"A Uk site Peak Performance Online gives the following traing advice. It seems very difficult. My question is what do you think, should I give to a go and follow it for the next few months or is it way off base? Bottom line, will I see results?
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Here's a 14-day schedule:
The 5000m race is 80 per cent aerobic and is run at 95% VO2max. Predominantly aerobic running is marathon pace (98%), half-marathon pace (94%), 10K pace (90%) and 3K pace (60%). The training ratio is four aerobic sessions a week to one anaerobic. The later may include: 1500m pace (50%), 800m pace (67%), and 400m pace (full-out sprinting from 200m - 83%). We are now in a position to draw up a 14-day, physiologically based schedule for a female 1500m runner with a best time of 4:20. Her potential for the 5000 is 3 x 4:20 + 3 mins = 16 mins to 15 mins.15 secs.
Day 1: Aerobic - 98%. Run10 miles in under one hour.
Day 2: Aerobic - 90%. Run 10K in 35 minutes.
Day 3: Aerobic - 95%. 4 x 1600 in 5 mins.20 secs with 90 secs recovery. Aiming to reduce to 5 mins within 12 weeks.
Day 4: REST.
Day 5: Aerobic - 60%. 16 x 400 in 74 secs (3K pace) with 45 secs rest.
Day 6: Anaerobic - 50%. 6 x 500 in 87 secs with 2 mins rest (1500m speed).
Day 7: Aerobic. 15 mins jog, then run 4 miles at 5 mins.23 secs/mile
(lactate threshold).
Day 8: REST.
Day 9: Aerobic - 94%. Run half-marathon at 6 mins/mile.
Day 10: Aerobic - 80%. 1 x 3K in 9mins 52secs, 3 mins rest, 1 x 2K in 6 mins.35 secs, 2 mins rest, 1 x 1K in 3 mins.17 secs. Aim to reduce to 9:30, 6:20 and 3:10 respectively within 12 weeks.
Day 11: Aerobic - 98%. Run 10 miles in under one hour.
Day 12: REST
Day 13: Aerobic - 60%. 5 x 800 in 2 mins.28 secs with 90 secs rest.
Day 14: Anaerobic - 67%. 4 x 4 x 200 in 32 secs with 30 secs rest after 200s and lap walk after each set.
The aim of the above schedule is to reduce all times stipulated within 12 weeks WITHOUT reducing any of the recovery times. "
JK:
"Alterations Posted 12-17-2001 20:29
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1.) The times are too strictly regimented, even by MY nerdy, tightass standards! Do not go by times from the get-go on these workouts. Instead, try to run at that basic EFFORT level on the aerobic sessions - aerobically challenging and requiring some concentration, pushing a little during the last 1/3 to 1/2 of the run but never struggling. If you insist on using the stopwatch, at least be disciplined enough to run the first mile about 15 seconds SLOWER than you intend to average and work your way down from that slow side so you're not fighting yourself early in (or midway through) the run.
2.) There's not enough easy recovery running. If you put a very easy jog day IN BETWEEN each of the listed days, you'll be getting somewhere. If you were PROGRESSING from a dog-ass slow pace to your high-end aerobic pace on each run, you could spend some time at that pace nearly every day (Kenyan style threshold training). But the listed workouts are too close to time trial efforts to allow this.
3.) The schedule doesn't mention doubles (or I somehow skipped over that part). You should probably be doing some of those (at least during the off season). This will leave you a little tired (at first), so you'll NEED those super-easy jog days.
Other than that, the ratio of aerobic to anaerobic training looks good, as do the durations and variety of the workouts.
Well, ... if you're extreeemely careful, ... Posted 12-17-2001 22:52
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... you COOOULD run at these effort levels with no in-between recovery days. But, as you implied, you'd first need to develop the ability to COMFORTABLY find and attain that highest steady state so you could spend more and more time there nearly every day. It's not impossible. People do it. My gripe is with the way the advice is given. It tends to force the reader to be time-conscious, which lends itself to coming within epsilon of a time trial effort in ALL workouts. Most people are going to read that and proceed to grind out their predetermined pace with no distinction between training and straining. When doing maximum steady state (or AT or LT or whatever) training, progression runs are the way to go. This involves a much more gradual and more thorough warmup than is indicated anywhere in the outlined schedule. Correct progression running also allows a runner to remain at a slow pace during an entire run if that's what the runner FEELS is needed on that day. Having pre-set speeds to run EVERY DAY is a BAD idea for someone who simply cuts and pastes the workout schedule from some web site and decides to "give it a go".
