Aerobic Threshold???

Alan, your training philosophy always boils down to: "Easy. The basics of training: Find someone much faster than you. Train how they train, or similar."

Now it's clear... Bakken is faster than me. Great, I'll do LT runs 5-6 days a week. So is Wejo. Now I'll layer in 150 miles per week at 8:00 pace. And I might as well throw in some of Renato's uphill sprints, and Jonesy's heaving drinking as well.

You see, your advice is too vague to be useful. When I ask for pace, you tell me to "find my mojo."

Another thing, you also assume that none of us have "mastered the basics" or read Noakes. That is annoying. Do you think Pete is some weekend warrior who picked up hobby jogging a few weeks ago, decked himself out in the last $120 pair of running shoes, and is now wondering how to improve his aerobic threshold? Come on...

The difference between you and everybody else here is that we are trying to learn and improve, and you are trying to take us back to the dark ages.

If you want someone to tell you how to run:

12 weeks:

S- Long run, relaxed pace

M- easy or finish with last 30-45 minutes hard

T- easy or finish with last 30-45 minutes hard

W- easy or finish with last 30-45 minutes hard

T- easy or finish with last 30-45 minutes hard

F- easy or finish with last 30-45 minutes hard

S- easy or finish with last 30-45 minutes hard

Hard means faster than an easy run, could be a progression type of run when you gradually increase pace to near 5k/10k pace the last mile

Followed by 12 weeks:

NO RACE

S- Long run, finish hard last half hour or out/back loop...out easy/back hard or a structured long tempo (10-15 miles)

M- easy

T- workout 1

W- easy

T- easy

F- workout 2

S- easy

RACE

S- Long run, finish hard last half hour or out/back loop...out easy/back hard or a structured long tempo (10-15 miles)

M- easy

T- workout 1

W- easy

T- easy + 5-10x200m

F- easy

S- RACE

Workout 1: 3-6 miles of intervals or 2/3-3/4 time trial (2 miles at 5k pace, 4 miles at 10k pace, etc) plus 100-200m sprints

Workout 2: Hard run of 4-8 miles or 8-13 miles of long intervals (miles, 2 miles, 3 miles, etc)

There you go, that's one way to train. Is that enough hand holding or shall I be more specific?

The problem is that way too many runners overthink what they are doing. If the "proper" way to train had been figured out we'd all be doing the same damn thing, but we are not so....Go out and run, look what has worked for others, find what works for you. If you like hopping over to the track for intervals then go do 400s all damn day or run a 9 mile track tempo, have fun, I won't be joining you. If you like hilly runs, or running your workouts on the roads, then find a 2-4 mile hilly loop, run around the loop HARD or up one of the hills a few times, I might join ya.

Too many people are too specific. My vagueness is to balance out the equation. If you want someone to tell you exactly how far and exactly how fast then hire a coach. I only use examples of old dudes like Peters because it shows how little runners as a whole actually know about training. If someone who ran 50 years ago could still place in the top 20 US marathon times (which in non-Olympic years he would) then we apparently have a problem. I'm not saying I know what I'm talking about either, but in my opinion taking a step out of the physiology lab (which I've been in many times) is a step in the right direction.

Alan

bump...

Find someone fast and train like them? That is just retarded

why is the most popular word in this f***in forum easy?

easy this easy that. easy easy easy. You have to get used to being uncomfortable. owww i'll breakdown. if you want to run fast you can f***ing forget the word easy. i just ran past a buddy, how long you been out i asked him... '1 and 3/4 hours easy' he said.... guess what, hes slow as shit.

easybullshit wrote:

why is the most popular word in this f***in forum easy?

easy this easy that. easy easy easy. You have to get used to being uncomfortable. owww i'll breakdown. if you want to run fast you can f***ing forget the word easy. i just ran past a buddy, how long you been out i asked him... '1 and 3/4 hours easy' he said.... guess what, hes slow as shit.

There's ALWAYS a time to go hard, just as there is ALWAYS a time to go easy. I think the abundance of the word "easy" on this board stems from our fascination with the belief that the harder you train, the faster you'll get. Adaptation (getting faster) occurs during RECOVERY. How are you going to do that when you're busting your balls twice a day every day?

Runningart says find someone faster than you and train like them: The Kenyans start their runs at 6:00km/pace (thats 9:30+ per mile!, see the Kim MacDonald thread). Still think we should be going hard all the time?

Katana wrote:

I'm confused a bit now. I was designated, in order those workouts from shortest and most intense to longest and least intenses: anaerobic capacity intervals (faster than 5K and shorter), aerobic capacity intervals (your typical 1000-1600 repeats at 5-10K, tempo (10M-HM pace, includes cruise intervals). But it sounds like you are saying that aerobic capacity intervals are faster and shorter. Could you set me straight? It doesn't matter that much what I call the workouts, but I might as well be using the correct language. Thanks.

Aerobic capacity is tied to VO2max. To improve your aerobic capacity, you need to train at, or slightly above, your 100% VO2max pace. Since 100% VO2max running is comparable to 3K/2M race pace, your intervals for this type of workout are likely to be in the 800/1200/1M range.