Bruce Denton. wrote:
NotAustin18,
I hope training goes great for your marathon in April! I'm not familiar with Frank's training method you mentioned. Sounds solid, I'm sure some of those runs were harder than just easy pace though right?
Thanks man. Here is how Frank Trained:
1) brain dead consistency (his main thing)
2) 2 speed workouts a week (Tuesday and Thursday) or 1 if racing
3) 2 hour or 20 mile long run every Sunday, if feeling good would get last 3-6 miles at 5:00 pace.
4) run about 20 miles a day, every day
5) run twice a day everyday except Sunday
6) except for speed work and the end of a long run if feeling good, everything was done at an easy conversational pace (for Frank 7:00 pace)
Frank's speed workouts were 2-3 miles of 5k or faster work. He'd do 8-12 x 400 with 200 jog rest, sometimes as short as 100m rest with the 400s in 60-65. The 2nd workout was 4-6 x 800 in as fast as 205 with a 400m jog rest, sometimes he would do 4x1200m with 600m jog rest and do the 1200s in 3:06-3:12. Frank's idea was that speed work should be really intense, if someone pointed a gun at his head and told him to run an extra interval at the same pace after the workout he'd say "shoot me". He also believed in doing the same thing year round, "brain dead consistency" as he said. His speed workouts were short enough that he could do them year round and be consistent, and it also allowed him to race well on the track. (13:26 5k, 12:52 3 mile, 27:45 10k) And the speed work also made him good at doing surges in the marathon. One time they were at 5:00 pace around mid race and Frank threw in a 4:37 mile, broke everyone. Also, the speed work made marathon pace easy. The best way to explain it, he trained like a 5k runner doing a marathoner's mileage.