It also depends on how quickly you want to get in shape. Using the 5-pace method STRICTLY as written will get pretty good results over a period of a FEW years - if and only if you learn HOW to do it effectively. Building to higher mileage (with more recovery days) for a number of years - THEN putting the aerobically challenging workouts closer together - will yield BETTER results over a decade. It's always better to establish the highest mileage which continues to provide a favorable cost/benefit ratio. You'll find that "sweet spot" only by trial and error and by patient long-term development.
See, the thing is ... Posted 12-19-2001 19:42
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... when given the option, runners with big goals are usually headstrong about SPECIFIC TIMES instead of applying PRINCIPLES to their workouts. A 15:xx 5,000 runner probably COULD hit those listed times day-in and day-out, but what's more important - making times or getting the desired effect? Times should be GUIDELINES only. Anybody who makes a DAILY practice of hitting fixed times AT ALL COSTS is headed for burnout.
In general, regimented "systems" are about as effective in distance running as they are at the casino. To continue with a monetary analogy, you'll profit SOMETIMES with an algorithmic system, but if you're like MOST people, you'll eventually risk too much and wind up boinking the beagle in a MAJOR way. You're much better off "diversifying your portfolio" while following PROVEN long-term investment PRINCIPLES. Using this approach, you'll have seasonal ups and downs, but you'll come out ahead in the long haul if you keep your cool. Once you have enough "in the bank", you can THEN use SOME of your resources to take those really BIG risks from time to time.
"Success stories" using strictly-paced systems are much like the testimonials you hear on infomercials. You know, claims like "Constance Orsapane got rid of a 40-lb. brain tumor in only three short weeks by snorting powdered Sasquatch boogers - Nature's greatest miracle! Imagine what they can do for YOU!" Buried somewhere in the commercial is the barely audible voice of the narrator quickly mumbling, "Results not typical." I'd make the same disclaimer for any running program which relies on rigid pace requirements for every workout.
Bottom line: If you're going to cut and paste a day-by-day training plan off some web site, you might as well buy a copy of Jogger's Globe (PHEEEEE-OOOoooo ... BKKKSHHHH!!! (sound of bomb falling)) and follow their 10-week "Get A PR Without Running" plan (WOHHHnk! WOHHHnk! WOHHHnk! (sound of civil defense sirens)).
You get the point.
The skinny on "progression runs" Posted 1-2-2002 23:03
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On other forums, Hodgie-San has advised the readers to just get out there and run twice a day and "let the tempo come to you", after which things will all begin to fall into place. This is a very good place to start. Once you use this trial-and-error method (within reasonable guidelines), you'll be able to identify the critical point between maximum repeatable steady state and reckless overtraining BY FEEL. Those reasonable guidelines may restrict you to a certain percentage of sustainable VO2max AT FIRST (to guard against challenging yourself too much) or under other circumstances, but the BEST method of "aerobic endurance" running is personified in the Kenyan-style "progression run". In these runs, the pace often goes well BEYOND any predetermined physical parameters and is done totally spontaneously (actually, we've determined the optimal ultimate achieved speed to be 105% of vVO2max, but that's nothing you need to WORRY about - it'll probably be as fast as you CAN run safely for the final few seconds of a progression run). Even if you spend a mere 100 meters at the end really cranking it, as long as you DO NOT TIE UP, you can eventually improve your running economy at all ranges of running speeds. Parameters are useful at times (particularly if a progression run is planned IN ADVANCE during a phase of training in which other hard workouts are incorporated) to make sure the initial portion of the workout is kept under control. The Japanese use rather strict guidelines for their long progression runs (picking up the pace by x seconds per kilometer every 5K), but this is not entirely necessary all the time.
A good progression run is one of those easy days that turns fast because you start feeling really sharp, strong and relaxed, and you can do no wrong, like you're running OVER the ground instead of ON it. By the very end, you can be absolutely FLYING, but you should have the discipline to pull the ripcord BEFORE you experience any tying up. The benefit to running economy comes by virtue of spending some time covering nearly every possible running speed.
The Kenyans are well known for using these runs on a near-daily basis in their training camps. The trick to the whole process is that they start at an absolute SHUFFLE - about 9:00-10:00 mile pace for the first half mile and rarely faster than 15:00 through 2 miles - no kidding! But the pace does get faster, and when it does, the fastest Kenyans are hitting sub-5:00 miles for much of the second half of a one hour progression run. The last mile can be in the 4:20 range, with the last quarter at or under 60 seconds (remember that 105% of vVO2max? - there it is in actual practice, and they're doing it without trying to hit a certain speed). That's duly impressive for a workout in itself, but no greater a feat than a national class American (or even an elite college runner) could do - IF running HARD! The phenomenal things is that some of these Kenyans can repeat this same basic workout several days in a row without overtraining!
