Long-Term Development Advice

You need to find a coach and a physical therapist.

Given your injuries you should cut back to 50 mpw. Do not run more until you have run at least 26 consecutive 40 to 50 mile weeks. That will pretty much rule out running more marathons before 2016.

I would say 1st off, make sure you do 4-6 strides after an easy run twice a week. Strides help with form. Better form means less injuries. Also, healthier you eat the faster you recover and the less likely you are to get injured. Also, make sure you get enough sleep and are well hydrated. It helps.

Do that and your injuries will cut down drastically or go away completely with a little luck.

As for the training, I'd say do 50-60 mpw. Run once a day 6 days a week. Long run of 12 miles on Saturday, move it to earlier in the week if you're racing Saturday. In base take 4 weeks to build up mileage, then do 3 weeks at 60 mpw of 8-12 mile runs followed by a week at 50 mpw with 6-10 mile runs and 12 mile run that Saturday. Then in speed phase, do a speed workout on Tuesdays. Easy days are 8-10 mile runs in speed phase. Speed workouts do 3-4 miles of volume at 5k/10k goal pace, can do intervals ranging from 200m up to 1600m reps. Be creative. For recover take 200m jog for 400m and shorter reps, any reps over 400m take a 400m jog. If racing, do your long run on Wednesday. If not racing, then Friday you have strength day. Strength day is a tempo ranging from 6-8km at threshold pace, so about your half marathon pace (base off your 10k lets say 1:20 so about 600-620 pace depending on the day), also strength day can instead be long reps like 6 x 1600m at threshold pace with 400m recovery jogs.

Do that and you will run fast. It will develop your 5k/10k ability very good. Then once you get under 16/34 in the 5k/10k respectively, you'll be ready to move up to the marathon and target a fast time perhaps sub 240.

Why does he need a coach? Many athletes train successfully without coaches. If he needs a coach, you should explain exactly why. We all know that private coaches are expensive and sometimes...well...there to make their living from naive runners.Second, why are you recommending a PT? Are you a doctor? Are you qualified to prescribe physical therapy?When you tell someone who is looking for advice to "do something," you need to say WHY...

(_*Yibp%RS* wrote:

You need to find a coach and a physical therapist.

Given your injuries you should cut back to 50 mpw. Do not run more until you have run at least 26 consecutive 40 to 50 mile weeks. That will pretty much rule out running more marathons before 2016.

Thanks for the replies so far.

Writing out my running and injury history definitely confirmed my suspicion I've had that I'm pushing it too hard. Why am I running 70 mpw? I now agree that I should back off the mileage for the time being. I'm comfortable doing singles for 50-60 mpw but am not opposed to doubles even at that mileage.

My long runs have been in the 15-17 range. I'm comfortable with LRs being 25% of weekly mileage and have tried to stick to that per the recommendation of Daniels and others.

The marathon can be a bitch. I'd advise staying away for now, if only because it's advice I wish I would've respected a few years ago myself.

lolzzek wrote:

Thanks for the replies so far.

Writing out my running and injury history definitely confirmed my suspicion I've had that I'm pushing it too hard. Why am I running 70 mpw? I now agree that I should back off the mileage for the time being. I'm comfortable doing singles for 50-60 mpw but am not opposed to doubles even at that mileage.

My long runs have been in the 15-17 range. I'm comfortable with LRs being 25% of weekly mileage and have tried to stick to that per the recommendation of Daniels and others.

I think a long run too long is taxing. For me, 14 or more mile long run is very taxing. 12 mile long runs I can do twice a week during base to no ill effects whatsoever. Getting 8-12 mile each run, to me, is better than going too much on the long run. Of course, in marathon training you need a longer long run than 12 miles, but with a 5k/10k focus 12 mile long run is plenty.

When in doubt, err on the side of doing too little. It's better to under train consistently for many years than to over train for even 1 season, under trained athletes continue to improve. Over trained athletes improve fast for a time then stop and get burnt out and end up slower in the long term.

You seem pretty injury prone. Id find the range of mileage where you know you won't get hurt, and be as consistent as you can there.

He needs a coach because his history shows he is way to impulsive and that his own choices lead to injuries.

Since he was talking about long term development and he has never managed to train for a long stretch, he needs to plan ahead with a coach who has done this type of thing before and to be ready to get help from a physical therapist.

He needs a physical therapist because I'm betting he won't get a coach or won't bother to find/pay for a good one.

bro science wrote:

You seem pretty injury prone. Id find the range of mileage where you know you won't get hurt, and be as consistent as you can there.

This!

Do you have a goal race/distance that you would like to train for? Do you have a sense of your mix of leg-speed vs. endurance for a "preferred" race distance (e.g., was the 800/1600/3200/5000 your best distance in HS)? The distance you train for will determine how much speed work vs. endurance you will include in your training plan. For example, the 800m is about 50% anaerobic and 50% aerobic.

The marathon is an "easy" (= well defined goal) to set: Pick a big race 6 months out to train for and back-track from there. During your training you can fit in shorter racing distances. If you want to train for a marathon as your focus, then get healthy and do this. This is very common for most recreational runners, and there's nothing wrong with this.

If you want to train for a shorter distance (e.g., 10k), then you should still consider a 6 month periodization leading up to a goal race and follow a training plan for that race distance. One basic idea is to set up a training plan with a base phase, pre-competitive phase, a competitive phase, and a taper to a peak race(s). You're base phase may be open-ended until you get healthy and can handle a base level of mileage, then you can switch to a pre-competitive phase of speedwork before your first serious race, and go from there. If you are injury prone, or you can't handle a lot of mileage, then you may want to prioritize a shorter race distance than the marathon.

"Prescribe a PT" ?

Physical therapy is direct acces in a lot of places. I would go to a PT focusing on sports population before I went to a GP for running injury sny day.