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Sub 1hr 40 mins HM
HK Pink Lady
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I am in my late 40s, and have a HM PB of 1hr 42 mins on a hilly route. I want to target sub 1hr 40 mins on a similarly hilly route just after Christmas. My on-line coach said I needed to ramp my current off-season training of some 50K/week to around 70K "2-3 weeks" in the run up to the race. He also said that Xmas was a key training time (this would be around 2 weeks prior to the race) - and I was planning a family get-away - would this affect my chances of a good run??!
70K does seem rather a lot - I don't think I have ever run that much in a week, and not sure if it is necessary. I would think long tempos and interval training, and decent long runs of 18-20K are sufficient. Grateful for any ideas.
I am happy to train 5x week including as program something like this:
Sunday long run (16-20k)/ Monday recovery run (6K) / Tuesday mid-pace mid-distance run (12K) / Thursday speed work and some even paced run (total 14K) / Saturday mid-pace hilly run (7-8K)
Plus some pilates and strength work...otherwise running would pretty much take up to much time, family won't be pleased!
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Hi HKPL, Not sure that I can advise you specifically, but from my own experience, my best HM's have been off much lower mileage, running just 3 - 4 times per week, but apart from the recovery run, I made every run count (which means getting good rest!)
Basically, per week I ran:
one LSR (about 16-24k, so occasionally I ran slightly over distance)
one very short recovery run (5k),
one flat 'interval' session, (intervals were .5 miles or 1 miles each total of 3 - 6 miles at pace, but not completely flat out, with 400 metre rests)
one hill repeats (.5 mile warm up, then up to 10 x 300 metres up hill, with slow jog down. Again, the intervals were not necessarily flat out, but they were an effort -and I didn't start with 10!!!
)
As you can guess, I didn't start by running all those intervals, but I built them up gradually, so that I was doing that sort of weekly run for the last four weeks of training prior to taper.
I also did Pilates to keep the core strength up.
Hope that helps, or maybe gives you some ideas to think about.
Good luck
But what do you think - have you had great results from them ?
And he's your coach. Tell him you want xmas off and ask for adapted plans. Do you pay him ?
Yes, tough coach. Yes, I pay him. And yes, don't agree with all that he suggests. Perhaps I should communicate better with him - I only achieved a 1s PB on my 10K Y-o-Y, so that is not really an improvement!
Juggler, I like what you said - I have always intended to do hill reps, but never got round to it. I suppose I could make my long runs longer too - It is very hilly here in HK and around where I live, save for one 4K flat route, which I do a few loops if I want flat running - dead boring though!
Pretty hot training here - 29 degrees and 80% humidity - enough to toughen anyone up eh! I ran a 2 x4K fast run this morning, and boy, found it hard. Count yourselves lucky in the UK to have a temperate climate!
Agree with Cougie. Back him or sack him. You need to trust in your coach or at least talk to him about your concerns.