Or does backing off for a month or two and instead focusing on tempos and mileage necessary to avoid a plateau?
Or does backing off for a month or two and instead focusing on tempos and mileage necessary to avoid a plateau?
I don't know if there are any universal rules, but there's a range of paces and intensity between strides and tempo that seems to be the danger zone for a lot of people. 800/mile-pace up to 3K/5K/VO2max pace are the workouts where people can eventually get themselves into trouble if they're not careful. But what's possible for you personally is hard to say.
in base phase VO2max workouts are not necessary, they will add fatigue when the goal is to increase mileage. You can do some easy fartlecks without watch during this period to maintain VO2max but I would stay away from the track.
So yes, in my mind, you should stop V02max workouts several months a year.
Also depending on the distance you are training for, V02max can be secondary work.
For a marathonner or a 800m runner. VO2max needs to be developped at one point during the year but not all year long. During specific phase, only maintaining it will be enough (like twice a month). If you are a 3k-10k runner then you have to work on it at least 8months a year on a weekly basis
The main goal should always be to execute the 3 most important factors for the result in the training week, not mainly increase mileage. You will do your most effective training if you first ask yourself what ingredients are needed. Build your week by first put in the quality workouts and then just complement with the necessary easy distance .
- Magic Summer -
I just really like the feeling, of doing a hard vo2max workout @5k/3k pace. The thing is, i only do these kinda of workouts when i am at the END of a training cycle (half marathon+marathon).
El cojote loco (sub14 minute 5k runner) said, that doing workouts at 10k pace is also a really really good thing. You don’t need to be doing all out 5k paced stuff every single week. If you are in your base phase, sprinkle in some 10k paced stuff. I Call that “hard comfortable intensity”.
Absolutely not. Hard no.
Same with the tempos year-round. That's not a break. Its still pretty intense work that you can only do for so long before plateauing. This is a recipe for over training.