Anyone use McMillan Training ?

All

Just had a look at this guys pace calculator. At present am running 10k around 1:02 and looking to do a half in March next year around 1:55

Looking at the paces for training its saying my Stamina runs should be between 10:07 - 10:35 (which I am doing) and my long runs between 10:55 - 12:05, which is around 90 secs a miles slower than I am am currently doing them

I have always just ran as I wanted but looking to take it more seriously, but cant help thinking that my long runs are to slow at the pace he states - should I just have confidence in his plans and paces

Anyone use them to a degree of success ?

Comments

  • Yes, I use them and have far more confidence in Mcmillan than myself in coming up with the pacing. You will gain the benefits of the long slow run, without leaving yourself too knackered to properly run the midweek sessions.

    I  think there are many "but I can't run that slow" threads posted that you can trawl through

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    I have used them to some success. Rather than running all of my runs at a steady pace and struggling to get below 3.30 I now run my easy runs very easy meaning I have plenty of energy left to really go for it in my speed sessions. In the space of 18 months i'm now scraping under 3 hrs.

    My easy pace is somewhere between 8.30-9.15 min miles depending on how I feel on the day.
  • But your post doesn't make sense to me.  If you are running your long runs at 9:30 pace how is your 10k time 1:02?  Even just running at your long run pace (and not going a bit faster like I would expect in a race) you should be covering 10k in 57 or 58 minutes?  

    Sounds like your 10k pace must be horribly out of date.  

    I use McMillan for my paces and it does work.  Run at the correct paces, you will improve.  

  • It doesn't make sense to me either, because if you are doing your stamina runs (not sure what those are, but assume they are meant to be harder than LSRs) at 10:07-10:35 pace but your LSRs 90 secs/mile faster than the recommended 10:55+ pace, wouldn't that mean you are doing your LSRs faster than the stamina runs?

  • Yes Lit, the Stamina runs includes Mcmillan Tempo Runs / Intervals, Steady State runs and Cruise intervals. So 330 is seriously overcooking the Long Runs if a sensible figure was plugged into Mcmillan (but that is so often the start of the problem image)

  • Do you have a local Parkrun?  Do that on saturday, warm up properly, go into it a little rested, give it a really good go.  Then use that time to plug into the calculator.  As Also-ran says, if you're not starting with a sensible/in date race time you're going to struggle to find out what your actual paces should be.  

  • Well guys to be fair the 10k time is a rough estimate, I ran 6.3 Saturday before finding the calculator and used that time (which I never ran hard just cruised round) so I think really I need to measure a proper 10k distance and run it hard to get the correct 10k time. I really need to get a garmin to measure distances

    I see theres a new book out by him called You (only faster) goes into more detail than the basic calculator so may get that. My training has never been structured and just run most runs at same same pace !!

  • 330 or bust wrote:  I think really I need to measure a proper 10k distance and run it hard to get the correct 10k time. I really need to get a garmin to measure distances

    I imagine you really need to "race" an official 10K with others, not just run a hard one in training - the difference is a fair bit.  Or a parkrun.

  • DT19DT19 ✭✭✭

    Daeve is right. The mcmillan paces are training paces based on racing times. Try as you might in training, you will not achive a race quality time.

    If you want to step this up from dabbling to doing it properly then find a parkrun or some other kind of race, achieve a time and work from those.

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