Your weekly schedule looks a lot more than 25 mpw? Did you have down weeks or something else?
How easy were your easy runs? Hr %, pace compared to 5k pace etc?
You did nothing faster than threshold, not even strides?
What did your strength trg look like?
Was your 5k pb, a race, parkrun, or a TT?
You appeared to like the EIM. Would you recommend this to others? Would you return to EIM for further progress, as threshold is not generally the way to 5k success.
Thanks!
- Yeah, my hamstring injury from January nagged me, so I had some down weeks. At any sign of injury I would take a day or two off. Weekly mileage Feb-July: 28, 26, 30, 3, 13, 24, 5, 15, 16, 17, 15, 22, 17, 26, 27, 12, 26, 35, 28, 32, 36, 30, 40, 35, 30, 26.
- Easy runs were pretty easy, usually 70-80% max HR, sometimes lower. I tried never to go above Zone 2. According to Garmin stats, my pace in February averaged 9:30/mile, March/April/May averaged 9:00/mile, June/July 8:30/mile. A random easy run from March was 9:43 pace at 74% max HR. Easy run this morning was 8:49/mi at 72% max.
- I think I did strides (maybe 3x20s) twice at the end of a threshold workout.
- Strength/PT was pretty basic: 30-45 minutes twice a week of eccentric calf raises, hamstring bridges/isometrics, one-legged deadlifts, some dumbells (curls, overhead press, lunges, etc), a pull up bar, core work (planks, crunches, leg lifts, etc).
- 5k pb was a race. I finished 60ish overall so I had people to chase.
- Yeah, I liked EIM, and I'll probably incorporate some modified version of it if/when the threshold stuff stagnates or gets boring. I like that you run kind of fast a lot, but not too fast. I usually cut down the reps (e.g. 4x1k instead of 6x1k or 6x400 instead of 10x400), and my days would like: 2Ks, easy, 1Ks, easy, 400s, easy, 200s, easy, 2Ks, easy, 1Ks, etc.
Well, think this by experience isn't the right way to go even up in the ages.
Josheli, thanks for sharing your story, history of training and data.
Your approach sounds reasonable, especially concerning injury prevention. I would just recommend not to stick to specific "models", like EIM or any other. Try whatever you like and alternate sometimes. Just maintain a decent weekly/monthly mileage. I always found (and still find) it very important to have one interval session and one tempo per week and was slowly progressing after resumed taking part in competitions when I turned 60 y.o. five years ago.
But the biggest improvement happened when I increased training time per week adding more easy and easy/moderate stuff (including cross training - xc skiing in winter and elliptical). Dropped about 30 sec for 5K (down to 18:28) and about 1:20 for 5 K (to 38:03) over winter.
So, perhaps you may try to increase (very slowly) the running time during your easy days?
Josheli, thanks for sharing your story, history of training and data.
Your approach sounds reasonable, especially concerning injury prevention. I would just recommend not to stick to specific "models", like EIM or any other. Try whatever you like and alternate sometimes. Just maintain a decent weekly/monthly mileage. I always found (and still find) it very important to have one interval session and one tempo per week and was slowly progressing after resumed taking part in competitions when I turned 60 y.o. five years ago.
But the biggest improvement happened when I increased training time per week adding more easy and easy/moderate stuff (including cross training - xc skiing in winter and elliptical). Dropped about 30 sec for 5K (down to 18:28) and about 1:20 for 5 K (to 38:03) over winter.
So, perhaps you may try to increase (very slowly) the running time during your easy days?
Good luck!
I think the challenge for older runners is to have consistent weeks of decent volume plus tempo plus intervals. Fatigue and injury risk is real.
These are excellent age times. Do you still do a weekly long run? Have you adjusted the tempo and/or intervals for age? (e.g. reduced duration/pace, increased rest interval, EIM, etc?)
Great 3- year follow-up. Amazing to see you made it. Would love to see a collection of the best of these long-term training stories and progressions (goals, training, and results) on LRC. The non-troll, running experience sharing on here is so good when its authentic.
Thanks for the update and congratulations. When I saw this thread was three years old, I thought your biggest obstacle would be injuries. You had them, recovered, and tried again. Well done!
One of the interesting things about your journey is that you chose to do intervals based on time instead of distance. I guess that makes it easier to do intervals on the road.
Long run is my weak point. I usually do it (XC) skiing during the wintertime, but not quite regularly throughout the running season. I understand that it is a good thing but somewhere deep inside I feel that for a 5K-10K guy a 1:15 run is enough, and it is more important to maintain a certain weekly mileage or training time. As I do quite some cross training (elliptical, 12-15% uphill on a treadmill), just try to stay around 6 hrs a week.
As for tempos and intervals, no, I do not adjust the volume (the previous 5 years it was rather slightly increasing than decreasing) trying to maintain the same percentage of the HR vs. HRmax.
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
I’m a similar sort of age (52) and manage sub20 at park runs when I go for it (which is most weeks). Managed 18:58 last Nov and 19:04 this May but am mainly in the 19:30-19:50 range.
I have no plan at all. I just run quite a lot (30-50km a week) and try to do at least one speedy session a week.
I’m sure I have it in me to break 19 again but real life tends to get in the way too often to commit to it.
Currently 56 and achieved 18m 25s for 84% age grade in May . Next aim is to break 18 mins .
That's amazingly fast! I'm 60 now and only down to 20:33 as a PB for the 5K. I did take about 5 minutes off my HM at 1:35, but that's more because I haven't trained for an run those as much. Hoping to pick up some speed and get into the lower 20:00 range this year!