I would do this on a weekly basis, for most of the years (1988-1996), during the December-January months:
Sunday: long run
Monday: intervals on the roads (snow on the track)
repeat 3, 4 or 5 mins, 1/2 or less recovery
Tuesday: recovery day
Wednesday: recovery day or tempo run, at 6:00-6:10 pace
4-5.5 miles
Thursday: 20x:40 (1 min recovery) at various paces
all fresh/relaxed in early December, then adding faster paced 40 second intervals to be ready to race at Millrose in early February
Friday: recovery day (2 runs)
Saturday: 2x2 miles, 3x2 miles, or 2x1.5 miles
this would start off running at 5:30 pace per mile, and working my way down to 4:45 pace by late January.
One note - most of this work was run at temps between 0 and 30 degrees, with hat, gloves, gore-tex ASICS suit, and wind chills lower. Not writing this to say wow, just that it was tough but made the workout times not comparable. It forced me to work hard, but not for time/distance.
examples: 1991
January 1 Tuesday 8x600 in 1:45 on the roads, running roughly 6:00 pace per mile with the job
total workout time 78 minutes
Jan 3 Thurs: 20x:35 (:35 rest), 11 degres, -9 wind chill
Jan 7 Mon 3 sets of 4x400 (200)[400], on the roads, 12 miles total
Jan 9 Wed 5 miles at 5:40 pace, 10.5 miles total run
Jan 10 Thurs 20x:35 (:35)
Jan 12 Sat 90 minutes slow
total mileage for the week -56.0
Jan 14 Mon 3 sets of 3x400(200)[400] on roads
Jan 17 Thu 20x:35(:30)
Jan 28 Mon 3xmile 4:29 (4 minutes rest)
Feb 1 Fri 8:0 something for 3k, 9th place
Feb 3 Sun 4:05.43 at Fairfax, 4th place
Feb 18 Mon 6x200 at :35 (100)[400] 2x400(200) 59 6x200 :35
Feb 20 Wed 2x400 :60 5x200 :34 2x400 :61, :59
Feb 23 Sat 3000m, Notre Dame invite, 7:57.42 1st
was supposed to run the mile at 64/65 pace, and throw in a surge at the pace I had been training at. Ran 4:18 for the mile, then ran 61-62-31 to win. 57.0 miles for the week.
Feb 25 Mon 90 minutes in 22 degrees, 7 degrees wind chill
Feb 26 - flight to LA
Feb 27 - 31 mins am / 21 mins pm
Feb 28 thurs - 3x800 2:08, 2:15, 2:15
Mar 1 Fri, 30 mins at 6:20 pace, 10x100
Mar 2 Sat 2 miles am / 3 miles and 10x100 pm
Mar 3 Sun Rogaine 5k, LA - 13:43.04 2nd
4:22-4:29-4:22 (note the 2:15 800 pace from Thrusday workout kicked in)
Key - you don't always have to run fast in training, to run fast in races. Took me 4 years after college to figure that out, and really 7 years after college before I believed it.
js