Having garnered a wealth of knowledge from these excellent forums I have a carcass of a problem which I need help stripping bare.
I am 40, male, 13 1/2 stone and am training for the Norwich half in November. I have run this several times before most recently last year in just over 1 hour 34. My aim is to try to get it down to 1:31 or below. I have been running around 25-30 miles regularly for around 3 months at an easy ( 8.30 - 9.00 mm pace) and have started the my asics plan below. My instinct however is that the fast runs are too quick too soon and that running 11 miles 3 weeks in a row at 6.55mm pace is a recipe for injury. I am in two minds as to whether to continue this plan - as illustrated by the fact that instead of doing 5.5 miles fast yesterday i did a 10k tempo 1 mile easy 4 miles at 7mm pace and 1.21 miles cooldown. What do others feel about the pacing of this plan? Would i be better with lots of easy pace mileage including an lsr that goes up to around 15 miles then tapers down just before the race coupled with a weekly tempo increasing in mileage every couple of weeks? Or does this repeated 11 mile run at quick pace make sense? Humble thanks for all views/ carcass stripping.
3mi Jog 9:25 min/mile 11 5.5mi Fast 7:15–6:55 12 Rest 13 3mi Jog 9:25 min/mile 14 Rest 15 5.5mi Fast 7:13–6:54 16 Rest 17 3mi Jog 9:23 min/mile 18 5.5mi Fast 7:13–6:54 19 Rest 20 5.5mi Fast 7:13–6:52 21 Rest 22 11mi Comfortable 8:30–7:37 23 Rest 24 3mi Jog 9:22 min/mile 25 5.5mi Fast 7:11–6:52 26 Rest 27 5.5mi Fast 7:11–6:52 28 Rest 29 11mi Comfortable 8:27–7:35 30 September 2012 Rest
October 2012 Running with My ASICS
my.asics.co.uk MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFridaySaturdaySunday 1 October 2012 3mi Jog 9:20 min/mile 2 5.5mi Fast 7:10–6:50 3 Rest 4 5.5mi Fast 7:10–6:50 5 Rest 6 11mi Comfortable 8:25–7:32 7 Rest Going Further
During this phase you will continue the high pace training done in the last phase but you'll extend the distance the pace must be maintained for. This phase will help to build your leg strength and stamina.
8 Rest 9 3mi Jog 9:18 min/mile 10 8.5mi Build-up 7:32–6:49 11 Rest 12 3mi Jog 9:17 min/mile 13 8.5mi Build-up 7:31–6:49 14 Rest 15 Rest 16 3mi Jog 9:17 min/mile 17 8.5mi Fast 7:18–7:06 18 Rest 19 3mi Jog 9:15 min/mile 20 8.5mi Fast 7:18–7:05 21 Rest Race simulation
This phase has practical training for the race. You should try to complete the fast paced sessions wearing the gear you intend to use on race day. This phase will prepare specifically for the physical and mental demands of race day.
22 Rest 23 3mi Jog 9:14 min/mile 24 8.5mi Fast 7:16–7:05 25 Rest 26 3mi Jog 9:14 min/mile 27 11mi Pace 6:55 min/mile 28 Rest 29 Rest 30 3mi Jog 9:12 min/mile 31 October 2012 8.5mi Fast 7:15–7:03 1 November 2012 Rest 2 3mi Jog 9:12 min/m
Comments
Sorry for the ungainly appearance but the 11 mile run appears at 27th October, 3rd and 10th November on the schedule. All at 6.55 pace.
Sorry, *does not compute*... what target did you put in to get these figures? 1:31 HM is 6:57/m, so they want you to be able to run 11 miles at target pace??
Oh dear, they're serious. I just told them I can run a HM in 1:13 but I'd like to run1:12. They want me to run 12.5 miles on consecutive Sundays, 2 and 3 weeks out from the race, @ 5:36 a mile.
Here's my favourite bit though - I'm being given the option of basing my training plan on either 2,3 or 4 days per week. Genius!
Asics Ashit training plan
Weekender - scrap that plan altogether, it really is absolute codswallop. You're definitely along the right lines with lots of easy miles, going over race distance and running a few tempo runs. Practising race pace is a good idea, especially getting closer to race day, but if your target is a realistic one there is no way in the world you can knock out race pace and virtually race distance in the middle of training. Best to keep this sort of thing to a weekly tempo run, maybe build from 4 miles to 6/7 over a few weeks.
And if I tell it I want to run a marathon in 2.55 it tells me to do 22 miles at 6.50m/m. And to peak at all of 35mpw. Very Furman.
What is the point of the "3 mile jog at 9:17 mpm"?
I am grateful to all. I'll consign that plan to the bin marked "wtf" and carry on with the more logical training runs.