Thanks Igy.
Albany, I will send you a plan for your girlfriend if you tell me her most recent 5k time and she performs a 10:00 time trial. I do have to say if her 5k current 5k fitness is not at least 18:40 my program will not be aimed at sub 3 but simply a PR.
Brent Bowers
Bowers Percentage Running
yes, a short 30 35 mi nute run after a long run. I still do that..old habits die hard.
Always feel better afterwards and the next awkwards of form was minimum.
Another coach wrote:
What (other than being her boyfriend) qualifies you to coach her? It doesn't matter if you can break 3:00. What matters most is if you can separate the boyfriend aspect from the coach aspect. I am sure there are other coaches in your area that you can contact. Has she been coached by others to where she is? Do both of you and the relationship a favor and contact someone else.
What qualifies any of the "coaches" out there more than the boyfriend?
I wouldn't call myself a "coach" in the sense that most people think of, but I've coached my gf, now wife, successfully. With good results, a good relationship. Collegiate level Nordic skiing to be specific.
I'd argue that the boyfriend would know her better than any arm chair coach would.
I agree she needs to be able to run a faster 5K. I do not see any suggestions for Yasso 10 x 800s aiming for sub 3:00. That was a key workout for me when I did that at age 58 (1 min or 90 sec recovery). Once in a while for variety I'd do 20 x 400m with a 100m jog and finish up around 10K total run at a sub 7 pace. Besides total miles I also began counting the number of sub 7 min miles accumulated per week which included short intervals, short tempos and longer stuff up to 8-10. In my good weeks I was between 15 and 20 with my highest at 26 so I looking back I guess my focus was more on quality then quantity. I estimated if I was fit enough to accumulate 26 sub 7 min miles in a week I'd be close to 3 hr shape. I'm 63 now and my current 5K is the same as your girlfriend's. I've done 3 long races this spring and can still ave sub 1 hr 30 min for a half but sub 3 for a full seems out of reach. Miles are up (I'm retired now) but quality is down. One other point- makes a big difference for me to do the intervals and some of the tempo on softer surfaces. I have access to artificial turf.
Canova-Ks are a workout where one alternates between half-marathon pace (HMP) and marathon pace (MP) every 1k continuously for some total Xk.
To break it up mentally, I think of running X/2 "sets" of HMP+MP Ks; so 14k Canova-Ks is actually 7 sets of 1k@HMP and 1k@MP. One of the points of this workout is to try to get your heart rate between HMP and MP closer in some sense, so you can get used to running longer at (marginally, but importantly) faster speeds.
I recommend all Renato Canova threads in the letsrun megathread! Guy's a genius.
David S. Pumpkins wrote:
Broadly speaking, running 200m repeats to train for a marathon is damn near useless IMO.
That certainly true if you only want to run 3 hours. A 3 hour marathon is slow!