jamesrunner12 wrote:
ok ill take a look and buy it. any tips to get started? just run 3-5 days a week shooting for 15 miles of easy running??
Buy & read the Daniels book.
Also, buy & read "Healthy Intelligent Training" by Keith Livingstone. It will give you some really powerful ideas and information based off the Lydiard method that Daniels glosses over, in my opinion.
Read the second book as soon as possible. Don't go crazy on your mileage, and remember to stay within your limits. Distance running forces you to think in terms of months and years. Pushing crazy hard in one workout, or one week because you're super excited often backfires.
As for this summer, I'd suggest you work on building up your easy running first. Think: miles first, then speed. One you are running steady mileage, you'll naturally start picking up the pace when your body is ready for it (don't force it).
Set a goal to try to work up to running 45 minutes to 1 hour continuously every day. If you run easy enough, you should be able to accomplish it this summer.
Start however short you need to. 15 minutes, 20, 30, etc. Then repeat. Try to run evenly the entire run. If you have to slow down, start slower next time until you find your sweet spot. Try to get to where you don't need to take days off. If you're tired, run easier. If you're still tired, run shorter. If you have to take regular days off, you are likely going too fast on your other runs.
So, if you start at 20 minutes every day, soon stretch one of those runs to 25 or 30 minutes. You might go 20, 20, 30, 20, 20, 30. Then eventually 20, 20, 40, 20, 20, etc. Then bring up the lower ones: 30, 30, 40, 30, 30, 40. Then go 30, 30, 45, 30, 30, 45. Eventually 30, 30, 60, 30, 30, 60. Then 40, 40, 60, 30, 40, 60.... then 45, 45, 60, 30, 45, 60.
You get the idea.
A few times a week, after your run, do some "strides". These are fast (not sprints, but fast & relaxed) short spurts of about 10-15 seconds. Walk around for a minute or two until you are fully recovered and ready to repeat. Start out with a couple, and build up to 10 or so. Do them 2-3 times per week after your regular run.
You don't need to do much hard, leg-burning running right now. In fact, since you haven't run much, that is the last thing you need. You will get plenty of that during the season.
Take it from a guy who NEVER followed this advice in high school, ran 4 years of cross country, and barely broke 18 minutes... despite having decent talent. I was always either injured, or overly-fatigued from the hard in-season workouts that I wasn't prepared to be doing.
Now, at middle-age, after not running for 15 years, and figuring out how the importance of running easy mileage first, I'm breaking 16.
It works. Read the Healthy Intelligent Training book.