Mileage Question? How Long at Peak

bump (n' grind)

I keep my mileage up till about 10 weeks before the big race I want to peak for. The first 4 weeks I'll do a moderate drop (80miles) and then the next 6 weeks I'll drop it even further (60miles). The 10 days before the big one I won't do much at all (40miles).

Any other thoughts on this? How much mileage is really needed to race a 10k for cross?

This was really just an excuse to bump this back up...sorry.

stop worrying about mileage. it's not important. stop counting it and throw away your log. focus on speedwork.

man, can you imagine if jerry lawson and josh cox had a kid? he would have the sweetest goatee EVER.

If Lydiard were your coach he would have you do the following:

Ascent to peak mileage (9 weeks)

Base phase (3- 6 months at peak mileage)

100 mpw at aerobic pace, one 22 miler per week, one tempo per week

Sept 15 - Oct 12 Anarobic Interval phase (4 weeks)

Intervals 2-3 times per week, Sprints 1-2 times a week, one medium distance run (8-12), one long run 22 miles

Oct 13 - Nov 25 Anaerobic Coordination phase (6 weeks)

One 3/4 effort race or time trial per week, 1 day of surge training (50 fast/50 float), 1 day of intervals, 1 day of sprints, 2 days easy jogging 7 miles, 1 long run 15-20)

Nov 25 - Dec 5 Sharpening/taper phase (2 weeks)

Easy jogging 5 mile days alternating with sprints or surge training days, last 3 days easy jogging 5 miles

December 6 Big race

no, lydiard would have you do a hill phase beetween the 100mpw phase and the anaerobic phase. And actually he would have you do more than 100mpw. He would have you running 100mpw in the evenings at a steady pace and up to an hour of "jogging" every morning except for the day of your long run.

the problem with this is that inorder to train for cross, you'd have to start your training in mid march at the latest with that 3-6 months at peak and 9 week build up. so lets say you are racing through june, how do you train for cross? there's got to be some decent runner who races outdoors and still gets in shape for cross. can one of them tell me how they build up, rather than quoting lydiard?

Here in GB we don't have the trials for worlds till March so that's when I plan to run fast: Feb/March. Just means my early races (Oct/Nov/Dec) are run when I am tired from doing lots of miles. What I have always done is work backwards from the date I want to peak, takes me about 4 weeks. The 4 weeks before that for fine tuning/quality work, 4 weeks before that for anaerobic work, 4 weeks before that for hills and then as long as possible in the base phase. Works for me anyways then I do the same sort of thing for outdoors.

The phase of getting to peak milage is only for people who arent already used to running 100+ mpw. Lydiard said 12 weeks is fine for a base phase, but make the base phase as long as possible. Just make sure its at least 10-12 weeks.