calling Ed Whitlock: your "glacial" training pace?

He has posted here in the past and estimates it to be around 9-minute-mile pace. When he does his laps on the grounds of that cemetary he logs time, not miles.

That's 2-3 hours per run.

holy shit. if it works for you it works for you.

id quit the sport if i had to do that.

zoom miler wrote:

holy shit. if it works for you it works for you.

id quit the sport if i had to do that.

yah, but would u quit if u had numerous age group world records?

what pace? wrote:

Mr. Whitlock: congrats on your newest record. I saw your comment that you train at a "glacial" pace. Approximately what does that mean in mins per mile? LSD training has great appeal and I'm curious about the kind of pace that has worked so amazingly well for you. Thanks.

Reply from A Pied is correct. Pace not measured, just run at a pace that seems comfortable, although usually at the end of the run I am quite tired.

Thanks. Best wishes in your future efforts.

oh sorry, didnt reilise who Ed was.

Now i understand.

I've heard he actually runs at a good solid consistant pace - like Lydiard's 'top of one's aerobic capacity'.

And below Ed does say, that at the end of a run he is quite tired.

Sounds like he probably runs more like 7 minute miles.

Racing often is his the speed work - does this sound correct Ed?

So, around a 3 hr marathon on many days (over some stretches, most...), when his PR is 2:50!!! Ed Whitlock is one of my heroes - a god among boys - but, no, don't think so.

I wouldn't estimate 7 minute miles if he just said personally that it is closer to 9 minutes. I think his PR is actually closer to 2:25. Impressive as Ed's times are now, his times from 25-30 years ago really stand out as well.

SMJO wrote:

I wouldn't estimate 7 minute miles if he just said personally that it is closer to 9 minutes. I think his PR is actually closer to 2:25. Impressive as Ed's times are now, his times from 25-30 years ago really stand out as well.

Yes I am sure my pace is not 7 minutes. My best marathon at age 48 was 2:31:23 at Ottawa in May 1979. This was done off a winter of quite high mileage done in preparation for middle distance track in the Summer. The first time I had tried that. I did a 4:09.6 1500 in late Summer after some speed work in winning the M45 world masters race.

9min per mile = about 2min per mile slower than Marathon race pace, eh Ed?

That's still in the "aerobic conditioning zone" folks. It's still quicker than his 55% VO2 max pace, which Coe-Martin describe as the minimum percentile for it to be doing good things, which it obviously does for Ed.

Discuss.

PS: Wet Coast, that 55% thing is in that big lovely blue book that you have! :)

....which you can bring to Mill Bay.

Sorry for the interruption, Folks. Intuition is a great thing in coaching. Mr Whitlock intuitively trained the way he did, and the results will go down in history. Do you coach other runners, Ed?

"This was done off a winter of quite high mileage done in preparation for middle distance track in the Summer. The first time I had tried that. I did a 4:09.6 1500 in late Summer after some speed work in winning the M45 world masters race."

Mr Whitlock:

If you have the time, could you talk a little more about this transition from marathon straight into track season? I'm assuming the marathon conditioning served primarily as "base" before moving into outdoor mode?

Skuj wrote:

Do you coach other runners, Ed?

I don't think I have the temperament or expertise to coach. I just muddle along and find what works for me. I don't have a coach either but use ideas now and again that I come across. I did have coaching when I was in my 40's where I picked up a grounding in the basics.

trun wrote:

Mr Whitlock:

If you have the time, could you talk a little more about this transition from marathon straight into track season? I'm assuming the marathon conditioning served primarily as "base" before moving into outdoor mode?

I am afraid I don't have my running logs from then anymore so I speak from memory. I ran a marathon in March that year then the one in mid May. Before both of those I had 100 mile+ weeks for 6 consecutive weeks. Plus a fair amount of distance through the winter preceeding.

I finished both these marathons without distress so my recovery was quite quick. After the May marathon I think I settled into a routine of 4 interval sessions and 3 longish runs a week (1 to 1.5 hours) Interrupted by some races.

Mr. Whitlock: IF you decided to switch to purely 5-10K racing, would you alter your training?

You are doing wonderfully well at the marathon, but if you chose to switch to shorter distances would your 3-hour routine change to 1-hour or 45:00?

Thank you.

Ed Whitlock,

What an honor to read your posts here. Congratulations on all of your accomplishments and records. You're 'da man.

Barometric wrote:

Mr. Whitlock: IF you decided to switch to purely 5-10K racing, would you alter your training?

You are doing wonderfully well at the marathon, but if you chose to switch to shorter distances would your 3-hour routine change to 1-hour or 45:00?

Thank you.

I think that I have said on some thread that my training is not very structured or organised, I have no coach and just go out and run, to some extent as much as I can given my background condition at the time which is the main determinant of how long I run.

I am having a few (hopefully) days off at the moment as my knee is hurting. When I start up again it will be a gradual build up. While I do think the extended training is more important for the marathon than 5 or 10k my training is aimed at the shorter distances too. Statistically I ran better 5 and 10ks than my marathon last year. So I am not sure how I would modify my training if I no longer ran marathons. It would depend on the reasons, nothing is ever static or unchanging, maybe I will have to change because of my knee, but I have had those problems before and got over them.