Building My Base - HADD Training

Flying Pigs wrote:

What is making your cardio system work so hard if your legs aren't the culprit? Do you flap your arms when you run?

As I stated before, I was just going off an anecdote. It never made sense to me either, but that's what I have heard out of people's mouths.

Just take it easy these next few days ( < 145 HR most of the time and strides only if you feel exceptionally good at the end of a run). The end of this week, or this weekend, do some LT intervals if you *feel* eager to do it. But overall, play it safe with the sickness/antibiotics until you start feeling eager for more training.

Let me know how you feel come Saturday or Sunday.

Actually I think you should do a 2400m test this weekend!

Hadd training can be super effective, even if you thought you were in decent shape. I first did a couple Hadd cycles in 2004, and have done cycles again at different times since. That first time I did 14 weeks with 3 of the 2400 meter repeat tests. Below are my results:

Results (Paces)

Date 140 150 160 170 180

5/17/2004 9:40 8:30 7:34 6:53 6:02

6/28/2004 8:48 7:43 7:13 6:33 5:56

8/9/2004 8:02 7:27 6:58 6:20 5:47

After the 8/9 test I did a more formal marathon plan for CIM that fall and ran 3:03, and improvement from 3:12. I did another cycle in 2005 and ran 2:52. Eventually, by utilizing a Hadd base cycle and then more tailored marathon training, I got down to 2:39. My first marathon was 3:26.

I'm pushing 40 now, and am trying Hadd for the first time since 2009 to see if I can make one more push under 2:40 next spring.

After going through the thread I thought I'd give a little more color. Keep in mind, this was just how I personally implemented it, and obviously everyone is different so I'm not saying this is the only way to do it.

I've always been very anal about running this the way that was indicated in "Joe's" training. What that meant to me is 2 times a week I ran for an hour at 160. Not working my way up to 160, but at 160 and no more. So a week for me looked like:

M: an hour at 160 (usually with a mile warm up and cool down). I'd hit 160 in the first mile and then stick there. I ALWAYS slowed as the run went on.

T: A recovery run under 140

W: A medium long run at 145max. When I started this would be 40 minutes, as I got more experienced this got upwards of 15 miles

TH: Same as Monday

F: Same as Tuesday

S: Long run, 145 max, upwards of 22 miles as I got more experienced but when I started it was definitely shorter. When I first started Hadd the first time I let this go to 150 the 2nd half of the run and slowly eliminated that.

S: A recovery run under 140

I never ran by mileage, except for maybe the long run, I always just ran by time. And once I got to where I felt comfortable I added doubles. In 2004 the highest mileage I got in a week was 75. But by 2007 I used this structure to hit 125 (which was too high for me, I learned).

My advice, do whatever you have to do to be able to hit the 160 ones for an hour. Prioritize those 2 each week as Hadd says (they are the work days). Then prioritize a weekly long run. Then once you're good with that, add the 145 day midweek. And then worry about

Unfortunately I am going to abandon training for a while. A lot of stuff in my personal life just caught up to me and I am not going to have the amount of time I want to have to train for a while. Thanks to everyone that followed along, especially the haddite for the encouragement , time, and help. May fast PRs come to you all!!!

Thanks again,

HADDrunner