critique my super simple training plan

99% of runners can get much much better than they are with

1. Proper Mileage

2. Tempos

3. 400m repeats

95% of runners can get better without #3.

troll.

you seem to have missed what a 'tempo run' actually is...

and those three little dots at the end are supposed to explain it to me?

Finish your sentence son.

Hey, hey, hey, I just ran a 17:25 for my last indoor meet.

Not trolling here, but to be honest I did split a 16:45 in an 8k in college so this isn't out of the blue.

Also dusted off my old garmin 101, so this week I'll tell you my milage and pace.

unicyclemichael wrote:

I was jogging one day when this training plan just popped into my head. Now I’ve been using it for about six weeks with modest success. It’s a super simple five day cycle.

Days 1-4: Easy jogging.

Day 5: 5k tempo run.

I do my easy days nice and slow, about 8 or 9 minute pace. I have been running on a loop golf course. I started out doing about 30 or 40 minutes, and built up to 50-60.

My tempo runs started at about 20:00 and are down to 18:50 as of Wednesday. I raced an 18:51 5k at the start of January as well as a 5:07 1500. Next races are this Sunday, so should be able to take a big chunk of my times.

Anyone else used a plan like this for an extended period? Results? Ideas for improving it? Wondering how long I’ll keep improving on this.

It is too simple. And stupid

So you´re basically doing an all out 5k every week? Or close?

Tempo should be only a comfortably hard run. Get a heart rate monitor, keep it under about 90% of MHR. Increase the tempo distance to 40min over time.

You should also do more than just jog. Try running. Long runs too.

Do you people even READ the posts before making an idiotic commment?

If he can RACE an 18:51 and does a 5k tempo in 20:00, that seems pretty close to a correct TEMPO pace to me. If he can TEMPO an 18:50 after a few weeks of training and then RACES a 17:25, it looks like his TEMPOS are being done at the correct pace for the fitness he is in.

for crying out loud wrote:

Do you people even READ the posts before making an idiotic commment?

If he can RACE an 18:51 and does a 5k tempo in 20:00, that seems pretty close to a correct TEMPO pace to me. If he can TEMPO an 18:50 after a few weeks of training and then RACES a 17:25, it looks like his TEMPOS are being done at the correct pace for the fitness he is in.

Yes I did read it, but YOU didn´t. He wrote:

"My tempo runs started at about 20:00 and are down to 18:50 as of Wednesday. I raced an 18:51 5k at the start of January"

So, HE IS RACING HIS TEMPO RUNS. He just ran a 18.50 tempo LAST WEDNESDAY after he RACED 18.51 (SLOWER!!!) IN LAST MONTH.

YOU just did the idiotic comment by yourself. Read the posts carefully in the future, clown.

The 17.25 in an indoor race with spikes is a very different story when comparing it on a tempo run done normally outside and hopefully, not with spikes, don´t you get it huh...

unicyclemichael wrote:

and those three little dots at the end are supposed to explain it to me?

Finish your sentence son.

An English class might help you figure out what those three little dots mean.

Any decent book will help you figure out what a tempo run is.

Go eduate yourself, son.

You got pwned.

asdfgh wrote:

Yes I did read it, but YOU didn´t. He wrote:

"My tempo runs started at about 20:00 and are down to 18:50 as of Wednesday. I raced an 18:51 5k at the start of January"

So, HE IS RACING HIS TEMPO RUNS. He just ran a 18.50 tempo LAST WEDNESDAY after he RACED 18.51 (SLOWER!!!) IN LAST MONTH.

YOU just did the idiotic comment by yourself. Read the posts carefully in the future, clown.

Actually, he said he'd been following this plan for 6 weeks. 6 weeks prior to this thread was around the start of January. 18:51 race. Tempo run was 20:00 around the same time. 5k race pace: 6:05. Tempo run pace: 6:40. Sounds reasonable.

Now, after 6 weeks (or 5 going by "last Wednesday") his tempo runs is 18:50. We can only assume that the tempo effort has remained consistent. After all, if he didn't race the tempo in week 1 (first of January), why would he start racing it in week 6? He wouldn't.

Sounds like the other guy had it right.

You are the clown (to use your term).

The 17.25 in an indoor race with spikes is a very different story when comparing it on a tempo run done normally outside and hopefully, not with spikes, don´t you get it huh..

So YOU TOO are a clown.

unicyclemichael wrote:

I was jogging one day when this training plan just popped into my head. Now I’ve been using it for about six weeks with modest success. It’s a super simple five day cycle.

Days 1-4: Easy jogging.

Day 5: 5k tempo run.

I do my easy days nice and slow, about 8 or 9 minute pace. I have been running on a loop golf course. I started out doing about 30 or 40 minutes, and built up to 50-60.

My tempo runs started at about 20:00 and are down to 18:50 as of Wednesday. I raced an 18:51 5k at the start of January as well as a 5:07 1500. Next races are this Sunday, so should be able to take a big chunk of my times.

Anyone else used a plan like this for an extended period? Results? Ideas for improving it? Wondering how long I’ll keep improving on this.

Jogging? Jogging? Are you serious?

outkicker wrote:

5k race pace: 6:05. Tempo run pace: 6:40. Sounds reasonable.

BS this too. Tempo run pace should be about 30second slower PER KILOMETRE than 5k rac pace.

*race pace.

Otherwise it´s just too taxing workout for base phase. You are trying to deplete your intermediate fibers with some faster ones too with reasonable volume of tempo, about 40min is a good amount of time. The goal is not to build high amounts of lactate. That´s only for aerobic power work, which is exactly what OP is doing now by his "tempo" 5k´s.

asdfgh wrote:

*race pace.

Otherwise it´s just too taxing workout for base phase. You are trying to deplete your intermediate fibers with some faster ones too with reasonable volume of tempo, about 40min is a good amount of time. The goal is not to build high amounts of lactate. That´s only for aerobic power work, which is exactly what OP is doing now by his "tempo" 5k´s.

This is a bunch of rubbish. Intermediate fibers?? Do you make this crap up or plagiarize from somewhere else? I'll at least give you kudos for originality.

Whether you are doing a tempo run exactly as defined or not probably does not matter much. Your progress suggests that you were not doing much running to start with and as far as intensity is concerned, you are not doing anything now that you cannot recover from. In the short term, you will probably continue to improve and nothing in the training you list suggests you should not be able to stay healthy. Fitting more work into a week would allow you to realize greater results, but would also require you pay more attention to detail. The closer you hover around that red line, the more it matters whether your tempo run is actually a tempo run, your jogs are too fast or too slow, you are eating right, getting enough sleep, or watching the pollen count before you toe the line. If all you want to do is jog 5 days a week and run hard once, who cares if it is a true tempo or not. You should be able to recover from it and you should be able to get better. It depends what you want out of your plan.