Lurker > BreezyExcursion

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gm

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gm

slash has nothing to offer aside from "fitting in better with gnr" than significantly more talented guitarists that also played with gnr

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gm

Njolk posted...

@BreezyExcursion

Another question: I live at 7500ft and aside from the track the flattest areas here have 100ft/mile

Does this factor into my training at all? Am I setting goals that are better suited for sea level and need to dial back my numbers?

In fact, how does vertical feet factor into training in general? I usually clock 4-6k ft each week on top of this 50mi, so it's not all running and I wonder what a purely running week would feel like

-There is definitely a difference between altitude and sea level, but since you live at altitude it's not as big of a deal.
-IE someone coming up from Sea Level and trying to train/race in the mountains would have a very tough time. For someone used to it, it's a much smaller difference, like 1-3sec per mile. The lack of oxygen in the air is slightly offset by less wind resistance. Short sprints are actually faster at altitude because of this.
-You'll notice that a lot of pro endurance athletes will train in places like Boulder and Flagstaff, because their body gets used to less oxygen, and then they feel great when they go back down to sea level. So while I'm saying you're not affected, you will have an advantage if you ever decide to travel for a race elsewhere.
-As long as your heart rate is not going down to walking levels when you're climbing, it should be pretty much fine, some would even argue this is a good thing. I'd count the mileage "as-is" even if you're going super slow up something steep sometimes. I'd suggest doing your tempos on something fully runnable though.


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gm

in news for myself i raced a 10miler on sunday. i shouldnt have a problem running under 1:30 for my half marathon.


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gm

Njolk posted...

Wow @BreezyExcursion thank you so much, you answered so many other questions too!

My revised plan: drop to 45mpw, add an interval day (thinking 6x800) and a 3 mile tempo within a other day

- Should I strive to increase these distances during this training block? Or will naturally doing them faster be enough?

- how soon to reach 6:00 mile? What's a realistic goal for me to shoot for as an endurance athlete? I suppose a major goal of mine would be a 3hour marathon in the next few years

Your plan sounds good.

As you get more fit, do the workouts faster rather than more reps/more miles. If you feel like you're not getting worked enough, you can generally increase weekly mileage or add a 3rd speed session for the week.

Hard for me to tell what your potential is at this point, but a 6:00 mile seems like a good near-term goal for you, and you're probably not too far away. Maybe try a time trial after 2 or 3 more workouts. Can do the time trial in place of your workout day.


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gm

Njolk posted...

I have clocked 50miles/wk all summer but don't do any speed work, pretty much just do 9:00 everywhere I go

I did my first session of 3x mile repeats and got 6:55, 7:00, 7:05 which I was kind of disappointed by

How should I restructure my training to work on speed? Drop miles? 2-3 sessions/wk of all kinds? Can I do only mile repeats or do I have to mix it up?

I very much enjoy helping with these things, so long post!

First off, don't be discouraged. A couple months at 50mi/week is a fantastic base, and the first speed session after an exclusively easy mileage base is almost guaranteed to be rough since your body simply isn't used to running that fast. Running lots of miles slow does not make you fast, but what it DOES do is give you lots of capability to do work that WILL make you fast.

Now that you have run faster, and have a solid aerobic base to draw from, you are very likely to see some serious gains very quickly with some speedwork. If you repeat this same exact session you did in 4 or 5 days, you'll already feel significantly more comfortable than you did this first time.

So my advice:

You do want to be coming into quality/speed sessions feeling fresh. Cutting mileage a bit can help, but that can just mean 1-2 miles less on the day before a workout. IE if you're doing 50mpw now, you can definitely do effective speedwork at 45mpw. If you are completely wrecking yourself where you feel you need to drop down to 35 or 40, you're probably overreaching.

Workouts The length of the intervals in a speed workout doesn't actually matter too much. The real factors are a combination of overall volume (IE 20x400m would be 5 miles of work, that's plenty), speed of rep (Mile pace is intense. Marathon, not really), and rest duration (Are you doing short rests to stress endurance, or longer rests to stress speed?)

That being said, I'd recommend 2 speed sessions per week, targeting 2 different purposes.

Aerobic Threshold Workout
Aerobic Threshold is usually defined as the fastest pace you could sustain for 1 hour. It's also commonly regarded as the most "bang for buck" pace that you can run to make yourself faster. The goal of this workout is to run consistently at this faster pace, where your body is drawing energy from the aerobic system only. Going faster than this pace will beat you up for the same gain (unnecessary lactic acid production), going slower will beat you up more than an easy run, for not much more gain than an easy run.

Example Workout:
5x1000m/60 second rest @ 1hr pace

Again, stressing consistency. A mile or two into your 1hr max pace probably won't feel very difficult, but going faster ruins the purpose of the workout.

Anaerobic Workout
This is the traditional speed workout people think of. IE running very hard for short amounts of time. You simply can't run fast without training fast. Here we want to draw energy from the system that we're not doing a lot of training at, but still NEED for real speed.

Example workout:
10x400m/90 second rest @ Mile Pace

Here, it's fine to try and go as fast as you can. If you have 2 reps left and feel like you have a lot left in the tank, absolutely rip as a 400 8 seconds faster than your first couple.

Even someone who never races short distance should get at least a little bit of training here. (Ex: Running at 6:40/mi is much easier when your body knows what 5:40/mi feels like rather than if it only knows what 6:20/mi feels like)

If you want to add a 3rd session, my advice would be to tack on some light, fast, reps at the end of an easy mileage day. IE at the end of one of your usual easy runs, do something like 6x300m @ 3k-5k pace, rest as long as you like. The short rep and longer rest is for you to work on form and mechanics at a faster speed while you're not tired.

You should get a lot faster doing the 2 main workouts I prescribed... I'd put an easy day before the anaerobic day and an off day after it, if you have off days. The threshold day can be done between easy-moderate days with little strain.

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gm

bdubs > wingstop

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gm

If you thought hazing, sexual assault, racism, etc. was bad in officially recognized fraternities, think about how bad it is when the university/nationals are not watching...


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gm

she was also supposed to run the 200 and dropped out

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gm

i recently ran 18:23 within a 23:48 4 mile race hehe

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gm