Van Aaken Training Schedule

Great book that I've used for years "The Van Aaken Method" still available used from Amazon. I bought a copy as a gift a year or so ago. Very detailed training outlined along with explanation of the overview of his training philosophy.

http://www.juggernautsthebook.com

This is from an article he wrote that appeared in Track Technique. I believe it's from 1962 so it was before Norpoth's medal. There are some bits of schedules here. A very small part of the article didn't show up in my copy;

"The play of children is the primal form of interval training. I arrived at this conclusion after taking into consideration the training methods of the top German runners such as Herbert Schade, Paul Schmidt, Friedel Stracke, Werner Lueg, and many others. I also train my own club's runners according to these principles. As the result of this training, the boy and girl athletes of my club, which by the way is located in a village of 7,000 inhabitants, had the best average times at 600, 1500, and 3,000 meters of any representatives of West Germany. One of my useful runners, edgar Forche, became the German Youth Champion in the 1500 meters run with a time of 3:59.9. None of my good runners has any talent for the sport, but through much training which was only of the endurance variety, they have become excellent performers.

Edgar Forche, for example, ran daily in the forest last winter after school. His workout consisted of 5x3000 meters in a time of between 11 and 13 minutes. Very seldom did he do any sprinting. Later though, he was so fast that he was able to do 400 meters in about 0:49.5. When our best long distance runner, Roland Watschke, (who also had no ability) started with me he did the 5,000 meters in about 18 minutes and the 10,000 in around 40 minutes. At the outset, he stuck to speedwork, much to my regret. He frequently did 10x200 meters in 29-30 seconds and did not better himself at all. It was only when he took my advice and finally changed his training that any improvement was made. He now ran in his workouts 20x1000meters at the slow pace of 3:10 to 3:20 with walking intervals of 200 meters, or he would do 30x600meters in 1:45-1:50. At no time did he do any sprinting. As a result, he quickly improved his 5,000 meter time in one year from 16:23 to 15:18 and his 10,000 meter time from 33:48 to 31:57. His training distances now became longer, for the most part, so that at a workout he would do 5x3,000 meters, plus 40x400 meters, the latter at 70-75.

As a consequence, Watschke improved in the next year from15:18 to 14:46 in the 5,000--and then in the last year to 14:14.6! At the 3,000 meter distance he attained 8:12, although he has not actually done any sprint training in the last year. Frequently, though, he has runs sets of 30x100 meters in 14 seconds each with his clubmates, Muller-Wesel. His basic training however, consisted of daily long distance runs totalling about 20 kilometers.

The present training of Watschke who has again joined my club will have somewhat the following look: In the mornings, starting at 5:45, he does 15 minutes of exercise (calisthenics), followed immediately by an easy warmup of 10-12 kilometers. His occupation busies him from 8:00am until 5 in the evening. from 5:30 until 8:30 p.m. he usually does the following: 5x3000 meters in the forest at a pace between 10 and 12 minutes with a three minute walking interval between each. Then he does 20x500 meters with a pickup in the pace from around the 300 meters mark. Each of these is done in about 1:30. Next he does 2x200 meters in around 29 seconds, and finishes with 3 kilometers of warming down running. With this training schedule, which amounts to 35-40 kilometers per day, we hope to bring Watschke under 14 minutes for the 5,000 and to get him down to

(HERE SOME OF THE COPY AT THE MARGINS DOESN'T SHOW)

runs when he performs at the appropriate constant speed, and h...the 400 meters in a way that there is no oxygen debt whatsoever. Applying the Waldniel method...training, we maintain that endurance is the most important factor in long distance running an...which besides endurance stress too much muscular development, such as weight lifting...gymnastics, and sprinting (which are used percentagewise less) do not increase the capillarie...the muscles which are so imprtant for the middle and long distance runner, but only increase... the strength which is wholesome for short stretches and is only a hinderance in long ones...

The true all-around runners are slim and graceful and still enormously speedy (Zimny...Pirie, Iharos, and some other ones), and these runners are toward the end of the run—in the...second half of the race—always stringer than their strong muscled counterparts. Thus Iharos...while making his 13:40.6 5,000 world record ran the last 1,000 meters in 2:33.6, a speed wh...many a muscular runner can't match on account of the overdevelopment of his muscles. At the marathon run the shortest and lightest one with the greatest heart pumping capacity, namely Popov, USSR, was also the speediest. The strong and muscular sprinter has received from nature a one sided gift, namel, speed and speed alone. But under different circumstances this ve...hinders the development of endurance and that is paradoxically the reason why the speeiest 100 meter runner is hardly ever the speediest when the distance goes over 400 meters...

A sprinter should run five kilos a day in forests; a middle distance runner up to 15 kilos, and a 10,000 meter runner should do forest running up to 30 kilos. A marathon runner should on nice spring days even touch 80 kilos. Only the athlete who runs daily, modestly, without touching his reserves, and who east little but well will ever become a good runner.

Thanks for the info. A while back Vladamir posted a sample week for some consisting of a 60 minute jog M,T,R.F.S. 30 minutes of strides on wednesday and a 2 hour long run on Sunday. I would assume that some of the jogs would end in some pick ups. Has anyone tried anything like this, or have another example of a EVA running week.

