Lack Of Improvement

I don't know what your recovery periods (micro or macro) are like, but usually that is the issue. you may need a long break. in college I plateaued for a while, got injured and had to take some time off, then proceeded to get a lot within a few months of good training.

shadow puppet wrote:

I don't know what your recovery periods (micro or macro) are like, but usually that is the issue. you may need a long break. in college I plateaued for a while, got injured and had to take some time off, then proceeded to get a lot within a few months of good training.

I have never taken a long break, maybe something I should try

Join a local athletics club and get involved. Working with a coach and new training partners will add a boost to your stale state. Change your training and inject some new blood into your workouts. You need a goal, aim and fresh approach- work harder to succeed.

Good luck

Sure, if you keep doing the same thing and getting the same results, obvious answer is to change things up.

"More mileage" is cliche here but it usually works, sometimes dramatically. Don't put too much stock in those graphs which show severely diminishing returns after 30-40-50-60 miles. Some of us find bigger returns in the jump from 65 to 85 than from 45 to 65.

And if you haven't tried consistent doubles, you might get a serious boost just by adding a second very easy 30-40 minute run most days.

please dont squeeze the garmin wrote:

Sure, if you keep doing the same thing and getting the same results, obvious answer is to change things up.

"More mileage" is cliche here but it usually works, sometimes dramatically. Don't put too much stock in those graphs which show severely diminishing returns after 30-40-50-60 miles. Some of us find bigger returns in the jump from 65 to 85 than from 45 to 65.

And if you haven't tried consistent doubles, you might get a serious boost just by adding a second very easy 30-40 minute run most days.

I actually tried 75-80 / week for 4 months (ya I know not that long but it was a base period) and didn't see any improvement in race times, actually times were slower and my workout paces were the same or slower, this was after the pre comp phase were my mileage was around 70/week and comp phase areound 60 / week. I basically thought the mileage was helping because I had set my PR's a year earlier while doing 50-55/ week for a year.

I'm 37 and in a similar mode right now. After my latest marathon last month was a few minutes slower than my pr, despite better training, I started rethinking my training.

I'm committed to a race next week then I'm taking a short break. Maybe a week. Then I am going to concentrate on building a base for the next couple of months. I'm just going to run easy mileage and buildup to 60+ mpw. Once I'm satisfied with my base I'm going to train for a fall marathon and see what happens. If that fails I don't know what I'm going to do.

I think that will really help my situation since I haven't done any base work in the last 2 years (since my marathon PR!!). Look back at your training maybe you have made the same mistake I have.

Good Luck

I was thinking of trying some different training stimulus that haven't really done in the past.

1) hills, basically only done 2 or 3 hill workouts in the last 4 yrs

2) 3k pace and faster workouts, again hardly any sessions at this effort

3) long tempo's or aerobic threshold (MP or whatever the latest term for them is), have done some of this but not very much

as far as mileage goes I really can't convince myself that an increase will do all that much, I have been around the 35 min 10k time for the last 4 yrs and my goal time is 34 min, 50-70 miles/week should be enough for my goal I would think, for most weeks of the year I do a traditional tempo session of something like 2 x 15 min at Daniels T pace w/ 2 min rest, I have in the past run these T pace workouts too fast as well as V02 max workouts and finally starting to run them at the right pace

Up your miles, change up the workouts. I leveled off for several years at over 34min, but over 3-4 years I upped my mileage until I was consistently 100+ and did better workouts and ended up sub-31.

First off, looks like you don't do much for sustained tempos? Only 15min tempo intervals? Start 4-6 mile tempo runs, a medium-long run each week of 13-14 miles with all types of different quality worked in (such as progression, warmup and 10 miles steadily hard, etc) can do wonders for your strength and stamina.

spaniel wrote:

Up your miles, change up the workouts. I leveled off for several years at over 34min, but over 3-4 years I upped my mileage until I was consistently 100+ and did better workouts and ended up sub-31.

First off, looks like you don't do much for sustained tempos? Only 15min tempo intervals? Start 4-6 mile tempo runs, a medium-long run each week of 13-14 miles with all types of different quality worked in (such as progression, warmup and 10 miles steadily hard, etc) can do wonders for your strength and stamina.

I have struggled with long tempos(4+ miles), usually run them too fast and can never figure out what pace to run them

how old are you?

Pepsi Stuff wrote:

how old are you?

35, only been running for 7 yrs