I know no one's going to try to put together their own plan from all the details I've given, but want an example of what one would look like. To be competitive at my age (55-60) in Minnesota at my preferred distance, 5K, I'd have to break 19 minutes; that would put me in the top 10-15. Here's what my training would look like at that point:
Monday: 5 easy (8.5 min./mile)
Tuesday AM: 5 with 6x100m strides
PM: 7.5 with 4x1200m in 4:35 - 800m
Wednesday: 5 miles on trail
Thursday AM: 5 miles with 4x50m sprints
PM: 7.5 with last 4 in 28
Friday: off
Saturday: 5 with a 1 Mile Race in 5:30 (or 1200m time trial, 10 minute rest, 400m time trial)
Sunday: 10 at 8:30-8:45/mile
Monday: [as above]
Tuesday AM: [as above]
PM: 7.5 miles with 8x400m in 82 - 400m
Wednesday: [as above]
Thursday AM: [as above]
PM: 7.5 with last 6 in 44
Friday: [as above]
Saturday: 5 with 5K race in 19:00
Sunday: [as above]
The plan looks a lot like many you can find, but with a few differences. It's considered to be both high volume and high intensity. There's more miles, more fast miles and the fast parts are faster. The easy running pace is slower, however - sometimes much slower than others would suggest. The reason for this is that other coaches are taking athletes capable of running much faster races and having them train for much faster races, but racing slower. I coach to be at one's absolute limit; perhaps I'm an over-achiever.
[Only one more post in this series!]
Never ending rain
1 day ago
2 comments:
Steve, assuming you have tried nearly every marathon plan in print. What plan did you have the most success with? I know the answer is a loaded question because when we were all in our 20's to early thirties it did not matter what kind of program we followed we almost always improve. I've always had success with Pete Pfitz and his plans but it may be time to move on.
I never ran a great marathon and every method led to about the same result. Surprisingly, I ran a good 30K and a good 50K when I trained for a 100 Mile race. A week looked like: 35 miles Sunday, 12 on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, 4 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, all at easy pace. I wouldn't recommend that to anyone else, though!
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