Come back after 12years off, goals and training,

My goals are Sub 33' 10km by the end of the year.

Then Sub 1'56 and 4' for the 800 and 1500 next summer. (conservative goal, expectations are higher :))

And I want to break 1'50 and 3'50 at least before it is too late.

Doable?

Impala31 wrote:

My goals are Sub 33' 10km by the end of the year.

Then Sub 1'56 and 4' for the 800 and 1500 next summer. (conservative goal, expectations are higher :))

And I want to break 1'50 and 3'50 at least before it is too late.

Doable?

Interesting case. :) But why do you say you will go for 800/1500 and you still are prepared to train 12 sessions per week? Aged 29, speed (sprint speed) hasn`t changed more than marginally, but it looks like you will be best suited for 3000m - marathon . I mean you were able to run 10 k at 34 min on very little training so I think you will have more chance there to do real good results.Also you will have less opportunities to race when going for 800/1500. Then the question how many sessions per week you have to do to reach your best possible results. Well.........I have coached an age 43 Master runner in just 2 months to lower his 5000m Master best from 16:30 down to 15:37 on just 5 sessions per week , so I`m convinced you don`t need more than 5-6 sessions per week to run times you at the moment just can dream about.Good luck!

- The Head Coach of LRC -

I want to focus on 800/1500 because that what i prefer and I have a feeling of unachieved potential that I will stay with me my whole life if i don't really try to do my best on those distances.

Also I can focus on longer distances later if i want.

I believe they are my stronger distances. I'm more of a fastwich guy. Even tough with training I can improve a lot on longer distances, shorter distances feels more natural to me. The training i did for the 34' 10k (running consistently for 6months 5 times a week), even though was't huge, was far more than I ever did for middle distance.

I say 12 times a week because i think that what i need to reach my potential. I do better with several small workouts than few harders so i guess that is the way. Reminds me of when we used to traval one week with the club when i was 16 and train a lot. I liked doubles

Well.......check what your natural sprint speed is at the moment without training for it. Do a 200 and a 400 all out to have something to start from. Then train with 5-6 sessions per week for at least a year and see what you can do on that.Then when you will go for 800/1500 you will also need 1-2 times per week for strength training and weights. If you now start to do doubles there is a risk you will overdo and get injuries again. Good luck!

Sounds like a story of god given talent wasted. Running rewards the consistent. No way I can guess what time you’ll run but since you’ve shown you can’t string together multiple years of consistent training I can guess that you’ll quit and do something else again, probably make another thread like this in a few years.

Yes, i was thinking to do an all out 400 but i did not find a good day to do it beacuse the legs are feeling heavy at the moment due to increasing mileage. I will try as soon as I take a few days of recovery.

I would say that I can do 56" with no speed training at all and 54" if i do some hill sprints.

I don't plan do to doubles before next summer.

5 to 7 training/week will be way enough I guess for 1st year.

Thanks for your advices JS.

From his race times, OP does have a ton of talent. I mean he ran 17:30 in HS off very inoptimal training and did 34:30 just recently. I think his potential would be something like 15/32/2:30 for the 5/10/marathon. However, I wouldn't suggest OP to just go aggressively after his PR's since he has very little running base. You should start from the basics by building a base of easy mileage. It would be tough to establish consistency in training having to fight off injuries. And decide what your goals are in running. Are you running because you feel like you didn't achieve your potential in HS?

its cool to give less than your best wrote:

Sounds like a story of god given talent wasted. Running rewards the consistent. No way I can guess what time you’ll run but since you’ve shown you can’t string together multiple years of consistent training I can guess that you’ll quit and do something else again, probably make another thread like this in a few years.

1st time I stopped it was because it became impossible to do both good training and follow my studies. I made the studies the priority with regrets but i still think it was a wise choice.

2nd try was like a marathon shot (which isn't very smart I acknowledge). I never planned of keep training for marathon. I thought I would continue running for 10k or track though. But i felt terrible 2 weeks after the marathon and it killed my motivation since i had no specific goals.

This time i'm much more motivated but it's true im not very patient unfortunately. If it miss the first goals by far, i will probably stop.

johnfromSJ wrote:

Are you running because you feel like you didn't achieve your potential in HS?

Yes, exactly! and also because I like running (except the long runs aha).

I'm focusing on the base at the moment with mostly easy miles.

