Have you tried the "all moderate pace" approach?

I have not tried what you are asking but from a physiological standpoint I thinking there may be something more effective.

Given your constraint of only 60 minutes per day to be used running and your focus of road races of 10k and less, here is what I'd suggest as a very effective routine.

Adopt a 3 day rotation

Day 1: Stress Workout

Day 2: 60 minutes easy

Day 3: 60 minutes easy incorporating 6 x 20 second strides during the run.

Stress workout would alternate among the following workouts:

1) 60 minutes incorporating 12-14 x 1:00 with 2:00 jog recovery (1:00 repeats at roughly mile pace)

2) 60 minutes incorporating 6-7 x 3:00 with 3:00 jog recovery (3:00 repats at 3k-5k pace)

3) 60 minutes incorporating 5 x 5:00 with 2:30 jog recovery (5:00 repeats at 8k pace)

4) 60 minutes incorporating 30 minutes Tempo (HM pace)

5) 60 minutes of steady state at marathon pace (aerobic threshold)

Great suggestion! Thanks a lot, MPR.

I will have time, however, to squeeze in a longer run (90-120 minutes) on the weekend.

I think what you're looking for, and what the other poster outlined, is a running program which utilizes fartleks as the main form of "workout." In this way, you're not taking up vital time with rest,etc...but rather getting in hard efforts in the span of a normal run. Best of luck!

Another consideration is that I want to maximize my mileage, relatively speaking, in this one hour. I figure I can do that by running a little slower than marathon pace every run. Close to the edge, but not over it. I remember reading of some masters runner who did this years ago but I don't recall the name.

Interesting that you ask this, I've done it last year and had a lot of success with it. For me though, it was mainly effective for base building purposes, and after doing a couple sharpening workouts I ripped a pretty fast track 5k. Here's what I did:

I ran 60 min 4 days of the week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. On Sunday I would do a long run of 90 min. Saturday was a slightly shorter recovery day of 45 min.

I ran all of these runs at 5:45 - 6:15/mile. For me, 5:55 - 6:25 is my easy pace so this was not that much faster but I would cover about 10 miles in an hour everyday at this pace.

Every Friday I would do a hard tempo, usually at 5:00 - 5:15 pace/mile for 4-6 miles over rolling hills. Altogether I was running 70 - 75 mpw during this period training for 60-70 min/ day. It can be pretty effective because you are building your aerobic power and focusing on quality without running track work or doing "junk mileage". I should also add that I would also usually hammer my Sunday long run... it was almost always under 6 min pace.

The Saturday run I ran slower than 6:15 pace though, it was really the only "easy" or "recovery" day of my week. sometimes I didn't run on Saturdays, which would drop my mileage down to the 65-70 range. Didn't make a big difference.

No

That was pretty much what I always did from age 19 onward. I didn't even worry about the progression part, just ran as fast or slow as felt manageable. I took my marathon from 4:34 to 2:35, 10k from 49+ to mid 32s, etc. But I did a LOT of it.

Shoe guy -- what were your race times when you were training this way? I'd like to see how they correspond to your training pace. Thank you.

Ralphy wrote:

I think what you're looking for, and what the other poster outlined, is a running program which utilizes fartleks as the main form of "workout." In this way, you're not taking up vital time with rest,etc...but rather getting in hard efforts in the span of a normal run. Best of luck!

one of the time-saving benefits of fartlek training is that even on the 'off' part of the fartlek, your body is still working at AT pace or something like it. So the periods you are stressing your body are longer than you might think. Without the mental anguish.

I ran 3:49 for 1500 and 14:10 for 5k but that was only after I added a few weeks of track work following that training plan that I mentioned. Not sure what I could have ran without the handful of track workouts I did prior to those races but I think I could have ran 3:53 and 14:25 off of that training alone, possibly faster.