This is what I used to do:

Monday: the 5/day running schedule outlined in the book:

am - 10k jog (very slow)

am2 - 5k fartlek (w/ downhill strides, uphill bounds, and a short sprints)

midday - 5K at Daniels easy pace + 2x500 @5K pace

pm - 10K between Daniels easy pace and marathon pace + 1000m @10K pace

night - 8K jog (very, very slow, usually felt horrible on this as my body was ready to go to bed)

Tuesday:

am - 60jog (slow)

pm - 90mins @Daniels easy pace

Wednesday:

am - 60jog (slow)

mid - 60 @Daniels easy pace

pm - 60 between Daniels easy pace and marathon pace

Thursday:

am - 120 @Daniels easy pace

Friday:

repeat Monday

Saturday:

am - 60jog

pm - 10M tempo run

Sunday - run all day, running to wherever I needed to go, so I'd get anywhere from 3hours to 80K throughout the day (I only did 80K once, and boy was it slow)

This is a very high amount of mileage and I would always follow it up with a very easy week where I would either run or cross train once a day.

Someone named "link" posted some info on his interpretation of the Van Aaken Method, some time ago. Here are some of the quotes:

"What I find incredible about Ed's training is not the total time, but that he can do those three hours running just once/day. I found running 2x 90 minutes to be pretty easy, actually. The key for me was using my HRM. I did all of my 90 minute runs at 60% of heart rate reserve. At the beginning, I was running at about 7:30/km ((12 min./mile)) (although it was July in the Southeast...). I mixed in one 5k at 80% HRR, and a few sprints once/wk and within just 4 months I was running under 5min/km on my 90 minute runs and had improved my 5k 'threshold' from 24 minutes to about 18 flat.

I was 31. I had taken a year or two off - more or less - but had been a 32 min 10k 2:30 marathoner four years before. If you're the HRE, then you will appreciate that my philosophy of training is due to Van Aaken. My earlier PRs came when I changed from running 80-100/wk at 6:40/mile pace to 100-180/wk at 8 minute/mile pace. I went from 2:50 to 2:30 in the marathon in two years after having trained the other way for five or so. I should say that I did more intensive speed work when I set those PRs. Not a lot of it, though

"The key for me was using my HRM. I did all of my 90 minute runs at 60% of heart rate reserve. At the beginning, I was running at about 7:30/km (although it was July in the Southeast...). I mixed in one 5k at 80% HRR, and a few sprints once/wk and within just 4 months I was running under 5min/km on my 90 minute runs and had improved my 5k 'threshold' from 24 minutes to about 18 flat."

Basically, I kept my HR between 119 and 131 for 90 minutes twice per day - with a couple of workouts thrown in, replacing 90 minute runs - and measured the distance on the bikepath where I did all my running in those days. Went from 11.3 km in late July to 18.6 in mid-October. Tempo 5k, which I ran at 154-166, on the track went from 22:43 in early August to 17:56 in October. I was raced a 10 mile in September in about 56 minutes on a hilly course. I was 31 at the time and four years earlier had run about 32 flat for 10k and under 2:30 (just under...) for the marathon. I had run only sparingly the three years prior to the HR training. When I ran my PBs I was also using a HRM, training at about the same ranges, but somewhat faster - I'd had 10 years of good consistent work behind me then.

I would definitely recommend this kind of training to anyone with time and patience. It allows for increases in distance only and commensurate with your increase in fitness.

Oh, I should mention that once/wk I did a few 300s hard but not all out - maybe 54 seconds, walking a 300 in between."

I've been running twice a day, six day/wk. with a 2-3 hour run on Sunday for the past 3 months. I've been able to increase the duration to 70 mins. per run and am shooting for 90 mins./run eventually. So, at that point, I'd be doing about 3 hours/day, 6 days/week with the long run on Sunday. I also use the HRM and am running at about 65% of max. HR (about 115 BPM) which is very comfortable for me. I havent raced lately due to lingering PF problems but I notice that my weight and % body fat have dropped quite a bit, as has my resting HR. My % body fat is down to 9.2% from over 12% a couple of months ago so I think things are progressing nicely.

Liane Winter supposedly alternated runs of 30km one day with 20km runs the next in her preparation for the 1975 Boston Marathon. On the 30km runs she'd go easily for the first `10km, moderately for the second 10km and fairly hard for the last 10km. The 20km runs were done pretty easily.

In "The van Aaken Method" there's mention of Meinrad Nagele who ran 2:29 at age 46. He'd run twice a day totally 30-35 km probably at about 8:30 pace and sometimes on weekends would cover 30-45 miles a day at that pace. He'd also do sessions of 10x500 in about 80 with a 300 meter walk.

One thing that's possible about those 8:30 paces is that they may, or may not, have included regular walking breaks and if so the actual running speeds could, or could not, have been faster.

I exchanged a few e-mails with Willi van Aaken, Ernst's son and regular training partner a few years ago. He told me that the two of them ran 10km in an hour every night after work. But they did it with walking breaks so the actual running was faster than 10 minute miles.

If you can track down "Marathoning" by Manfred Steffney, probably van Aaken's second most successful male athlete and eventually a coach himself, there are samples of Christa Valhlensiek's training.

Steffney also coached his brother Herbert who ran 2:11 at age forty or forty one. I have a German language book with several samples of Herbert's training. Nothing about it stands out as shockingly different from what lots of other guys in that range do.

Why are you alternating between imperial and metric systems in your post?

I am sure your German language book is consistent.

You're sure are you? And that's because you've read the book? I'm just repeating what's there. Apology accepted.

It appears that this is a widely held publication. Maybe someone with access could get a fresh scan of this?

For whatever use and interest it might be I will comment as follows.

When I was training well and doing my 3 hour slow runs with practically no speed training I did race quite frequently.

As you may know I have been fighting knee problems recently but I have done a decent amount of slow training in the last 6 months but no racing. I ran as a member of a 24 hour relay team last weekend. I performed worse than I would have expected which I think is due to the lack of racing. Last year I ran in the same race with less training but more racing and performed marginally better.

I conclude that LSD for the development of endurance is fine but I need to get in some speed work. Maybe that's obvious.

But in the form of races..Right?

kicker wrote:

But in the form of races..Right?

Correct