Finishing summer base, thinking about winter base

Also every once in a while I'll run some indoor meets with a couple big ones in March. I think all of these are on Saturdays. Should I just take out the fartlek and run like an easy 3 miles or something instead if I have a Saturday race?

looks more you're doing the same kind of training everyday. run your 50 minutes on your easy days as doubles of 25/25. extend that sunday long run to 90-120 minutes. that's just for starters.

Lenny Leonard wrote:

looks more you're doing the same kind of training everyday. run your 50 minutes on your easy days as doubles of 25/25. extend that sunday long run to 90-120 minutes. that's just for starters.

No. Add a morning run on top of that 50 minute run.

By the way I think this would grant me 40-50 mpw.

How much mileage have you recently done?

What are your current PR's and goals?

Sub 33 10k, sub 15:30 5k, sub 9:30 2 mile, sub 4:20 mile, sub 2 800. In the past I've run anywhere from 40-70 miles per week. My winters end up being terrible because I am usually very inconsistent. I hope to make this winter more consistent which is why I'm keeping it simple.

I guess I can put my goals into two categories, what I think I will most likely do and what I think is somewhat possible but kind of lofty:

800m 1:56, 1:54

1 mile: 4:14, 4:08

2 mile: 9:15, 8:58

Okay, so you are not relatively new

The schedule you posted is basically cookie cutter

You can always add in weights and pylos if you haven't done so yet

Why don't you want to do more than 40-50 miles per week though?

I've done plyos and weights in the past, found plyos to be a waste of time. Weights are kinda iffy, but I feel I could do without. I do plenty of push ups though. There are two reasons why I'm against going above ~50 mpw.

1) My training becomes very inconsistent when I try higher mileage. Also I don't like to do doubles because of school and I feel I should tack on more runs rather than crank up my single runs. I've tried doubles and I'm even more inconsistent with those.

2) During the spring we only run 40 to 50 miles per week.

bump

Just get consistent. The fact that you have been inconsistent before shouldn't matter. You know what happened, fix it.

If you want to go under 9 minutes for the 2 mile, you'll have to put in a lot of work. Some days you won't want to, and it will suck. And this will sound cheesy, but at those moments it is the really good runners who get their ass out the door and put the work in.

The flip side of this is to pay very close attention to your body and not run yourself into the ground. You want to put in consistent, hard work. Not inconsistent hard work. And not consistent mediocre work.

The training looks good but you have cross country to worry about. Don't plan the track base until after you finish your cross country season. Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the future when the present demands your immediate focus.

Glad you are focused but man, to all ready be thinking about the next base phase? Are you a trainer or a racer?

Read the article in Running Times about Rudy Chapa et al and how they had 3 guys on one team go sub9. Should be good motivation.

1.) Are you running XC?? If you are, then worry about through the season uninjured and getting some PR's there.

2.) You have no business thinking track just yet, without getting through XC season. Just makes it seem like you don't care about XC team, only your individual track times.

3.) Concentrate on a great XC season with some strogn PR's and see what progression you have made and then go from there for your winter base.

4.) If you are not doing any XC, then do some speedwork from here to early winter. Get some rest and crank it up again.

Bro just read my name haha I know it's early. Just looking for some suggestions. Of course I care about xc...it's not like I can't look for advice for the winter and still care about the fall season. I don't need to put all of my thoughts into what I'm going to do for xc training now because I have a good coach who does all the thinking for me. I just listen and execute. Winter is a different story though. Low key I'm one of the only distance runners at my school that would even care to run over 20 mpw let alone dip into the 50 range during the winter. I just need some help guys.

You say you have a good coach. That's awesome. Would you trust him to, and would he be willing to, write up a winter plan for you? You've got a decent framework that just needs some tweaking tailored to you and your coach is the best one suited for that since he works with you for 3 months in the fall! I wouldn't take somebody's advice that doesn't know the details of my training.

AND, you may be in a different state of mind after cross country than you are now... you may want to up the mileage so you can go after those "lofty" track goals. Maybe you can get those times, but I am guessing you will need to run a lot more than 40-50 miles in the base phase to get there.

You bring up some good points, Road Racer. A big problem that I have is that my xc coach doesn't coach track. The winter training schedule that the head track coach gives the distance runners is VERY relaxed. He's more of a "fitness guru" I guess you could call it and not much of a distance coach. By this I mean he cares about core, stretching, lifting, plyometrics, skipping, ect and maybe a little running here and there. That's fine and all for the sprinters I guess but I'd much rather just not waste my time with that crap and instead run some miles. I'm not going against the coach though. He pretty much told me after the end of my track season where I ran really good times that I can do basically what every I want during the winter as long as I talk to him about it so we're on the same page.

I know it's really early wrote:

I'm a distance runner (mile and 2 mile) and I'm going to be a senior. This is what I want to be doing pretty much as soon as possible once I start my winter base training:

monday: 50 minutes

tuesday: 4-6 mile tempo

wednesday: 50 minutes

thursday: 50 minutes

friday: random fartlek workout

saturday: 50 minutes

sunday: 1 hour

Is this too easy you think? Please help critique.

Horrible. Get everyday to atleast 12-15 miles.

I agree with Road Racer. Talk to your XC coach and get him to write up a winter training plan. Not to intervene with the track coach, talk to both and work something out. Your track coach needs to know that you need a better base during winter, and the one that can provide it is your XC coach. Once track starts, you are all his. That is what I would do. And keep your XC coach in mind when you need something during track season. I got lucky that my xc and track coach was the same and he helped us all year long. Good Luck!!