1500 Training Plan

Well what I see is:

-too many workouts. Especially in this period:

1500 meter Transition Phase

Monday-

Am- Easy Run

Pm- Short Sub Threshold

Tuesday-

Am- Easy Run

Pm- Hill Sprints

Wednesday-

Am- Easy Run

Pm- Fartlek

Thursday-

Am- Very Easy Run

Pm- Hill Sprints

Friday-

Am- Easy Run

Pm- Basic Speed

Saturday-

Am- Long Run

Sunday-

Am- Easy Run

Pm- Easy Run

-There is 6 hard/moderate days with only one easy. There will not be supercompensation

-Hill sprints and basic speed in two consecutive days, what I think you don´t need 2 max sprint sessions in a week. You can include both in the same session (uphill+flat sprints)

-The week when you have a race don´t do Vo2MAX work, or 2 Vo2MAX workouts ever in one week. Keep doing tempo work (longer and shorter) consistently. You should do tempos a minimum of one time per week ALL THE TIME. Too much Vo2MAX work without appropriate amount of tempos ruins your endurance quite quickly (muscular endurance) though it quickly improves the capacity of your cardiac system (Vo2MAX)

-Intensity of threshold sessions, you can do work also at and a bit above of your threshold after a period of sub-threshold work, like tempos of 20-40minutes (progressive) or with 10-20min intervals

-Overall I would recommend to do maximum of 4 non-easy days a week, you have then

1) 2 threshold sessions (can include one in the long run)

2) 1 Vo2-session (about 10k intensity) OR Vo2MAX (5k-3k

intensity)

3) Anaerobic session

-alactic short max sprints in the base season

-glycolytic max or near max sprints in pre-comp+comp

season

4) Alactic race pace work also in the base season(in non-easy days), increasing the amount of it towards comp season

All of these with mileage which you can tolerate consistently. This maybe seems too easy schedule but that´s the trick.

grhedgyjt wrote:

All of these with mileage which you can tolerate consistently. This maybe seems too easy schedule but that´s the trick.

Haven't many of the great 1500m. runners run hard on almost a daily basis?

El Guerouj

Steve Cram

Seb Coe

These guys are all famous for their inbetween mileage days being run at a nearly threshold pace.

Seb Coe ran many workouts a week.

old runners wrote:

grhedgyjt wrote:

All of these with mileage which you can tolerate consistently. This maybe seems too easy schedule but that´s the trick.

Haven't many of the great 1500m. runners run hard on almost a daily basis?

El Guerouj

Steve Cram

Seb Coe

These guys are all famous for their inbetween mileage days being run at a nearly threshold pace.

Seb Coe ran many workouts a week.

They could do that because of they were professionals and the level of their endurance were naturally so much better than average runners, which also helps the recovery process and the resistance to hard work.

So overall they could tolerate more training and intensity.

Also the bulk of this "hard work" was done at paces near lactate threshold, which isn´t hard IF you can hit the right pace, plus these guys weren´t high mileage runners.

It´s not wise to base the training approach for what elites has done but why always the most brutal way should be the best way? Remember the training of Rui Silva (moderate mileage, 3 hard sessions a week) or Craig Mottram:

Monday 2 easy runs + 3x120m quickly

Tuesday Track session (400m-2k reps)

Wednesday 1hour30min

Thursday 40min of threshold

Friday 2 easy runs

Saturday Threshold or 3x5min hills

Sunday 1hour45min

Though he wasn´t a miler at the time but did some very good 1500-mile races too. There is many ways to train but I believe that it´s better to train "too easily" than too hard.

grhedgyjt wrote:

I believe that it´s better to train "too easily" than too hard.

Agreed. I'll take getting to the line a bit undertrained but healthy anyday.