Indoor/Winter Training plan for the mile

Anyone will burn out on that training plan. There’s no reason to do anything other than easy miles in the winter.

Is there too much quality in the winter? YES YES YES.

You're trying to do too much. Top end speed doesn't really need to be worked on if you're doing such strength workouts like the mile repeats and the tempo, strides and maybe making a few of them sprints is plenty. A few 200s (4-6 at MOST) after tempos is fine, but even in the winter stay off the track as much as possible. Get your tempos and fartleks in by feel within a reasonable range of a goal pace, and get your mileage up and consistent.

Long runs should be consistent. Also, you need a recovery day at minimum after them, and at least 2 days recovery in between 2 workouts. For example, in week 3 you have 200s on Monday right after a Sunday long run the previous week. Week 2 is frankly the worst, two workouts and a race, plus a post-race workout? I get running through the indoor season but good god you'll burn your athletes out.

Strides after easy days, maybe hill sprints would be OK. Making them their own double workout is kind of pointless.

Just my $0.02

I’ll offer my thoughts on the issue for the sake of discussion:

Shade77 wrote:

Top end speed doesn't really need to be worked on if you're doing such strength workouts like the mile repeats and the tempo, strides and maybe making a few of them sprints is fine.

To me it makes sense to work on both of these systems at the same time, because neither one is very specific to the mile race, and neither is likely to burn you out. The strength work is the most traditional workout for this type of the year and will help form a bridge from xc to track- it’s not run so as to be extremely taxing and the athletes should be able to recover quickly. The sprint work is short enough to avoid any buildup of lactic acid. While it does fatigue the nervous system, that won’t burn the athlete out as long as they have a couple of days without touching their speed again. The strides are a time to focus on form at about mile pace, while sprints are to work on speed (necessary for milers who might run down in 8 or 4x4).

I also don’t see where in the plan the post race workout is. Also as far as 2 workouts that week: I would interpret something like 9mi w/ 4mi fartlek to be a workout only very loosely, with a few (5-6) fast sections spread throughout the 4mi. Lastly, it’s an indoor mile race, not a 10k. I see no problem with a race once in 3 wks if it’s low pressure. Look at it this way- halting the workouts for a race is like peaking: exactly what you don’t want to do in the winter.

I do agree that I should try to work in a recovery day after long runs, but I still think that the quality is important. After xc milers need more than just easy running and aerobic development. Once you get into the season and start doing specific work you’ll make a lot more progress if you’ve also worked on your speed. Coming in from two extremes like this to meet at a higher degree of specificity will give a good foundation for middle distance racing in the spring and early summer. It seems like there are successful programs that run a much heavier indoor schedule than this.

Look up Arthur Lydiard. Need to build that aerobic base.