Hi Letsrun!
This will be that kind of training progression documentation thread that I personally enjoy to read, as well
as a lot of others here. Usually they end in disappointment, major injury or OP disappearing. I can promise
I will be honest and will try my best to keep it updated (probably weekly?). I cannot guarantee the outcome,
but that's what makes it interesting, right?
Me: 44 y.o. male. 5'10/148 lbs currently. Olympic sabre fencer years 9 to 26, made it to sub-elite level. Pretty intense sport.
Then I started lifting weights, ended being competitive powerlifter, with PBs of about 573 - 364 - 605 (squat-bench-deadlift, single ply 82.5kg/182lbs weight class) at age 38.
At 41 I watched a friend run Berlin marathon and decided I want to try it. 42km for 42 years of age, you know, deep symbolic meaning bs kind of thinking.
Did my first real run at the end of September 2018, trying to test how long I can run without training. Bad idea, I know. I made it almost to 12 miles at about 10 min/mile. It was painful.
Fast forward to March 2019, I built to about 40mpw and ran 3:29:24 at Barcelona Marathon. I was hooked. I started reading a lot about running, particularily on marathons. Initial fast progress is a very sweet thing and it motivates you a lot.
September 2019, exactly after a year of running, 3:20:09 at Berlin.
October 2020, two years, 3:09:01 at Helsinki (about 65mpw on average).
Other PBs to date: 18:32 5k (time trial on the track), 39:25 10k (tt on the track), 1:05:03 10 miles (failed half TT on the roads), 1:28:46 half (TT, not really a full effort, but it ended being a PB due to lack of racing opportunities).
Goals:
- Long term - get close to my limit and be competitive age group runner with focus on longer stuff, especially marathon.
- Mid term - qualify for Berlin as a "fast runner". That's sub 2:50 at 45. I really hope I can hit that in 2021 in Frankfurt, end of October. But I realize it might take longer.
- Short term: sub 3 1k, sub 5 mile. Sub 18 5k, sub 37 10k. Sub 3 marathon.
I realize I am in the race against time. I have no idea how long it will be possible for me to improve my times, but hopefully another 3-4 years.
To achieve this, I am trying to:
- raise my mileage to as high as I can safely tolerate
- raise my LT as high as possible
- improve my top speed and maintain it there
Last 3 months I increased my mileage significantly and currently plan to stay in the 80-90 range for this "season". I had a sprained ankle before that and had to crosstrain for 3 weeks, then build up gradually to my previous level of 65mpw, then it was like that:
64, 81, 89, 54, 80, 89, 69, 75, 82, 86, 68. You get the idea.
I try to do at least 1 top speed/power workout per week. Either sprints of 80-200m on the track or hill sprints of 8-10 seconds. For me this seems to give good results: I went from about 16sec 100m/31-32 200m all strained to consistent
feeling pretty relaxed (jogging start, no blocks of course). 400m was 69.xx, now it's 66.xx even though my pacing sucks and I die at 300m. I feel I can maybe decrease it to 62-61 in the near future, but we'll see.
Switching to spikes for sprints is probably part of it, but not the most important part.
Another thing I try to do weekly is LT intervals at about 10k/CV pace. I try to progress either number of 1ks or rest from 400 jog to 200 jog. Currently at 5x1ks with 200 jog. Plan is to probably progress speed and length of intervals later on.
Long run is the 3rd thing I do weekly, trying to run it a bit faster than easy pace and progress to MP if feeling good in the later stage. Right now it's built to about 2hr-2:20 range (17-18 miles), naturally that will change closer to the target marathon race.
General mileage is being run by feel, I try to double a lot, so the general schedule looks like that:
Mon easy double
Tue easy double, maybe progress in pm if feeling good. Sometimes hill sprints in the pm
Wed easy double, maybe progress in pm if feeling good and didn't on Tue
Thu easy double
Fri on the track: speed, then a little rest, then LT intervals
Sat easy single
Sun long run
Last friday I ran a 3:16 1k TT in spikes. Obvious pacing issues, splits were 75 + 84 + 38 and 2nd lap I tied up pretty badly, but I feel there's a lot of potential to improve. I think maybe I need to start running some 400s to dip under 3 minutes in 1k and 5mins in a mile.
I also plan to add a tempo run on tuesdays now that I'm adapted to increased mileage, probably starting with MP and then getting down to HMP/10k in a month or two.
My first race of the season is 10k at 31st of May, if it happens at all that is. If not, I can always run another TT :)
Any suggestions are welcome! Trolling is ok, if you need to