An absolutely brilliant thread that unfortunately features JS posting from multiple handles right at the end. Mods would do great to remove his despicable self-promotion from a truly legendary discussion.
For the summer leading into my sophomore season, I did not run 1 mile, as I was not on the team. For my first race, I ran 19:05 for 3 miles; 17:27 at Newton Park a week later, and 16:48 3 days later.
I believe that each week of training I was able to put in, I was in hence, putting in my summer miles. Just happened to be races along the way.
By May, when I ran 9:21.7 (yards), it had been almost 9 months of running. Then over the next 3 months (June, July and August), I loggede 1013 miles (although, probably only 800's as all my courses were short.
To give recommendations:
1. Long run, once per week. Long run is any run over 45 minutes
2. Do the training your coach asks you do do.
3. Use races and double races on the same day as a strength building day. Don't be concerened about how fast you run, but know you are getting strong.
"Steve Mahieu who managed 1:34 for 30km running an all out 4 miles most days, @20:00, and a Sunday 20".
Have you some details about this training? How Its possible to run sub5 miles all out everyday, with a massive long run and dont get injury. Its really fascinating me, its quite hard schedule
Some very good times in here. Mine are no where near as good but my first ever race was a 38:17 10K on 70 mpw of jogging. Later did 36:59 on 45 mpw. Hoping to go low 36s on 40 mpw. Main reason for lowering the mileage is to get more quality in and because I am knackered.
Indian Relay, 8 laps on the field. Ran Indian file, and when the whistle blew, you moved to the front. This was for 5 minutes, and I wrote "surge" to the front.
then, 4-man relay, for a total of 8 laps. I had three others on my team, and was in competition with 6 or 7 other teams. I can remember working hard to move my team up, and slapping hands with my partner.
Then, they broke us up into 2-man teams, and Peter paired me with Seb. I am sure I was scared. The workout was getting long, and I had my watch going from the beginning. I looked down, and we were well past an hour of runnning by now.
Off we all went, I was in the lead group. Do you sprint ahead? That would look stupid! I thought. I ran with the lead 5 runners, and slapped Seb's hand. As he came around, there were 4 runners who were sprinting away, "running away from a world record holder." Seb was just running his pace. He slapped my hand, and I looked up and it was like college days. I took off and caught the clowns on the back side of the loop. "OK, if you can be aggressive, I will too!" I pulled away from the group, and was going to slap Seb's hand in the lead by about 3-4 seconds. As I got closer to handing off, Peter yelled to the runners that were waiting for their parter -"Go!" What the heck! I came in, and everyone else had left except Seb. I gave Peter a very grumpy look, and said, "What was all that about!" He said, "I want him to work, and if you gave him the lead, he could just coast."
What! I thought, a world record holder coast! Never may it be! Seb caught the group, and off I went again, content this time to come in with them.
1.5 miles warm-down, and 11.5 miles for the workout.
Took the train back to Southgate where I was living and training for 2 1/2 weeks. Took a long nap.
Next day, March 27, I ran 27 mins in the morning and 33 in the afternoon. Visited the Tower of London, and wrote: "Hamstrings very sore." Only ran 3 miles the next day. What a wimp.
js
Bumping because this is one of the greatest posts on the site. Seb Coe and Jim Spivey doing an Indian run through a park with Peter blowing his whistle like they're a high school frosh squad! Also a great thread overall with some of the best training advice I've found.
At a recent 5K I saw a 19 year old girl run 17:09 on 15 mpw. Checked her strava and she never goes over 15 miles in a week... longest run 4-6 miles. I felt like a mug for running 50 miles for 18:00.
Swedish runner Sara Wedlund ran 5 km twice per day and track sessions like 6x400 and 10x150. With that training she won the Euro XC championship and placed 9th in the Olympic 5000.
I'm doing better on lower mileage. Before I was running 50 miles a week with a very long run. After injury I dropped down to 30-35 and dropped the long run completely. Feel more recovered. More time for workouts.
