65-75mpw easy only (in "zone 2" HR)

All runners should do quality workouts all the time, even when base building and increasing mileage. Not "1-2" but 2-3. It's not something you do after 2 months of easy running, it's something you do all the time.

I don't quite think that's true, especially when building (i.e. not maintaining, but increasing) mileage. Add the quantity first then the quality. The former is the foundation, the latter is the sharpening.

@OP I am quite close to your times and went from 1:24 half / 2:56 full to 1:20 half recently by just building a larger base at 70-75 mpw. For max sharpening you'll need workouts eventually, and make sure you're in the right weight range, particularly for the marathon (half is a bit more forgiving).

Missing a lot wrote:

All runners should do quality workouts all the time, even when base building and increasing mileage. Not "1-2" but 2-3. It's not something you do after 2 months of easy running, it's something you do all the time.

This is not a good idea. Don't do workouts for the sake of workouts. Workouts should be part of a planned build with a goal in mind, not a thrice-weekly obligation of all true runners. Workouts should be progressed, not just repeated.

OP, I think you're approach is fine until you have a goal race on the calendar. But zone definitions are different; what pace are you running?

Missing a lot wrote:

All runners should do quality workouts all the time, even when base building and increasing mileage. Not "1-2" but 2-3. It's not something you do after 2 months of easy running, it's something you do all the time.

100% BS.

OP go on with your plan, looks good.

my 2c wrote:

Missing a lot wrote:

All runners should do quality workouts all the time, even when base building and increasing mileage. Not "1-2" but 2-3. It's not something you do after 2 months of easy running, it's something you do all the time.

This is not a good idea. Don't do workouts for the sake of workouts. Workouts should be part of a planned build with a goal in mind, not a thrice-weekly obligation of all true runners. Workouts should be progressed, not just repeated.

OP, I think you're approach is fine until you have a goal race on the calendar. But zone definitions are different; what pace are you running?

Every elite runner does quality workouts year-round. Every pro coach teaches it. You should at the very least be working on speed, aerobic intervals, and tempos. If you don't you are just losing your ability to handle this training and will start your harder training blocks way behind.

1:40 - 2:00 running a day in singles or are you doing some doubles? If you've been doing it in singles i think doubles would ease the burden a bit and allow for you to maybe add in some sort of workout. I'd start with just one. Definitely not 3 straight away. The first one i'd add would be a tempo run of around 25-45 minutes. Start on the shorter side and build up.

Add some strides 2-3 times a week to get the legs used to going a bit quicker.

Eventually add a second workout. That could even be the long run with some of it ran a bit quicker. Whether it be starting easy, finishing fast or add something like 2 x 15 minutes into the long run with a longish warm up/cool down.

You're in a good place with your mileage. Keep it there but add a little bit of quality and you'll do well. Good luck!

OP is not elite and this sounds like an approach which will work for lowering his HM time from 1:24 to sub 1:20. This training isn't optimal (doing the math it appears your training runs are really, really slow) but do it if that's what you want to do.

How do you define zone 2? 60-70% HR reserve?

This is good, you don't need to add workout each week. You can do a workout every 10-15 days. Some kind of 1k-1mile repeats.

my 2c wrote:

Missing a lot wrote:

All runners should do quality workouts all the time, even when base building and increasing mileage. Not "1-2" but 2-3. It's not something you do after 2 months of easy running, it's something you do all the time.

This is not a good idea. Don't do workouts for the sake of workouts. Workouts should be part of a planned build with a goal in mind, not a thrice-weekly obligation of all true runners. Workouts should be progressed, not just repeated.

OP, I think you're approach is fine until you have a goal race on the calendar. But zone definitions are different; what pace are you running?

Are you ok with jogging for the sake of jogging? Seriously the is basically no reason not to being doing workouts year round. When you pick a race, it is a lot better to go into it with a huge aerobic base that you can then do specific work on rather than some tiny one from just jogging for 90mins/day. And this period is the best time to do that when you can dedicated 2 or 3 sessions/week to LT type work when you don't have any race specific needs.

Thanks for the replies thus far.

A bit more about me and my goals.

Given COVID, like most of us, I have no races on the calendar. I have two A races planned for 2021, one in the Spring and one in the Fall but even racing in spring (and fall?) 2021 seems doubtful.

Therefore I thought it a good opportunity to get my base miles up to 70'ish mpw as true base. Get them in the body and get the body used to it so when I do have a proper build to do (which shouldn't start until Nov/Dec if my Spring race actually happens) I have a solid floor to work from. So very much quantity over quality right now.

