red). I'll explain later - but short version: natural pain killers/anti-inflammatories.

4. If you thought you'd lost some lard, wait and see what happens when you start your VO2 max sessions - you better warn the old lady. Stock up on bagels or some sort of carb you like -you're gonna get the munchies.

Thanks Bam - I appreciate the suggestions.

Overall I am so pleased with my progress aerobically, I am concerned that I may overdo on the anaerobic phase and end up worse off - so I will likely be more conservative in my approach and monitor how I am feeling/performing very closely.

Couple of questions -

Shall I introduce the fast finish on the long runs now or after a couple of weeks?

On the VO2 max sessions - do you recommend 60 or 90 sec rec or equal recovery to the work bout? I was thinking the former but am seeing suggestions for the latter as well.

Couple of points:

I suggest doing something with the second half of your run now. Probably 90% of pmp for 3 miles, then 3 @ 95% of pmp and finally 3 @ pmp. You should be able to cope with this easily.

Then you can lengthen the pmp to 4 miles, 5 miles and so on. Then you can go from mp up to 103% of pmp - this helps narrow the gap between half marathon and marathon pace which is what you are trying to do.

I understand your anaerobic concerns. Why not do - one long run, one run @ mp starting at 8 miles and building each week and one VO2 max session. This way you're not hitting your system with too much.

On the recovery, 90 sec's is better, imo. Anything longer than this is pointless. You don't get rests in races. The speed you'll get off 90 sec's rec is plenty. 60 sec's might be too tough and you might not get enough speed.

Once every 2-3 weeks drop the VO2 or tempo session and do a pure lactate threshold run of 4 miles. This is a beauty if you get the pace right. If you decide on this option, I'll explain how to work it out.

What you are doing is shunting the lactate while developing tolerance and this helps with mp. This is not your Tinman or Daniels threshold/tempo session - it's a Bam session and it's Bamtastic.

Awesome advice - much appreciated Bam