no interval work success?

As per my former coach's desires, I pursued a hard-hard schedule over the summer and during the season, the rationale being that anything less than a hard effort - the effort at which a 7 mile recovery day felt like 4x1600 at 5k race pace - was inadequate, and I was a verifiable anomaly for not progressing on this training. When I switched to a much more mellow hard-easy strategy in which the hard day could be a tempo, a long run, leg turnover, or just about anything other than a recovery day, I pulled over a minute off of my 5k pr in 4 months after having seen no improvement in 4 years.

The biggest change has to be in the mind; the track is not exclusively for sprinting your life away, nor is interval work confined there. I do weekly LT work on the track so that I can accurately judge pace and avoid running too fast, but many runs finish near LT pace, if only for 800m. My current coach provided me with the most apt description of the feeling of a properly-executed training run: "You should finish feeling powerful."

It always impressed the team to scrape the grease spot that was my body off the track twice a week, but it was much more satisfying to run easy the first meet of the season and place top-10.

To see a runner we all know of who used no interval work is Joe LeMay. If you go to his website you will see he is an all mileage runner who garners his strength from soild distance runs. He ran a 2:13 at the CIM marathon in 2000, I think, and a 2:16 at Boston(not positive of the time), but was the first American to finish in the year he ran it.

JonnyO wrote:

and one day in 1985 he ran 13

Mike Musyoki, twice half marathon world record holder:

Philadelphia 1985 1.00.57

Newcastle 1986 1.00.43

JonnyO 1982 and 1986. In 1985 Mark Curp beat Musioki to the finish 1:00:55.

Another thing, Musioki was known to put in 10-12 milers of 5:00 or 10:00 off/on fartleks.

Half Marathon

World

59:06a Paul Tergat-3 26 Mar 2000 Lisbon POR

59:17 Paul Tergat-2 04 Apr 1998 Milan ITA

59:43a Antonio Pinto (POR) 15 Mar 1998 Lisbon POR

59:56 Shem Kororia-2 04 Oct 1997 Kosice SVK

1:00:23 Paul Tergat (KEN) 12 Apr 1997 Milan ITA

1:00:23 Shem Kororia (KEN) 31 Mar 1997 Gualtieri ITA

1:00:02a Benson Masya-2 18 Sep 1994 South Shields ENG

1:00:24 Benson Masya (KEN) 03 Apr 1993 The Hague NED

1:00:46 Dionicio Ceron (MEX) 16 Sep 1990 Philadelphia PA USA

1:00:10a Matthews Temane (RSA) 25 Jul 1987 East London RSA

1:00:43a Michael Musyoki (KEN) 08 Jun 1986 South Shields ENG

1:00:55 Mark Curp (USA) 15 Sep 1985 Philadelphia PA USA

1:01:14 Stephen Jones (WAL) 11 Aug 1985 Birmingham ENG

1:01:32 Paul Cummings (USA) 25 Sep 1983 Dayton OH USA

1:01:36 Michael Musyoki (KEN) 19 Sep 1982 Philadelphia PA USA

1:01:47 Herb Lindsay (USA) 20 Sep 1981 Manchester VT USA

1:02:16 Stan Mavis (USA) 27 Jan 1980 New Orleans LA USA

1:02:32 Kirk Pfeffer (USA) 07 Dec 1979 Las Vegas NV USA

1:02:36 Nick Rose (ENG) 14 Oct 1979 Dayton OH USA

1:02:47 Anthony Simmons (ENG) 24 Jun 1978 Welwyn Garden City ENG

1:02:56 Miruts Yifter (ETH) Feb 1977 Coamo PUR

1:03:24 Jose Reveyn (BEL) 27 Mar 1976 The Hague NED

1:03:46 Juan Rafael Angel Perez (CRC) 08 Feb 1976 Coamo PUR

1:04:45 Vladimir Merkushin (RUS) Aug 1974 Wieze BEL

I PR'd in the mile by 16 seconds off of just high mileage and 1 tempo or fartlek and 1 long run per week for 3.5 months. I hadn't even tapered for the mile race, I just wanted to jump in one and see where my fitness has come to since switching to the high mileage program. I am very happy with my results and I can't wait to begin my outdoor track season and start throwing in some speedwork and really see where my times go from here.

John Walker used to do 10 miles in 50:00 every day during lunch while working in a rock quarry.

