Running well without intervals

In my earlier years when I was in that range I'd generally do a 12-15 mile run each day, a mid week 15-18 mile run, 17-22 mile run on Sunday and a second run of 4-10 miles more often than not. In this time period I would occasionally get talked into some interval work but it was pretty rare and never very long lived.

In my later years in that time range I decided that I was only going to do what I felt like doing and went to one run a day, usually 12-13 miles with a 15-17 mile weekend run and never any intervals.

I did race more often than most people do now in both phases.

I've been training this way for like 10 years now. I still run under 33 for most 10ks, 15s for most 5ks and continue to run sub 2:35 for the marathon. I don't run as much as the last guy did, more like 70 mpw.

I ran track and XC in college and felt like I was done with intervals upon graduating.

I am 32. I just go running everyday and race about a dozen times a year.

PS,

I never paid much attention to pace. I let it find me and generally ran as fast as I could while staying comfortable enough to do my next day's run. A lot of it in my later years was around 6:00 pace once I got loosened up and moving but if I was tired I'd run much slower. Usually the faster runs felt better.

Back in the years after college when I was actually training, I finally figured out that I only "needed" to run intervals if I was gearing up for important shorter races - 5K and shorter. This flew in the face of everything I learned in college - that intervals were KEY for success in distance running, including all those 8K and 10K cross country races. Man we ran a lot of repeat Ks, 1200s, and miles, and all at REALLY hard intensities.

Anyway, in the time I was in grad school, I usually could pop off a 10K in the mid-high-33s, and I was putting in weeks like:

M - relaxed 7-10

T - usually a "hard" 8-10. Start easy and build into an "extemporaneous tempo run" as John Kellogg calls them now

W - easy 3-4 in the morning and several hours of racquetball at night

R - relaxed 5-8 (several hours of racquetball leaves one sore)

F - "hard" 5-6 (6-7 with w/u and c/d). usually about a half mile warm up and then get right into it, with some kind of loose time goals, but the idea to hold the same pace for the whole run, then half mile cool down

S - easy 8-10

S - 90 minutes of whatever I felt like. Sometimes that was 7 min pace for 13ish miles. Sometimes I would slowly ramp it up and turn the long run into a long sustained modified tempo run - I guess it would most closely approximate a marathon pace run if you want to label it.

In addition, I was hitting the gym 2 days a week, and doing some racquetball drills 2 days a week for about an hour each time.

Great stuff! Thank you, guys. Exactly what I'm looking for. I no longer enjoy running intervals. Instead, I love just lacing up my shoes and running as hard--or as slow--as I think is manageable. I still want to remain competitive in my age group, though.

You'll be much more competitive in your age group if you got a coach and took training seriously.

Greeco wrote:

Great stuff! Thank you, guys. Exactly what I'm looking for. I no longer enjoy running intervals. Instead, I love just lacing up my shoes and running as hard--or as slow--as I think is manageable. I still want to remain competitive in my age group, though.

Eamonn Coghlan eventually abandoned hard anaerobic track work and relied on quality mileage and long-moderate hill reps. Seemed to work just fine for him with a 3:49 indoors.

Ninetonite wrote:

You'll be much more competitive in your age group if you got a coach and took training seriously.

You're right. However, I've been training seriously for 25 years, on and off (several long "offs"). I just want to be able to run well without having to do an interval session every week.

I know you're looking for new stuff, but this thread is so great, I've referred to it quite a bit. "no interval work success?" http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=309865

So you wanna train with NO rest? That mighta work for Gerry L, but that doesn't mean it'll work for you. Best to have some rest in there, son.

I ran all my PB's betwen 32 and 37 after switching to just mileage and high end tempo work with occaisional single 500 -800m m Van Aaken style "tempo" at the end of an easy run. The short efforts were at about goal race pace for 800-mile

400m in 54 up to 34 minute 10km were my times witrh this training.

I never came close to those times by hammering intervals.

Short races felt much easier than they did when I was jaded from race type efforts in training.

How did you structure a typical week?

SMJO wrote:

I ran all my PB's betwen 32 and 37 after switching to just mileage and high end tempo work with occaisional single 500 -800m m Van Aaken style "tempo" at the end of an easy run. The short efforts were at about goal race pace for 800-mile

400m in 54 up to 34 minute 10km were my times witrh this training.

I never came close to those times by hammering intervals.

Short races felt much easier than they did when I was jaded from race type efforts in training.

well there you go. A very very strong girls xc and track program that never does intervals.

"The North Shore training mix is a peon to old-school thinking. It’s short on razzmatazz and long on development. It’s not the stuff of clinics, not if you’re looking for the new hot workout. The basics, through summer, fall, winter, etc., as Levy said, are: (1) Run 10 days straight, then take a day off; (2) run hills three times a week in a 65-minute road run in which you do 10 minutes on the flat, 45 minutes on a hilly route (pushing the up hills, easing off on the down hills), then finish with 10 minutes on the flats; (3) other days run 45 to 65 minutes on the flat followed by 8 x 30-second strides; (4) do one longer run of 90 minutes in the 10-day cycle."

Seems to work for them.

Running is so strange - we honestly have no idea what the best way to train is.

Quit track work 2 years ago. Only quicker stuff: tempo's, fartlek & hill repeats. In one year crushed all my pr's, made the trials. And there is really no magic way to organize the speedwork either, as long as you are getting your miles in.

You don't need them.

4:31 mile and 9:44 two mile on no intervals back in the day. Just raced myself into shape.

But regular racing helps.

Kicker wrote:

But regular racing helps.

This is the key. Ultimately, I think Joe Henderson was right that 10%<2% of your miles per month need to be fast/hard to race well. You can get by without doing formal speedwork if you race frequently, which is why I think it often works for high school kids.

I am so tempted to try this at least for the winter/spring. Esp because I have an injury that running fast aggravates.

But I don't race very much - just once per month. So maybe it wouldn't work for me. On the other hand, I have 30 years of life miles behind me.

Eh.

Base work for young people allows them to snap to their "natural level of talent" without too much stress. So if a boy can run 2 miles in 10:00 w/ no intervals, he might run 9:40 with them. From a recruitment perspective, this is a huge plus - lots of upside.

Mark Nenow trained this way. Just distance, and races to get in shape.

Great thread with some eye opening stuff. I too swore off intervals/track-work recently just because I'm tired of it and didn't find it enjoyable. Thought this was going to have a negative effect on my time, but perhaps not...