Of Mice and Marathons

Good plan for the workout. Me, my pencil, and paper are going to work on putting some workouts together in a couple months. I'll probably be picking your brain.

I generally copy workouts from the blog, but I tried to mix paces. Generally I am working aerobic (marathonish pace) tempos and LT repeats of various lengths. For the former I start with maybe 5 miles and work to 8 (as much as 10-12 after 10 moderate for late-stage marathon workouts), cutting the pace as I feel good. LT stuff starts with 4-5 x 1 mile around HMP or faster. I work up to 4 x 2 miles with 3 minutes rest. I don't do enough 5k stuff because it is hard :) and I usually let my races take care of that. But you can experiment and have fun. I have some old standbys and I try to work in some new ones.

Some fairly classic ones I do:

6 x 800m @ 5k with 2 minutes recoveries

5-6 x 1 mile @ LT with 2 minutes recoveries (more or less depending on when you do them)

3-4 x 1 mile @ 5k with 90 seconds rest to 2 minutes recoveries

10-16 400m with 200m recoveries (need to do a set of these. Haven't done them for a few months)

4 x 2 miles @ HMGP with 3-3:30 recoveries (can be a tough one that you need to work up to through repeats and racing in a given build up)

Thanks for the rundown Jason. I don't feel like I've been getting the full benefits of my training by not hitting or trying different workouts. I really think I need to do more LT work as it seems like I see results from it. I just haven't went for it yet.

Try to think of it as where you are and not where you would like to be (but what you can do to get there). Fitness comes along and you will get to where you want to be.

Example: (Me this year)

June 29: 3.1 LT tempo 6:26, 6:09, 6:10, 5:47 for .10 (I ran miles this fast in a marathon a month before)

July 25: 4 mile LT tempo 6:16, 6:08, 5:54, 5:55

August 14: 5 x 1 mile: 5:57. 5:59, 6:03, 6:01, 6:04

September 15: Half marathon PR (all splits were 5:51-6:02, averaged 5:56). I had never run under 6:00 average for a race longer than a 4 miles at this point.

Now, there is a lot that goes into this (racing, high mileage, other workouts, and so on)

But if you did mile repeats around your HM PR pace you would benefit. It's a good way to get some mileage with warmup, cooldown, and recoveries. Don't make the mistake of thinking that you have to run 6 or more miles at the same pace you ran a half marathon at the week before. Break your LT stuff up. (Sorry if I am being didactic. It's a good reminder to me too.)

Last part before I attempt a recent sleep PR :) Riley Cook said to me the other day, quoting someone else "if you aren't training a system, you are loosing it." It's very fine advice. I think you need less than weekly vo2 max stuff but it depends on ability and what kind of race you are training for.

(Good to bear in mind this is all based on experience and what I read, so don't forget that)

Sleep PR.. I like that. All the advice is much appreciated. I'm getting excited for the months to come!