Longer base - benefits and cons

there are no cons, you will not peak early, just resist the urge to do workouts until september like you said.

Im actually doing the same thing. I started about 4 weeks ago and im just concentrating on building up my mileage until about June. Im not even doing any tempos until June. Im just gonna concentrate on putting in the miles and doing strides 3x per week. Im going from ~70 mpw to hopefully ~105 mpw so I just want to get thru this injury free. Best of luck man.

Lydiard would tell you that once you've done one sort of training for a while you'll have milked it for all its worth and should do something else. I'd consider having a small racing season in May, perhaps doing some hill reps or modest intervals, say some 200s with good recoveries, and finding 3-4 races. It doesn't matter what they are, 5-10k road races or an all-comers track meet will do fine, then have a down week and get back to building your base in June. Just a suggestion.

bump

Thanks HRE. Would that mean I should do some hill reps or 200s leading up to a mini racing season in May, or just start doing them when I start my 3-4 race block (If I even do this. I feel like I might want to just do a steady base with no racing)

I'm assuming here that cross country is your primary focus

so you're not looking to set the world on fire with the races. They're part of your cross country prep.

Just pulling dates out of the air, let's say you were going to race on May 10,17 and 24. I'd say, again, because you're not "serious" for these races, that about two weeks prior to racing I'd add some sort of faster stuff. Hills were always transitional for Lydiard so maybe in those two weeks I'd do 3 hill sessions, then maybe run a time trial at some distance that's in the range of what you'll be racing, all before beginning racing, then in the racing weeks do something like a fartlek session with kind of longer bursts, say 600-1000 meters and a second session of something faster, 200s or so and race on your third faster day.

Even if you decide not to race I'd suggest doing those kinds of runs, or something along those lines for maybe four weeks and then getting back to the distance work. It won't hurt you to do nothing but distance work between now and September but I think having a little time in there when you do some faster running will be beneficial for the reasons Arthur mentioned.

Now, if you want to go with "revised" Lydiard, as revised by Snell and you still don't want to race, have one weekly session in there with some sort of faster work. Peter told me that if he were doing it over again he'd do a weekly session of something like 10x300 or 10x400 in his base phase. You could just do some fartlek if you didn't want to get that formal. But it's all in keeping with the idea of stimulating physical systems that won't get too much stimulation from pure distance work. Oh and don't ask me what those systems are.

PS,

It dawned on me that I really don't know how much mileage you're planning to do in your base phase and I'm assuming you're at a reasonably high level for someone your age. Let's say I'm thinking of something at ABOUT 70 a week as a minimum. (I'll hedge on that in a later post if necessary.)

If you're lower than this I have a completely different point of view. In that case, I might just go with steady running and use the early phase, let's say now until early June, to build my mileage up noticeably, have a bit of break in June, then get back to about the level I was at before the break and just let the pace come down naturally.

PPS,

Seventy was just a number I grabbed because it seems like it's sort of in the middle of what lower mileage guys do and what higher mileage guys do. How you'd apply this idea depends a lot on how old you are, how long you've been running, what sort of mileage you've handled successfully, etc.

But generally, if you've been kind of a low mileage guy, however that's defined, I'd go with Plan B, i.e., the one where you use the early part of this time to build mileage and not worry about anything else. If you're planning to do a volume that you've already handled well for your base and are not looking to go higher I'd go with Plan A or Plan A1, i.e., either have a wee racing season or at least put in a tiny bit of faster running.

Wow thanks a lot HRE that really helps. I would never have though of doing that stuff.

As for mileage I have ran up to 90 mpw at my highest last summer, and average between 75 and 85 most of the season (except when building up, bringing it down, and down weeks). I'm a senior so I'm really looking forward to doing well my last season of cross country.

I'll definately play around with doing some faster stuff early on, even if I end up not racing. I'll also make sure that in June I'll go back to steady mileage and strides.

You made sense of all that! That's already an accomplishment. You should be able to handle 90-100 and still get a little faster work in.

I will say one more thing about having the wee racing season. Racing prepares you for racing better than anything else does, even if it's not specifically the kind of race you want to do well in. There's a kind of mental adaption you need to make to deal with the sort of adversity that races can bring and I don't think you can simulate that in training no matter what you do. Yes, you can over race and fry yourself for a bit but few of us get anywhere close to that point now days.

I am convinced that the mental side of this is by far the most important part. But it's really impossible to quantify the mental side so we ignore it and over focus on the physical side which is much more quantifiable.

Anyway, congratulations on figuring out what I wrote and good luck for your senior year.

miles is miles

HRE is correct in what he is suggesting, the systems that do not get worked by just using mileage are the high end aerobic system, the aerobic capacity system and the anearobic system.

Just doing mileage will benefit you but there is a cut off point where adaption is virtually non existent,also when you start hill or faster work injury is very high on the agenda as you will be changing your running form and using muscles and associated tendons and ligaments in a way you havent done for quite a while.

Even Lydiard only went high in mileage for a while, it depended on who he was coaching.

It does pay to keep all systems going apart from the anearobic capacity training, you might want to leave this stuff till much much later.

So doing small volume but good intensity training ie at your current pace for 5k, 3k ,1500m will keep you in touch with all your systems that count and will not come as such a shock to the body when you decide to bring more faster work in.

Just a thought.