A slightly artificial and labarotary like scenario I know but it helps frame a question that I am interested in.
If I am training for a 10K run in circa 2 months and run 21 miles per week: which approach is likely to give me a better time
1) 7 runs per week of 3 miles each at 7 minute mile pace or;
2) 3 runs per week of 7 miles at 8 minute mile pace.
I know the answer is that a good mix of runs is best but.. if anyone cares to submit a view on which extreme is most beneficial I should be most interested.
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What about long runs
im sooooo slow you see
if 7:00m/m was faster than race pace then maybe it's might have something, but ... I'm not sure what this answers, to be honest.
what was the point of the question, Dave?
Cant do more than 11 min miles, and thats fast
DOH
Speedwork tomorrow, at altitude(giving blood)
I also seem to remember some of the turn of the century marathon runners (they would have ran 2H40 or so) training no more than 3 miles a day.
good luck with the speedwork tomorrow, you can do it.
blurred hippo moving at unimaginable speed.
point taken - I think I was trying to say it depends how fast you are running those 3 miles in relation to your fitness level.
PS. were they really running 2:40 at the turn of the century? the only thing I can remember is that the 1939 Olympic marathon was won in approx. 2:30. had they only taken off 10 mins. in 40 years?
bugger the RW prog, i CANNOT do mile reps
Ill be down a pin of blood, oh happy excuse
oh and I'll remind of what you just said when you're sailing through your mile reps in a month's time. ;-)
On a separate note, and for a completely different approach, I also used to know a runner (originally from Ethiopia) who trained for the marathon in this fashion (his name was Alexander Rachide):
Wedn. 26 miles tempo ; Sun. Marathon (race)
He'd do about 20 marathons a year (that was in the late eighties this), all under 2H20! (and in the process, pocket a fair amount of dosh).
Hard to believe, and yet... so talk of two extremely different approaches to training here! (and both of which seem to work pretty well too!!!)
26 miles tempo run is surely the same as racing a marathon, so basically he was racing a marathon twice a week for half the year!
as you say, there's no hard and fast rules and a huge spectrum of possible approaches.
I don't think I'll be trying to emulate Rachide in any great hurry!
I don't think the spectrum is that huge though(for instance I don't believe you can feature on the marathon at world class level (say 2h06 men; under 2h19 women) with less than approx. 120 miles a week.
I know Frank Horwill likes to claim so, but looking at the rankings this year, I don't believe anyone in the top 20 runs any less than that (or at least not during their marathon preparation...)
silly question
i WILL
But id like it to be less painful than last year
i thought the long runs were what couted
sorry, ill go
Totally changing subject here but what sort of shoes do proper athletes like yourself wear for such high mileage training. Do you (as in you and others running very fast) go for something with a lot of cushioning or do you run in something lighter.
you may be best to treat the halves as part of the build-up rather than all-out races.
my first half is in two weeks
ive told my father(Youre only a fun runner)
not to expect owt
PS. why do all your messages look like haikus? am I missing something?
Nike Pegasus for jogs, racers (Air Streak Vengeance at the moment) for speed work and tempo runs; spikes for cross-country and Walsh racers for multi-terrain and fell races... As to proper athletes, they come in two categories: the slower ones (still much faster than me by any standard) run in whatever their sponsors will send them (and it is sometimes totally inappropriate). The fast ones just get sent everything in the range, and only wear what they fancy...
God, I knew i was good at words,
but ive missed this one
Erm, cant control PC?
these are for ME
(wont tell you what he said about my consultant post)
FUME
ps - do they still have school sports day parents races - if so do you think they would do a 10k rather than 100m ?
oh yes, they most certainly do still have parents sports day races and you can't imagine the competitiveness over those 100m. the number of strains and pulls is pretty awesome as well as overweight dads launch into all out sprints for the first time in years.
I'm not joining in until they do a 10K at least.
Thanks for the thought provoking responses and historical references.
Achillies - you asked what the point of the question was - well with the new year upon us and enthusiasm abounding I have found it fairly easy to get 1 run a day in (including gym treadmill) - however have been keeping it fairly short - maybe because of being knackered from previous day - but in compensation I have been trying to run more quickly.
I was howver worried about not doing a "longer run" given various training schedules, on the other hand I was also concious that if I built in more lenghty runs I would lose motivation - pathetic I know but thanks for your thoughts - I will of course endeavour to have a mixed training week.
PS On the topic of running shoes - I bought a pair recently from a specialist running shop (first time) how impressed was I when after putting me on the treadmill the guy spotted virtually immediately that I had one leg slighlty shorter than the other (c. 1cm) - Brilliant - obviously after a demonstration of such expertise I bought the contents of the shop!