Inputing 14:10 5k into McMillan calculator:

Easy Runs 5:47 to 6:17

Tempo Runs 4:48 to 5:00

The easy pace is pretty much dead on to what I would run, occasionally I would run faster. Tempo runs are a bit faster but I never ran them on flat terrain (I'm pretty sure the calculator suggests paces for tempo runs on the track) so it is reasonable to add 10-15 sec/mile which results in 5:00-5:15/mile.

I did something similar to what you're describing in the summer prior to my Senior year of HS. I wanted to reach that next level and get recruited, run in college. In my summer base I reached high mileage of 85mpw (previous high was only 50) and ran ALL the miles at 5:50-6:30 pace (this was after spring track season of a 3200 PR: 10:00). I saw HUGE improvements in the beginning of the cross season: first 5k was 16:40 (previous PR was 17:35) then a 16:10 then some 16:20s and then I burned out HARD. I had to take a full month off from running just to feel recovered again. In the winter I ran the same high mileage at a slower pace (6:30-7:00) with a fartlek once/week and ended up hitting a 9:20 3200.

What I'm trying to illustrate is be cautious with doing all your runs at this "moderate/fast-pace training plan." I upped my mileage too soon and ran way too fast too many days of the week without enough rest days. Though I saw improvement, my legs felt terrible after all that time spent doing semihard-hard effort runs. Make sure not to make that same mistake. I'd advise to listen to your body when upping your mileage and if you don't feel great one day, don't feel pressured to fight through just to maintain your "moderate/fast-pace" plan.

MPR wrote:

Given your constraint of only 60 minutes per day to be used running and your focus of road races of 10k and less, here is what I'd suggest as a very effective routine.

What MPR wrote is exactly what I have been doing the last 2 months on the treadmill.

If I'm not doing a workout, I do a progression on every run. Some are hard ending with the last 3 at tempo. Some are medium and some are easy. When I do a workout, I warmup 20 minutes and then do 40 minutes of whatever interval I want. I have done :30 with 2:00 recovery (leg turnover) 1:00 on/2:00 off,:90 on/:90 off, 3:00 on/2:00 off,etc On some of the longer recoveries, I did them at a quicker pace that made the recovery take a little longer. I have also done a couple straight 5 mile tempos and ran a couple races. The 5k I ran last weekend was at least 15 seconds faster than I thought I could run.

The moderation isn't really in the pace or effort, it is in the TIME that I am running.

I did something very much like this last winter. An occasional fartlek, hill session, or tempo would be mixed in, but the bulk of my training was 7-8 mile steady runs. These runs were usually done twice a day, making up 95-100 miles per week. Some days would be shorter like a 5/7 or 6/6. I dropped my 5k 11 seconds and my 3k 14.

I'd like some feedback on this:

I have a goal race 10K race at the end of May. I want to do the all-moderate approach, but with a 10K pace-specific workout every second week until my race. I plan on jumping in a few other road races prior to my May goal race.

A typical week will like like the following:

M: 1 hour steady

T: 1 hour steady

W: 1 hour steady

T: 1 hour steady

F: 1 hour (OR 6X1 mile, 3X2 mile at goal pace every second week)

S: 45 minutes easy

S: 90 minutes steady

I plan on throwing in 4-8 X 100m strides a few days a week for turnover.

Shoe guy, HRE, MPR, any more thoughts? Note that I can't do doubles, unfortunately, as would like.

Thanks!

Kenny T wrote:

Another consideration is that I want to maximize my mileage, relatively speaking, in this one hour. I figure I can do that by running a little slower than marathon pace every run. Close to the edge, but not over it. I remember reading of some masters runner who did this years ago but I don't recall the name.

Was it Norm Green?

find a way to get in doubles. Even if it means buying a treadmill. It'll be much less stressful and stressful on your body. Surely your family understands your passion and would understand if you took an hour or a little more in the afternoon to train.

Barring that, progressive runs seem the way to go. Basically a few times a week, you'd want to finish them hard, well under half pace.

When I first started running I just went out and ran at 3/4 effort every day for a month. Started at 8:00 minute pace. By the end of the month I was at 7:20. I was running 3.5 miles each day. then I ran a 5k (20:37). then I got sick. lolz