Zone 2 is 60-70% of HRreserve for me.I have years of data on HR so I'm confident in my zones. I'm not sticking to this religiously or doing proper MAF but have noticed my pace per HR, from even 6 months ago, has dropped.

My average paces are between 8:05-8:50, I go by feel and let my body run at the pace it wants in that range. Most runs are averaging 8:20-8:30.

I have, until recently, been doing singles only. Once I topped 63mpw I found I needed to add in a double somewhere to get the extra.

I do have some virtual racing coming up, basically something every 3 weeks into Oct. In fact this week I have a 5k to do, which is the first one in the series, which I'm going to treat as a hard workout and run it around 6:30 or so. I'll also do a double that day to get the miles for the week (71mpw).

I do try to do strides 1-2 times a week as well as 3-4 laps of a local track on my main routes around 7:00 pace once a week. So while I'm doing mostly easy running I do have a tiny bit of faster stuff, but nowhere near 80/20...more like 95/5.

Again...I'm just trying to build a new floor for my body. Around 10hours a week of running (past two weeks have been 9h40-55m) which is giving me the 70mpw'ish totals for now.

rothomaq wrote:

My average paces are between 8:05-8:50, I go by feel and let my body run at the pace it wants in that range. Most runs are averaging 8:20-8:30.

...

In fact this week I have a 5k to do, which is the first one in the series, which I'm going to treat as a hard workout and run it around 6:30 or so. I'll also do a double that day to get the miles for the week (71mpw).

I do try to do strides 1-2 times a week as well as 3-4 laps of a local track on my main routes around 7:00 pace once a week. So while I'm doing mostly easy running I do have a tiny bit of faster stuff, but nowhere near 80/20...more like 95/5.

I love this ... your plan to increase base mileage is great, and your pacing for your current fitness is perfect. You picked a single element of your training, worked to improve it, and then incorporate those gains going forward. You are well set up to add workouts back in and get your goals.

I do think you should target your 5Ks a bit faster ... I would say closer to 6:05 pace would be a strong workout pace for a 20-minute tempo (which is basically what you’re doing with the 5K). However, doing the first one at 6:30 isn’t going to hurt anything, and it might help you start to work into the faster paces.

Keep up the good work ... it’s awesome to see people executing plans for long term steady improvement rather than trying to be workout heroes.

I'm nearing 40, been back running for about 5 years. I have routinely run into some injuries and often need to scale back. But for almost the last 12 months my training has been really simple. I've worked up from 40 mpw to holding 60-70 mpw week all summer (might try to bump up again this fall).

The vast majority of my runs are easy, but not every single one of them. Like you, I follow HR. Not religiously. And I don't walk on steep hills just to prevent a spike. But I run in the 130s for well over 90 percent of my runs and it is easy and enjoyable. My max is in the mid to high 180s.

Most weeks are all easy runs between 60 and 75 minutes. One to two times a week I'll add a 30 minute double. About every other week I get a 90+ minute run, sometimes 2 hours.

I probably end up doing "workouts" about twice a month. I say "workouts" because they are just not that demanding, and I do not plan them in advance. My favorites are going to the track to run some 200s on/200s off. I do anywhere from 8 to 20+ depending on how I feel that day. The ons are around 5k pace or faster, and the offs are just easy running. Other workouts will be a run where I feel good and tell myself I'm just going to pick it up x number of times over the rest of the run. Maybe it's 3 times, maybe it's 7. Doesn't matter. I just run faster for however long I want and then jog recover for however long I want. The last type of workout I do is just a progression run. So on those days when you're just feeling good, maybe you push it up a hill and feel you could just roll on, well, I let it roll. Just get into a rhythm and cruise, sometimes picking it up more, sometimes just holding it. Again, I don't think it matters. And I never look at my paces until after a run. The only thing on the watch is time spent running and current HR.

And I don't think those faster sessions are all that important. For me the key is enjoying the process and having fun with it. I am also seeing some nice progress. Subjectively my body feels better, my legs look vein-ier, leaner, and feel harder. I also feel much more fit. I haven't tested my fitness in over 6 months, but my paces at the same HR continue to drop (even in the humid heat of the summer, which surprises me). And when I did test my paces I dropped my 10K from 39 to 37 and my half from 1:24 to just barely under 1:20. I think I could do better than both of those times right now, and I might try to do some small local time trials or something this fall.

