When to incorporate speedwork or workouts during winter base?

Try to build up your mileage to at least 60-70, more if you are feeling good, but make sure:

1) Most of those miles are easy runs

2) Do progression runs at least 2-3 times per week, whenever it feels right, but don't force it. See this most excellent article by John Kellog (coach of the site founders) for a detailed explanation of a progression run:

http://www.letsrun.com/2005/jkfitness.php

3) Have fun and enjoy it!

If you truly want to be great, as well as begin to prepare yourself for college running if you so desire to do so, this will get you where you want to go. It'd probably be good to throw in some short sprints or some strides every week to keep up your speed too.

You're right to not worry about indoors and just focus on outdoors, 3 seasons in a row is too much to prepare to do your best.

So should my base end in the beginning of March and should I also start speedwork then?

Ask your coach and get back with us.

1) Listen to your coach.

2) If you don't want to do that, then try to run for about an hour a day and you will naturally pick up the pace sometimes, thus creating "speedwork". But seriously, you've got about 3 months to do speed work, you really don't need to be going crazy right now.

I stated in my first post that I DO have a coach but I know I'm on a higher level (along with my teammates) than the coach thinks right now. Plus we're on our own until February 1st. The coach is focusing more on developing the newbies.

I'm not doing any speedwork now, except stride 2-3 times a week. I'm doing a weekly tempo and a long run. My tempo is currently a 5k loop, should I be doing more than a 5k for my tempo?

Personaly, I would alternate tempos, say 4 miles one week and 6 miles the next.

Start some speed maintenence now. Work on running hills, 200s, 400s, etc. The rest time should be the amount of time you ran. Ex. if your race pace 800m is 2:00 and you are running 200m uphill, run 30 seconds then jog 30 seconds.

2x(2x200 + 1x300 + 1x400) at race pace.

It also wouldn't hurt if you did a couple of explosive exersises like jump roping, hi knee squats, lunge thrust. All of this is to prepare you for the interval phase of training. Don't be afraid to do some light intervals either. This is geared towards the daniels formula if you haven't caught on already.

Happy training.

what pace should my tempos be at to benefit from them? and would the 4 mile tempo be the same pace as a 6 mile?

Do incorporate speedwork now in your training, it is never too late. BUT, do not confuse speedwork with VO2 max work/ hard intervalls.

I suggest the following (choose one or multiple optionns):

do strides after every run (10x 100m - increase speed 1 -10- make them feel easy).

6x150m with a jog back. Or 8x 200m with 200 jog. Those won't hurt you.

warm up a few miles, do 6x30m flying, then go on a 30 -40 min run.

Speed needs development and time, just like your aerobic capacity needs to develop. The point is: you don't need to hammer out speed sessions, just incorporate them into your (daily) training and let your footspeed develop with time.

Yes, 5k for tempo run is not enough. Do 6- 8 miles at threshold pace.

another option here is to do about 4-5 miles tempo, followed by 3x200m all out with about 2 min rest between the 200s

recruit wrote:

So should my base end in the beginning of March and should I also start speedwork then?

I would continue your base work through March - you don't need three months (overkill) of sharpening to prepare for the championship races. You can start doing quality interval work around the 2nd week of April, but don't forget to continue with the long runs through this period. I also agree you need to get your mileage up to the 60-70mpw range if you want to see noticeable improvement. Tempo runs should generally be in the 4-5 mile range - certainly no more than 6. If you are not already, make sure you include a quality long run of 12-14 miles every 7-10 days. Gradually taper the long run as you enter the championship season. For now, I would focus on building strength by gradually increasing your mileage to the aforementioned range, incorporating weekly tempo runs, hill repeats, long interval pace reps every 2 or 3 weeks.

By the way, you are probably going to get a lot of different responses to your questions, so you are going to have to use your best judgement as well. Ideally, everyone wants to be at their ultimate peak for the championship races; however, you'll get a much better performance being slightly undertrained v. overtrained - bear that in mind as you go forward.

Thanks yung. I agree with your advice. Can you sort of help me out in devising a 60-70mpw plan? Last summer I maxed out around 55mpw with doubles. Due to school, I don't have a lot of time to double now (even in the morning it would be tough). I'm currently at 45mpw so how should I get into the 60-70 range and are you counting that with or without doubles?

Typical schedule for me (what's it been usually the last 2 weeks):

M - 5 easy

T - 7 good pace

W - 6 good pace

TH - 7 good pace

F - 8/9 long

Sat - 6 easy

Sun - 5k tempo with warmup and cooldown (Will up this to 4-5miles. What pace should it be run at?

How do I up this into the 60-70 range while staying comfortable and entering the higher aerobic level

I am the walrus wrote:

Yes, 5k for tempo run is not enough. Do 6- 8 miles at threshold pace.

another option here is to do about 4-5 miles tempo, followed by 3x200m all out with about 2 min rest between the 200s

Walrus,

Please define your use of "threshold pace", for say, a 16:55 5k, 35:10 10k runner.

bump bump

you say its hard to double, but would getting up 20 minutes earlier to do 2 miles really be that hard? if you double 6 times a week thatd be 12 more miles,so you'd almost be to 60 that way plus itll help with recovery. and dont do what the one guy said and do base till march or april whatever. do base til mid feb., then basically do whatever your progression would be until states. so like midfeb-March harder stuff, April-hard intervals, May-Sharpen/peak. good luck mate

recruit wrote:

Due to school, I don't have a lot of time to double now (even in the morning it would be tough).

2 miles might not help that much. Thats barely getting into a run. Try like 5 a few tiems per week. Thats what I'm doing. It sucks getting up 45 min earlier, but it wakes you up and you arent as tired later on so you can get ready for school quicker and it makes up for cutting it close with only like 10 min to find your runnind gear etc.