It's in our vain American nature to believe that since this is impossibly intense training for US, it must be for THEM, as well. But the best Kenyan runners have incredibly high economy from learning exactly how to read their bodies on runs such as these. They also know how to REST between runs. Some of them still manage to prove they're human by crashing and burning as a result of COMPETING on these workouts. But for the most part, the Kenyans benefit from such progression runs by starting at a butt-dragging SLOW pace and allowing every system to warm up to a state of equilibrium BEFORE attempting any faster running. And if they feel they need to STAY at an easy pace for the entire run, the smart ones do so.
Politically incorrect or not, the white man generally has a harder time adjusting to these near-DAILY progression runs and needs a fairly extensive background of slower high mileage running FIRST. Even WITH such a background, most mzungus need more easy recovery days than the Kenyans do - basically benefiting more from a traditional hard day/easy day pattern - although there ARE some exceptions. Hey, there are some big-boned, SLOW Kenyans, too, so you've got to expect a few outliers in any population!
If you are one of those runners who finds it difficult to hit a strong high-end pace and recover enough to do it again within 24 hours, or if 7:30 pace is easy, 5:30 pace is hard and 6:30 pace is too uncomfortable to be a recovery workout but too slow to have a training effect, then you probably need to adopt more of a hard/easy workout schedule. You can always experiment with progression runs during base training in order to find the groove and get comfortable with such training. The general idea is to train at a high-end aerobic pace as often as is functionally comfortable during a base phase, then move more and more toward a hard/easy scheme as the goal races get nearer. If this seems grossly obvious to you, you'd be SURPRISED to find out that many runners (some of them quite serious) do not know that this is the way to approach a buildup and a subsequent racing season.
Purpose of the numbers Posted 1-4-2002 22:01
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The reason you want to work at certain percentages of parameters such as "lactate threshold velocity" (LTV) and "velocity at VO2max" (vVO2max) is to optimize your time spent running. Over a couple of months, the person who spends a certain amount of time training within favorable guidelines (i.e., speeds which are proven to provide you the best return for your investment) will tend to gain an advantage over his equally talented fellow runner who strays too far outside those boundaries too often. This advantage will usually be minimal during the course of one or two seasons, but - if the correct guidelines are adhered to - the differences will become quite pronounced after several YEARS of persistent and methodical training (the so-called "butterfly effect").
Having said that, PERCEIVED EFFORT should always trump NUMBERS. Your "threshold pace" and "VO2max pace" will not be exactly the same every time you run a workout in which you're trying to run at some percentage of one of those parameters. Weather conditions, how well hydrated you are, recent diet, recent training sessions, etc. all add up to produce workout-to-workout fluctuations in your rate of lactate accumulation or rate of O2 consumption (also, too many runners tend to use their ALL-TIME PRs or recent OUTLIER performances when determining their vVO2max, etc., instead of relying on performances they tend to USUALLY run).
The critical training speeds (and percentages of same) are there as a sort of road map, a way of pointing you to the NEIGHBORHOOD the pace should be on certain workouts. The more often you can come close to hitting EXACTLY the pace which gives you the desired result for that type of workout, the more of a butterfly effect you'll get over the long haul.
As an analogy, you might find from experience that a certain pub-going gamesman tends to hit more triple 20s at the dartboard if he adopts a certain stance, cocks his elbow to a certain angle, and uses a particular motion and follow-through. If these physical parameters are REPEATABLE and TRAINABLE, it would be advantageous to teach the guy to attempt to get a feel for that stance, that elbow angle, etc. He wouldn't be expected to hit the triple 20 EVERY TIME (his arm might be slightly and unnoticeably sore one day, or there might be a draft of air in the pub, or whatnot), but he'd hit it more often than if he just came up to the line and tossed willy-nilly. And at some point, he'd probably learn how to ADJUST for some of those unfamiliar situations.
But it must all eventually be done by FEEL. The above learning process is exactly how dart players do it ANYWAY, whether they're "coached" or whether they just figure it out on their own. And that's how RUNNERS should learn to do it, too. The numbers can help guide you if you know what they represent and how to use them wisely. "