mile repeats - ideal rest between miles?

There is one situation I would agree with mile repeats this hard and that is if you are not well trained at all and have a low VO2 max. An efficient (but hard and maybe risky) option is to do 5x1k-1mile hard and 2-4min rest, but I guess you are already pretty well trained and benefit much more on raising the LT. Occationally you might do a 5xmile hard and with 2-3min rest, but maybe monthly at most

Mile repeats for the marathon should focus on increasing volume and reducing rest rather than a quick pace. I'd be building up to 8-10 reps with 60 seconds rest all at around HM pace, maybe a little slower. An alternative is to run them as alternations in your long run - 1 mile at MP, 1 mile at MP+60 seconds (or 90 seconds for the first few times you do this)

Yes, that is pretty standard BYU mile repeat practice. Both Sherald and now Ed do this. You're also at 4600ft in elevation.

Just wanted to thank everyone for the immensely helpful feedback, I learned quite a lot here. Basically I'm going to scrap the original workout I proposed (mile repeats @ 5k pace) and instead alternate between:

- 3-5 x 1 mile @ 10k-ish pace w/400m jog recovery

- 6-10 x 1 mile @ half-marathon pace, 60s recovery

There certainly is merit to that. Sounds like you’re describing float workouts?

Mile repeats at threshold pace, I'd say around a minute rest.

If you're doing marathon pace reps, rest can vary depending on how long you run...

But typical rule of thumb with Threshold I've seen:

1 mile at T = ~1 min rest

2 miles at T = ~2 mins rest

3 miles at T = ~3 mins rest

4 miles at T = ~4 mins rest

Anything over 4 miles of work for an interval is usually more marathon paced stuff. If your focus is the marathon, you'll most likely do weeks that are some times a lot of marathon pace volume, and other weeks a lot of threshold week volumes.

You're gonna get a lot of weird answers on here, but there's no secret to this !@#$, go plug in your v dot and go chase volume without getting injured, consistency is key.

-P

Why are you doing mile repeats for a given workout? You need to answer this question, and without that information being provided most of the responses here are rubbish.

There are many good reasons to do mile repeats. Improve VO2 max. Improve lactate threshold. Improve running economy. Improve lactate clearance.

You need to know **the point of the workout** to know the appropriate recovery. No wonder you are so confused by all of the different recovery options.

Depending what your desired training effect, any duration of rest from zero seconds to five minutes may be appropriate for mile repeats.

Exactly. Many have been saying this, but maybe not clearly enough. For followers of Daniels theories, the VO2max repeats would be at about 3K-5K race pace with a maximum equal-time ACTIVE recoveries. You don't want your heart rate dropping too much during the recoveries. Mile repeats are pretty much the longest reps for VO2max work.

For LT workouts, mile reps would be the minimum. 2-mile reps or continous runs are better. 2-minute maximum STANDING recoveries: the theory being that walking/jogging would help clear the lactic acid, but you want it to build up.

That's my understanding; I haven't reviewed his books in a while. Critics say it's nonsense based on lab tests that were done just because those tests were convenient or doable, and he misses 99% of the complexities involved. So, there's advocates cf CV pace, and a myriad of other training methods.

I personally like the Daniels approach and the Pfitzinger schedules which are based on the same principals. Both incorporate VO2max intervals for marathon training, although as I recall, at different points: Daniels earlier, Pfitinger later in the training cycle.

In a way blending the two, I had excellent results incorporating BOTH VO2max and LT workouts THROUGHOUT the marathon training. One of each every nine days. Plus a long run (18-23 miles) and a medium long run (12-16 miles) every nine days. The other five days were cross-training, rest or easy.

What pace would the LT 2-mile reps be done at? half-marathon pace? a bit slower?

Seems like you have received some good advise. But, here are my two cents. I have done 5xmile @5k pace, 8xmile @10k pace and the rest was usually 2min easy walk/jog, this was usually in the middle and end of my training cycle.

I agree with this. 5k pace is way too fast. Better to run a long warmup (3miles easy) then do 6x1600 at ten mile race pace with 200m jog recovery. End with 4x200m and a 3mile cool down. I used to like doing that workout with a partner trading off the lead for each 1600.

Lactate Threshold pace. Daniels defines that as "1-hr race pace." For world-class competitors that would be about half-marathon race pace. For me, at least in my late 50s, that was exactly 15K race pace.

I wouldn't do this at all. Running mile repeats at 5k pace every other week will maybe get you into 5k shape, if it doesn't burn you out. You should not be able to do 5 x mile @ 5k pace.

You're training for a marathon. If you have time, get your warm ups & cool downs to 2-3 miles each. For the main workout, mile repeats are fine but do more of them at a slower pace.

Maybe start with 4 x mile @ T & build to 6-8. More developed runners will do 8+ miles of work at threshold almost weekly in a good marathon plan.

General rule of thumb -- mile repeats at 5k, 3 or 4 reps max, to be done sparingly during a 5k build, 2:00-3:00 rest. Mile repeats for marathon training -- hit threshold on short rest, build to 8-10 or so.

This looks better, but I would still make some tweaks.

I don't like the mile repeats at 10k pace. If you want to keep one VO2 max focused workout, then keep the mile repeats at 5k pace but do fewer of them (start at 2, build up to 4) and add more recovery between repeats.

I would do a three week rotation like (note: your paces may very)

week 1: 2 -> 4 mile repeats (5k pace, 4-5 min jog recovery)

week 2: 5 -> 8 mile repeats (HM pace, 60s standing rest)

week 3: 2 -> 3 two-mile repeats (somewhere between M/HM pace, 90s standing rest)

Depends on why you are doing mile repeats. For a marathoner I can see you doing them just to maintain some kind of speed & conditioning:

5 x mile @ 5k effort w/3min jog

And an extended threshold type workout:

8-10 x mile at HM effort w/1min jog

Alan

I whole-heartedly agree with your general idea though I do think 5 x mile @ 5k pace with so little recovery is a very, very tough workout and the injury risk to reward ratio is too high. When incorporating mile repeats @ 5k pace for marathon training, I peak at 4 x mile w/5 min jog simply to reduce injury risk on a workout that isn't super beneficial for marathons.

I do one marathon a year, and a ton of 5ks/10ks throughout the year. So I don't want to go 21-22 weeks (marathon buildup + recovery) without any fast intervals. During marathon training I'll typically do a 2/1 or 3/1 ratio of LT/VO2 max type of interval training to keep my speed up. It's also a nice break from the standard marathon-focused interval training which can occasionally feel a bit meh/repetitive.