Drawbacks of doing the same thing every week?

What are the workouts?

I will probably do repeat 1000s on my longer day and 16-20x200 for my shorter days. I am think of doing some 400s or 800s at 10K pace as well, not sure what I should do for the 3rd workout.

if its not broke, dont fix it wrote:

I will probably do repeat 1000s on my longer day and 16-20x200 for my shorter days. I am think of doing some 400s or 800s at 10K pace as well, not sure what I should do for the 3rd workout.

Two problems with doing the same thing every week. The first is you'll eventually plateau, the body needs new stimulus to keep improving. I wouldn't worry about that too much if your only doing this a couple months for your base phase.

The second is it gets to be a drag mentally doing the same thing every week, it's easier to stay motivated over the dreary winter months if your varying things up.

Unrelated to doing the same thing every week, three workouts a week (one being 200s) seems excessive for your base phase. Did you come in a time machine from 1991?

the point of training is to induce an adaptation.

from this, one definition of training could be: the specific work that induces the specific adaptation that makes you better suited to meet your performance goal.

from this, we can easily see that your "plan," might induce an adaptation at the beginning, but unless the training alters to induce further adaptation it will not have the desired effect.

quite why this needs to be explained remains a mystery.

Back to the future wrote:

Two problems with doing the same thing every week. The first is you'll eventually plateau, the body needs new stimulus to keep improving. I wouldn't worry about that too much if your only doing this a couple months for your base phase.

Unrelated to doing the same thing every week, three workouts a week (one being 200s) seems excessive for your base phase. Did you come in a time machine from 1991?

LOL I threw in the 200s for some leg turnover but I think hill repeats would be a better workout during base.

Would the variations in rest/ paces not be enough of a change in stimulus to develop an adaptation?

You'll be fine for a few months, but why not vary it some more?

If it were me, I would put together a list of workouts that cover a variety of paces. On any given week, I'd pick two (definitely not three!).

A possible list:

unplanned fartlek, pick it up by feel

hill repeats

200s

1000s

the classic 3-4 mile tempo

one hour uptempo (steady state, a bit slower than MP, that pace that feels oh sooo good and people call 'junk miles')

long run

You could even roll the dice every week and see what comes out.

Actually, looking at it again I might take the long run out and make sure I do that every week.

Perhaps you mean that you find it a drag mentally doing the same thing every week.

One of the many tidbits I've gleaned from Marty Liquori's books was that, when doing high mileage, he found it easier to stick to just a few loops. Over the years, I've found that to be true. When I'm running a lot, by hitting the same few runs, my feet know what to do even when I'm not really into it.

To the OP -- if you need a third workout, make it a moderate progression run that you do by feel.

1) just get out the door

2) warm up a mile or two

3) do whatever you feel like (tempo, long, fartlek, sprints, mix, whatever)

4) UR welcome

draw backs may include:

Representing Australia

World Championships

Gold medal – first place 1983 Helsinki Marathon

Commonwealth Games

Gold medal – first place 1982 Brisbane Marathon

Gold medal – first place 1986 Edinburgh Marathon

s of May 2009, de Castella still held the following records:[7]

Australian U20 10,000 m – 28'54"4 on 16 December 1976 in Melbourne

Australian 20 km Track – 58.37.2 on 17 Apr 1982 in Rome

Australian 1 hr – 20,516 m on 17 April 1982 in Rome

Australian All Comers Marathon – 2h 09'18" in Brisbane Commonwealth Games 1982

Australian Marathon – 2h 07'51" at the 1986 Boston Marathon

1977 – won the Sydney City to Surf in 41' 12"

1979 – won the Victorian Championship in 2h 14'44" and the Australian marathon title in 2h 13'23"[3]

1980 – 10th in the 1980 Summer Olympics marathon in Moscow, 2h 14'31"; 8th at the Fukuoka Marathon in 2h 10'44"[3]

1981 – won the Fukuoka Marathon in 2h 08'18" (world record from 1981 to 1984)[3]

1981 – won and set fastest time of 40'08" in City to Surf, Sydney. (this time bettered in 1991)

1982 – won the 1982 Commonwealth Games marathon in Brisbane in 2h 09'18"[3]

1983 – won the Rotterdam Marathon in 2h 08'37"[3]

1983 – won the 1983 World Championships in Athletics marathon in Helsinki in 2h 10'03"[3]

1984 – 5th in the Olympic Marathon in Los Angeles in 2h 11'09"[1]

1984 – 3rd in the Chicago Marathon in 2h 09'09"

1985 – 3rd in the Chicago Marathon in 2h 08'48"[3]

1986 – won the 1986 Commonwealth Games marathon in Edinburgh in 2h 10'15"

1986 – won the Boston marathon in 2h 07'51" (personal best[1][3])

1987 – won the Great North Run in 1h 02'04"

1988 – 4th in the Tokyo International Marathon in 2h 08'49"

1988 – 8th in the 1988 Summer Olympics marathon in Seoul in 2h 13'07"[1][3]

1990 – 13th in the 1990 Commonwealth Games marathon in 2h 18'50"[7]

1991 – won the Rotterdam Marathon in 2h 09'42"

1992 – finished 26th in Olympic Marathon, Barcelona in 2h 17'44"[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_de_Castella

https://www.iaaf.org/athletes/australia/robert-de-castella-639