Hi Sam, my coach is pretty old school Lydiard, and it has worked pretty well for me, so I would lean towards your first option myself.

A typical Lydiard-based approach would build mileage (10-20%/week maybe two weeks if you feel fatigued as the mileage builds towards the higher end). Incorporate 1 or 2 "hard" days in the middle of the week. Hard days can either be longer miles (90 - 105 mins in duration) or little bits of speed (not really speed sessions, more practice of turn-over): fartleks (15-20 1` on 1` off), or 10-15 ins-and-out at the track (sometimes called straights and curves, jog the curves/sprint the straights). Long runs should be in the 105-120 min range. Mix-up the paces ... don't run too hard, but when you feel frisky, run a little faster, but in general run pretty easy. After about 8 weeks your mileage could pretty high (70-80mpw range?) and you could add striders after your easy runs about 3 times/week ... just to keep a little "snap" in your legs. If you do this for 12 weeks you can be pretty strong going into marathon training.

My method to do the same is basically

Mon tempo run ~50 mins

Tue easy run

Wed easy run

Thurs mile or km(10k pace) reps

Fri easy run

Sat long run 18-20

Sun easy run

You could easily hit close to 70 mpw and get in two sessions that way. I think two sessions is about as much quality I can handle and recover from. I tried three before and the volume of fast running has to go down for me to recover.

I guess it depends what you think you are weak on, if it is pure endurance you need the miles so 50mw with lots of sessions might not do it. I don't think you suffer from a lack of speed at all so maybe just focus on getting consistent miles in and buildng strength, probably tempo runs are fast enough, although strides are good.

Plus everybody is different, I think I work better on being consistent and just doing about the same number of miles each week rather than doing some weeks very high miles and then very low, but that might work better for you.

PS there is a good race called the Stockport 10 miler beginning of December - that would be a good race for you as it isn't laps and you get a cool goody bag!

HI Bonnie, thanks for your reply, the only thing is I've actually done 14 weeks of a 20 week plan pretty well but hit the track didnt warm up long story hammy strain, so I am coming back but kept allot of fitness through xtraining and swimming, some running/jogging.

Hence I am pretty fit base wise, and dont think I need a big base really I am gonna need at least 4 weeks of easy running to make sure hammy is healed nicely.

My coach wants me to start some xtraining sessions, which is ok I've been doing that anyway, but harder more precise ones, then build my run mileage for 4 weeks, then start sessions run wise, but Id like to build my mpq week and maybe do the long run session and then a tempo run or maybe mile reps but ive gotta be 100% ok hammy wise to do mile reps.

You see I have so long to London but this will be my main goal and I want to build up slow and get it right but then I dont want to peak tooo soon then overtrain hard isnt it .

Hi Sam. I think the "true-base" is good for anyone, but especially after coming off of a particularly hard racing season or an injury. For all the reasons you listed, I generally don't do any mile repeats or tempo runs until I am about 6-8 weeks from my peak race. It differs by how hard you run your tempo runs ... mine are about 10k - 1/2 marathon pace and range between 4 - 8 miles, I know better runners do up to 10-16 mile tempo runs. Mile repeats (for me) can be somewhere in the 5K - 10K range - running too many of these too far away from your race can, as you point out, lead to peaking too early.

A good, alternative, "base phase" workout would be 40 mins - 60 mins at steady state pace - these are around 1/2 marathon to 15K pace (or about what you could run "comfortably hard" for 60 mins). These are similar to what Jack Daniels calls "threshold" runs. They are not that hard on your system (say like tempo runs can be) but are really good "stamina-builders".

Because of your injury, I really think the fartleks are a good way to build your leg turn-over again ... they shouldn't "hurt" - you can run them by effort (so if your leg is tight you can run them slower or you can push it when you feel good) - and you can recover from them really easy. With your historical speed and strength you should be able to run the tempo/mile repeats 4 weeks from London and get a lot of training from them ... for you the main thing is to get to the line healthy and let your body do its thing ;-).

Happy running!

Thanks Bonnie, I am taking it all in, I probably will do 4-5 weeks throughout sept and part of Oct doing mostly base mileage with one longer run and one fartlek type run, and I am gonna keep my swimming up too, and xtrainer. Coach wants me to do some cycling reps or intervals on the xtrainer whilst I am doing base running, which I can cope with as for doing 8 months of mile reps well thats a no no Id end up peaking to early as you agreed with, or burnt out....