I'm well aware this training would not be fun for many people. But for those who like it, or are curious about it, I think it has a lot of benefits. If you want some further reading on this I recommend Joe Henderson's old book Long Slow Distance. It used to be free on his site, but that's down now. You can pick it up for a couple bucks on Amazon. I think it's worth it. Over the last year I've read it 3 or 4 times, always getting a little more insight into this different approach. And gaining a little confidence to stick with it, too.

Really interesting to read that.

FYI, I just turned 46.

I have a 20 year history in cycling, mostly racing crits with some park road racing and XC mountain bike. I understand structured training very well as it was part of my life for a very long time. I always ran, mostly in the fall and winter as cross-training (and the fact I loved it) but never more than 20-30mpw).

For a handful of reasons I quit cycling early last summer and decided to focus on running moving forward. Signed up for my first Half 3 months from when I started running full time (did it 1h38m23s)

So I have a very well tuned aerobic system but I had none of the durability needed for running. So the past year has been building durability in my body and moving from a non-impact sport to a high impact sport. It's been a learning process for sure. I can say only in the past 5 weeks have I felt "durable" enough to push to the 70mpw mark. The reason that was important was any of the sub 3 marathon builds I was looking at averaged around that weekly mileage, if not more. So I needed to prove to myself my body can handle it. Which I think it can now. With a fall and winter to come to add more durability but next year I'll be in a good place to do any marathon build I choose. Thats the goal here.

Very cool. I actually raced bikes for most of my 20s. Crits and road races mostly, with some MTB and a little CX thrown in as well. Even some longer gravel races. And I was a mediocre runner in high school. I'm still mediocre now, but I'm happy to say I'm faster now than I was in high school, so that's something.

Have fun building up the miles. I think you're right, due to age and years and years of cycling, it can take a while to get the body prepped to handle all the pounding. Takes a lot of patience. I'm mostly writing that for myself as I'm still learning that lesson:)

Of course I'm fine with jogging for the sake of jogging. Jogging is fun. That's why it's my hobby. It's low risk and good for your health.

Reasons not to do workouts year round:

1. Every workout should serve a purpose. No race on the horizon = little purpose.

2. Workouts require recovery, so interfere with building mileage. Maybe it's worth it, maybe it isn't.

3. Workouts present a risk of injury. Maybe it's worth it, maybe it's not.

4. Periodization. You can't build up indefinitely. Workouts should be part of a macrocycle, and all macrocycles must eventually end.

I'm not saying don't do any workouts now. There are still good reasons for workouts. Maybe someone wants to work on basic speed, or hills, or train for a mile TT, or something else where workouts make sense. And doing some maintenance work at all the paces from strides to MP every so often is definitely a good idea. And not all workouts are equal; I have no objection to a tempo run every week. And anyone who enjoys workouts is more than welcome to figure out a sustainable long-term schedule with 3 workouts a week.

But all of that is a long way from justifying 3 workouts a week as a general rule for someone whose nearest race is 8 months or more away, at least.

You might perhaps think not about just "workouts" but about "pace work." Easy/recovery, aerobic, steady, tempo, threshold, interval....use them all. "Speedwork" doesn't have to be just an interval session. Especially if you're training for half/full, the long steady or long subtempo is your friend.

Dang. That's a dramatic difference. I'm around 40bpm RHR and 186bpm is my MaxHR.

I don't use HRR, just %HRmax, which gives me significantly lower targets. I usually go between 65-70% of HRmax, which for me is 55-60% of HRR. I'm in a little bit better than 1:30 shape right now, last 5k was a solo TT in 19 low.

Despite that, my easy runs following the above usually end up around 8:30-9:30 pace. When I run at the HRs you like to use, I'm somewhere between 7:30 pace and 8:15 pace. That strikes me as a fair bit quicker, especially given my slower race times.

Possibly a product of having been doing 95% cycling for the past three years at a good volume (15-20 hours/wk) and having built up a pretty significant aerobic engine.

Missing a lot 1 wrote:

Every elite runner does quality workouts year-round. Every pro coach teaches it. You should at the very least be working on speed, aerobic intervals, and tempos. If you don't you are just losing your ability to handle this training and will start your harder training blocks way behind.

Elite runners have run 100miles+ weeks for years. They don't need to increase mileage anymore. But they have to be cautious about loosing what the gained with so much training.

Amateurs like OP will benefit a lot from increasing mileage with no workout. It's a good base for later workouts and what they loose regarding speed, V02max, LT- if they actually loose something which is not sure given how untrained they were -

will be gained back in a few weeks with the capcatiy to improve a lot more than before.