van aaken

If you are doing 11-12 hours a week it appears that you are running about 132 a week (11 x 12). Are you getting in a long run? Regular races and as Mr. Whitlock would tell you is to be patient. If you were to remain at 11-12 hours a week and get into the routine of running the repeats all will progress. How long have you been running? I know that you are approaching 50 so you may have a great deal of background miles. What is your resting pulse?

you can probably get it at abe books. www.abe.com

The book is very inspiring reading and you can go a long way by simply following in the general direction of the principles - and as you proceed, it doesn't take too many months to be convinced that you're on the right path.

But there isn't much more detailed training advice in it than is available in this discussion (or elsewhere in the net in Enlish or German) and it doesn't somehow seem sufficient for someone like me who expects and believes he needs something more in the line of the training schedules offered in other running books.

I haven't paid much attention to exact pace or mileage, I've followed the guideline of HR 130 fairly strictly and logged only hours. However, I know that at this point my avg pace is around 5:30-5:40 min/km and I come a little short of 132 km in a week which would normally consist of one long run (2.5-3.0 hrs), two medium runs (1.5-2.0 hrs) and the rest shorter runs, with one or two doubles and the odd DNR.

I've been an active recreational skier - I've done non-competitive ski marathons every winter for 30 years - but a lazy summer jogger all my life; I'd never run more than 30 km/week until 2002 when I became a glorified jogger who'd become very loosely goal-oriented in May and run a marathon in August or September (with the purpose of avoiding the usual weight gain) and that would be it until the following May. My times dropped from 3:40 to 3:20, but there wasn't any real progress or even any real desire for progress.

Things changed last year when work took me to the wrong location for XC skiing and when some sort of late mid-life crisis hit me simultaneously:-) It also helped that it dawned on me that I had the frame and possibly the mindset of a guy who could still go sub-3 (and go out for an AG podium place when the race was small enough and the right half a dozen or so guys somewhere else)...

My resting pulse, taken as a 5-min avg, is 45-46. (As for HRmax, my sole test, done when climbing a hill on skis, resulted in 180, FWIW.)

I suppose that a simple regimen of those repeats (done weekly, without any worries about a need to increase the number towards 10-20 or more) and races (done maybe every 3 weeks) would indeed be more effective and sane than tryng to copy the training of someone with a more solid running background.

I'd have to say that if you run because you enjoy it for the simplicity of it, you will get better. I attribute Dr. Van Aaken's book to making this point well known. In today's time, we have so many theories of running and phases to race. I personally think we should have two - three races that we should focus on in a given year and base all of ones training around that; the other races are bonus and hard workouts. I think VanAaken is right on saying to run moderate and take walking breaks as desired - I don't advocate the Galloway method, but I feel if you actually run some of the workouts in his book, walking for the recovery is not so absurd. I enjoy running more when I run by effort; I have a staple ten mile route for my training; I run it with my wifes uncle who runs slow right now; we usually average 1:38-1:44 for ten miles with a stop or two thrown in there; I feel good after the run and have had no problem running decent races training this slow. Sometimes though, when running by myself, I run this route quite fast for training - 69:and change on two occasions and most recently a 74 minute with a 2:58 last half mile running comfortable. I'm able to run 80 miles a week now and feel pretty lazy, I should be getting upwards to 130, etc, but time and patience will allow me to do such.

Nick

October Helpful, enjoy each run for what it offers. The long runs are events in themselves. I have used it as a means of travel (now I leave the house a few hours before my wife on all trips and she picks me up down the road- this works well when she wants to race and I am given baby duty). Another method I have used is get a map of your state, US, etc. Chart your miles. There used to be a map for this purpose called the JOG LOG. You would move from home to anther location. Anything that keeps you involved. You are right to rely on your own needs when it comes to setting up your training. I have running logs dating back to the middle 60's. I alwasy remember an entry from 1965 I wrote "ran five miles -- almost died" I thought it was a double marathon. I can still remember how I felt - (laid on my front lawn and drank chocolate milk -- out of a glass bottle). I can not state in any stronger terms that you should keep a log. This will allow you to learn from your own mistakes. Botton line enjoy the trip and be patient. See you on the podium!

I've been looking into Van Aaken training, was led to this old thread by HRE and was wondering how the above would change when gearing up for a marathon.