skip wrote:
5k/10k road races with one 1/2 marathon per year, most races from April to October (road race series)
1) Why limit your long run to 90 minutes every week? From the times you posted a bit later, I'm guessing that your 90 minute run is usually 12 or 13 miles. For 1/2 marathon in particular, but also for 10k, you'll probably find some benefit from throwing in the occasional run of up to 16 miles or so (~2 hours at your pace). The boards can and will debate endlessly about the merits of the two hour run, but it's a nice way to stress your endurance and capillary development a bit differently than you have been so far.
2) Re your weight: An easy way that's good for your health overall is to turn into more of an herbivore. A good start is to figure out some good salad preparations *without oil* (hint: apple cider vinegar, a bit of garlic, and a date blended in is absolutely awesome), and eat a BIG salad as the first part of your dinner. You'll be better in touch with how hungry you really are vs. just having an empty stomach, and you'll max out your vitamins and minerals to boot. Snack on lots of veggies and fresh fruits. To make a fun game of it, go have your cholesterol levels tested before you start this experiment, and then try again 3 months later. (Yes, I speak from experience.) I modeled a lot of my dietary choices after Scott Jurek's (ultramarathonner):
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/sports/13runner.htmlHuge salads and piles of whole-grain carbs and legumes as the basic building blocks.
3) In addition to what long & fast suggested, don't forget to throw some strides in there periodically to work on raw neuromuscular speed. 10x100 with full rest added in to almost any day, or go for a harder Hadd-style workout of 10k worth of 200m @5k pace + 200m easy, *in place* of one of your long-fast 10 milers.
It's probably clear from my suggestions that I'm drawing from a mix of Pfitzinger/JK/Hadd style training advice. I find each of them worth going back to and reading, if you haven't already. In my experience, one week of their training at mileage you're used to is pretty easy ... but a moderate paced 16 miler (after a few easy miles as warmup, maybe 7:25 or so pace by what you posted for your 10 mile steady state run -- or so says mcmillan's calculator) starts to feel a lot different after you've stacked three or four weeks of tiredness behind it.