Why did I mention this? This is the "goal pace" of many American's 5k pace! This the upper echelon's goal 10k pace! Yet JW used to do this every day as part of his daily regime, and while working in a rock quarry (at least he didn't have to lift!)

1976 1500 meter Gold

1st to 100 sub-4's (I think he ended up doing 143)

1st under 3:50 (the guy who got second was almost 100 back when he hit the tape)

Professional career that last almost to the '90's

ALL ON COMPARTMENT SYNDROME

Lydiard:

You make a good point. I agree that one of the keys to John's succes, and that of numerous other elite milers is fast distance runs. We might call them tempos, but they are simply runs that reduce lactate buildup and raise the speed at which one can run aerobically. Walker ran bi-weekly 10 mile runs at 3/4th effort which is basically a solid tempo run. I think that Allan Webb has returned to good form due to fast distance runs a couple times per week. As a high schooler, Razko had at least one fast 10 miler per week in Webb's schedule. Others, of the top of my head, that have used fast tempo runs were Steve Cram, Herb Elliott, Coe, Lopes, Ngugi, Tergat, heck I could go on for hours, now that I think of it. Tinman

What pace should these 10 milers be at? Tempo pace or slower?

From Cragg interview:

RWD: As you mature with each passing year, are you doing more work than in previous couple of years?

AC: I'm more disciplined. I'm getting to the stage in my career and the level in my career where the shortcuts aren't going to help me anymore. There's a natural tendency to do as much as you get by on. From now on, if I'm running 7:30s (for 3000), for most of the guys I race against, that's their job. They get out every day, twice a day, sometimes three times a day. There was a group of about ten of us who stayed behind in December in Fayetteville and trained hard and got a good base in. And it's kind of different, not looking towards NCAAs and trying to focus on the bigger picture (the Olympics) during the year. Before, we'd compete more in training, and on a tired day, take it really easy. Right now, we're being more consistent every day with hard work, rather than one day hard and one day too tired to run hard.

bump

I think that there are two approaches to tempo work that produce results. The first is what Malmo mentions all the time but few grasp: tempo running that is not too hard to detract from your other workouts. These can be run often or even just once per week, depending upon the difficulty of your training schedule each week. The second is a designated tempo workout in which you focus your efforts that day on tempo work and make it into a "harder" workout. Of course each minute run isn't as hard as say 5k reps, but the overall effect of doing many minutes or miles tires you out, but doesn't exhaust you. The second type of tempo work requires 2-3 days to recover from.

You have to decide if you want to make it a focus or support item to your regular training. Malmo points out quite well that tempo work if done as a non-hard day should be moderate and not hammered. The idea is that you can do your nomral intervals, hills, etc. the next day. So, to take a stand, I would say run at Marathon Pace or just a tad slower for this type of tempo running.

The second type of workout can be run at anywhere from MP down to just slower than 10km race pace, depending upon how far you want to go and how tired you want to be. Tinman

Todd Banks in his book \\\'\\\'over hill over dale\\\'\\\' and then again in \\\'\\\'Running with the Legonds\\\'\\\' has this to say about speedwork.

\\\'\\\'Speed kills, it tends to call deeply on the bodys resurves\\\'\\\'

Tinman, everything you are saying here, fits in with what I have been feeling in training for the past few weeks, in terms of what works well and what doesn't.

Cheers malmo,

that race in Philly in 85 when Mark Curp (USA) beat Mike Musioki (KENYA) to break the World Half Marathon Record (sorry, World's best) with 60.55, was that the race where you ran your PR?

SolRichards wrote:

Todd Banks in his book \'\'over hill over dale\'\' and then again in \'\'Running with the Legonds\'\' has this to say about speedwork.

\'\'Speed kills, it tends to call deeply on the bodys resurves\'\'

Sol, one of your best posts yet, in more ways than one

JonyO:

How did you know that I am also "Runna"? Smart.

Before I was Tinman, I had about 4 other names.

I thought I would use Runna today and see if anyone notice my style of writing. Good on you. Tinman

Um, plus the fact that you've signed your posts "Tinman"

That was a bit of a clue.

not your style, you wrote tinman at the end of the "runna" post

Sorry about that...

Had some myself wrote:

Um, plus the fact that you've signed your posts "Tinman"

That was a bit of a clue.

LOL, Best laugh of the day for me

.............................................H

Sorry Tinman, I'm smart, but not that smart:-0

.............................................D