I ran ~4:10 / 9:20 / 15:40 when the latter 2 times were far more uncommon than today. I occasionally would lose motivation and would run twice per week mid season then. Easy runs would be 3-4 miles at 7:30 pace but I'd hammer workouts and take a day off each week
I probably averaged 30 mpw my senior year after 20-25 junior year.
I ran ~4:10 / 9:20 / 15:40 when the latter 2 times were far more uncommon than today. I occasionally would lose motivation and would run twice per week mid season then. Easy runs would be 3-4 miles at 7:30 pace but I'd hammer workouts and take a day off each week
I probably averaged 30 mpw my senior year after 20-25 junior year.
This is basically everyone's training in the early 90's. The times weren't as bad as everyone claims. Adjust the times for training in more forgiving footwear, racing in super spikes and faster tracks This person is 4:05/9:10/15:20, off of that training.
Low mileage, highly polarised training is the only thing that works for me. I don't know how else to train.
For example, my past 3 weeks have been:
7.38 miles (8:14 avg), 12.79 (8:36 avg), 9.26 miles (7:53 avg inc. 5:53, 5:54, 5:53), parkrun 18:02
9.39 miles (7:55 avg), 9.27 miles (7:50 avg inc 12x0.25 miles), 12.09 miles (8:49 avg)
10.27 miles (8:02 avg), 10.32 miles (8:12 avg inc 6:09, 6:09, 6:01), 9.62 (8:50 avg)
I almost always run 30-35 miles a week, across 3-4 runs. Hit PBs on this of 17:3x and 36:3x by racing myself into fitness. Also ran a low 1:22 half. Then I regressed back to low 18s in the 5k.
Things I have tried:
Increasing mileage. Done as much as 50 and 60 miles a week. No improvement in 5k, 10k or half. I shot myself in the foot a bit here because I was doing multiple workouts and 15-17 mile long runs each week and I was very tired. My 10k regressed to 37:30s.
Tempo every week. Have tried 20 minutes at 6:10, 5 miles at 6:20 or 6:30, 1 hour at 6:45. That didn't shift my parkrun time at all.
Norwegian method. Went up to 35-40 miles a week and did workouts like 10x0.5 miles at 6:10, 5x1 mile at 6:15, 3x2 miles at 6:25. My parkrun stayed exactly the same (17:5x) before and after this method. I eventually stopped because I was tired and couldn't face doing the workouts.
Currently in my 30s and have been running for 5 years. Light and no health issues. I do get tired but I think it's mental health / stress related.
I'm considering keeping the milage at 30-35 and either racing myself into fitness again, including longer slower tempos like 45-60 minutes at 6:45-6:55 or maybe doing cross training.
I ran ~4:10 / 9:20 / 15:40 when the latter 2 times were far more uncommon than today. I occasionally would lose motivation and would run twice per week mid season then. Easy runs would be 3-4 miles at 7:30 pace but I'd hammer workouts and take a day off each week
I probably averaged 30 mpw my senior year after 20-25 junior year.
This is basically everyone's training in the early 90's. The times weren't as bad as everyone claims. Adjust the times for training in more forgiving footwear, racing in super spikes and faster tracks This person is 4:05/9:10/15:20, off of that training.
Monday 7 mile run
tues - dual meet, race 800 2x, 1600
wed - easy 2-4 miles (I’m a guy, but half the time run with girls team)
thurs - hammer 400s in a workout because my dads friend who ran in college said 400s are best workout for milers; supposed to do 10, but run too fast and get tired after 5 or 6
fri - either invitational (800 x 2, 1600) or easy 2-4 miles
sat - off or invitational (800 x 2, 1600)
sun - off
So max 25 miles/week, 1:56 and 4:28. Never run during summer or winter
Senior year high school did XC in fall and we started captains practices in July so actually I did run in the summer 1 year. We ran more in XC than track (maybe ~35 mpw) and best times did come sr year. Now running 50 mpw and nowhere near 800 but close to 5k time in HS!
At a recent 5K I saw a 19 year old girl run 17:09 on 15 mpw. Checked her strava and she never goes over 15 miles in a week... longest run 4-6 miles. I felt like a mug for running 50 miles for 18:00.