After 3months, I introduced last week 1 lactate threshold interval workouts (4x5' with 2' rest at 6/mile pace which i believe is my actual LT pace). It felt hard after only easy pace but i guess it is normal for the 1st one.

I plan on doing it once a week with increasing the lenght (4x6'/3x8'/2x12'/1x20')

I also do once a week a moderate run : 1h with 30-40' at 80% maxHR and a long run (1h30-2h easy)

johnfromSJ wrote:

I think his potential would be something like 15/32/2:30 for the 5/10/marathon.

I hope my potential is better that this if i take it really serious for several years but first I want to focus on shorter distance. And if it works well, after I will for sure try to do 30' at 10k or even 29' maybe . Who knows where I can go?

With the long run today I achieved a decent week of training :

M : 8miles easy + stretching

T: 30'+4x5' LT (6'/mile) r2'+10 : 8miles

W : 5m easy+ stretching

T : X

F : 20' + 30' moderate (~7'10/m)+10' : 7miles

S : bike 25miles easy

S : 12 miles easy in 2h with a friend slower than me

So that 40 miles running and 25 cycling.

Feeling tired but not bad. Next week I need to add some light speed work like hills or at least strides.

I needed two days of recovery after the LT workout, hope it will be easier next times.

I like these comeback coachings.)) Actually I`m on my way to start a new coaching of a guy that similar to you stopped running 12 years ago and now will try to reach his running life time dream, to run a sub 4 min mile! When age 17 he did about 1:55 at 800 and 3:55 1500 on just very little training and no maxVO2 or tempo/ lactate thresholds. Will he succeed? Well.....I think there is a good chance.

- Head Coach, LRC -

How old is he now?

Looks very doable with good training given the talent of the guy.

I would love to run sub 4' mile too. Maybe it's too optimistic in my case but who knows.

Some of the guys I use to battle with at the end of the races when 14-16yo ended up with PR like 1'46-49 800m, 3'39-45 1500. They were not more talented than me, so why not me? Well, they trained hard for years and never stopped but I might still have the talent to do close to those times.

Impala31 wrote:

How old is he now?

Looks very doable with good training given the talent of the guy.

I would love to run sub 4' mile too. Maybe it's too optimistic in my case but who knows.

Some of the guys I use to battle with at the end of the races when 14-16yo ended up with PR like 1'46-49 800m, 3'39-45 1500. They were not more talented than me, so why not me? Well, they trained hard for years and never stopped but I might still have the talent to do close to those times.

Maybe. But do you have the necessary qualifications to coach yourself to perfection?

That`s another question you might have to think of?

I believe that my self-coaching abilities are fine for the beginning. And I plan on improving them by a lot of research and taking advices from experienced coaches and athletes.

There was several 1'45-1'50 guys in my club when I was young so I know the training for 800.

The coach was less talented for 1500 though. He would made of every middle guy a 800 runner.

But I love Joe Rubio's guide for 1500m.

this week has not been as good as the previous one because of shin pain. I feel in good shape but I really need to avoid hard surfaces. The pain started after the LT workout made on pavement

T : 25' + 4x6' at 6'/mile r2'+10

W : X

T : 50' easy + 6x6" hill sprint. (shin pain)

F : X (shin pain)

S : X (shin pain)

S : 30' easy (less pain, only last 5')

M : 36miles bike moderate pace instead of the long run.

I'm gonna keep the workouts and do recovery runs and long run on the bike until I feel no pain anymore.

actually I forgot one training, the week has been:

T : 30' + 6 strides + 4x60m all out

W : 25' + 4x6' at 6'/mile r2'+10

T : X

F : 50' easy + 6x6" hill sprint. (shin pain)

S : X (shin pain)

S : 30' easy (less pain, only last 5')

M : 36miles bike moderate pace instead of the long run.

you need to relax man, you ran 40miles and cycled 25miles in the first week of training, even if you are talented that is to much. Run 30miles/week for a month and if you have no problems increase it slowly. If you continue like that you will lose way to much time to injuries.

it was not the first week.

I started running again in March.

Previous week was the first consistent week with workouts but I've been doing easy runs and hills for 3months now.

I could have never done such a week when I started anyway. Running 30' without walking was already a hard effort lol.

Still a huge stress on the body to go from 0 to 40-50miles a week in a few months.