1) Balance - you'll see this theme in most all advice that I give
2) Train slow to race fast - Whether it be a 5k or the marathon, these events are mostly aerobic endurance events. The 5k is roughly 80-85% aerobic and the marathon 99%. So this means a healthy dose of aerobic running will greatly improve performance at any of the distances between them. Aerobic training is mostly easy running. For a continuous runner, that's roughly current fitness marathon pace (CFMP) + 9% or slower and for a run/walker that's roughly current fitness marathon pace (CFMP) + 2 minutes. In both these cases, the majority of the running will be slow and easy. I typically schedule my runners for about 80% of the training to be at this slow endurance pace or even slower (and the other 20% is hard). You might wonder why CFMP + 9% for continuous and CFMP + 2 min for run/walk. I'll use an example of a 5:15 marathon runner to explain:
Let's say there are two runners. One chooses to use run/walk and the other continuous. Their current fitness is the same: a 5:15 marathon. For the continuous runner, I would schedule their long easy run pace to be 12:51 (as seen on the lower chart). That's roughly 7% slower than their marathon pace (a 12:00 min/mile). Now let's look at the run/walker. They are going to do 60/30 run/walk for a 12:00 min/mile marathon pace at 10:40/16:00. The Galloway long run recommendation is to add 2 minutes to the CFMP (12+2=14). He also says to maintain the same walking pace and the same intervals. Now here's the magic. If you maintain the same walking pace and interval durations, there is only one variable left: run pace. So in order to achieve the 14:00 min/mile Galloway LR pace, you have to slow down the run. Now where does this 60/30 with 16:00 min walk pace end up to average 14:00. Well, that's a 13:10 min/mile run. Why is that important? That just so happens to fall into the same easy zone as the continuous runner. If you look back down the chart you can see the continuous runner's easy is 12:51 to 14:11. The run/walk run pace is 13:10 which falls into that easy zone. Therefore, the continuous runner and run/walker are reaping similar benefits in the training. They are both eliciting endurance physiological responses that will help produce countless benefits to make them a faster runner. Here's the key point- could they accomplish a workout faster than CFMP+9% or CFMP+2 min? Certainly. But they wouldn't necessarily be reaping the benefits of the adaptation to endurance pacing. They'd survive the training, but not necessarily thrive because of it.
3) Balance the training throughout the week - I view training weekly mileage like a wheel. A single 50 mile run on day 1 and no running on day 2-7 is not the same as doing 50 miles spread over 7 days. It doesn't have to be equal, but the more the training can be spread out over the week the more beneficial the gains. You'll spend less time recovering from runs and more time adapting because of them. That's why I try to slowly build my runners to more training days per week, but maybe less time spent training in any one given run. One might be concerned about doing less mileage in a single run, but this is overcome because you don't enter runs at near 100% freshness. Rather you come in with a cumulative fatigue that allows that longer run to simulate not miles 0 to x, but rather miles 10 to x.
4) Balance amongst the pacing - I'm a big proponent of eliciting lots of different benefits throughout the training cycle. And one of the best ways to do that is to vary the pacing. Sticking with the 80% easy and 20% hard concept. Within that 20% hard, you've got anything at or faster than CFMP. Now I take that 20% and split it up even more. Different physiologically relevant paces use the muscles differently, elicit different responses, require different recovery timeframes, etc. So if I can do a 5k workout one day and a HM workout another, I'm challenging the body differently. I'm allowing certain aspects of the physiological profile to recover during some runs while challenging other parts to adapt. Doing this helps optimize the benefits gained in a single training cycle. If I instead do a HM workout twice per week, I might be causing a recover only and no adaptation response by the body since it takes longer to recover than a few days from a HM type workout. This as
@Dis5150 mentioned that in her plan I wrote for her I challenge her with different paces other than Marathon Tempo or Long Run/Easy to elicit a response. I'm trying to make her faster simultaneously while training to make her be able to run further easier. I vary her pacing to challenge multiple aspects of her performance. Now as race day draws closer, the pace should tighten towards goal pace. So we might have started with 3k pacing in the beginning of the plan 16 weeks out, but if the goal race is a marathon, then we'll be working on marathon pace with only a few weeks to go. Specialize the body towards the goal race pace and distance.
5) Pay attention to the duration - As is the same for run/walk intervals so is the same across the board. I'm a big believer that the body views training as TIME x Current Fitness Relevant Pacing. The body only sees miles through the combination of these factors. So pace and time matter way more than miles. So I consider time first when writing a training plan. How long is the easy day going to be? 60 minutes of easy running, perfect! Now what's this person's easy pace? Got it, ok now pace X time and I've got the mileage to tell them. Mileage is the last piece to the puzzle for me. Take this example:
Two runners:
Runner A does 1 mile WU + 2 x 1.5 miles @ T w/ 90 second Rest + 1 mile CD (where WU and CD are slow easy pace and T is 60 min race pace)
Runner B does 2 mile WU + 2 x 3 miles @ T w/ 90 second Rest + 2 mile CD
Who did the more challenging workout? The WU, CD, and T paces are based on their physiological current fitness. So in essence they are the same, not the same between Runner A and B, but rather the body views them the same. But Runner B is running a total of 10 miles, whereas Runner A is running 5 miles. Runner B is doing 6 total miles of T and Runner A is doing 3 miles of T. Seems like the easy answer would be Runner B is doing the harder workout. But what if I told you that Runner A's and B's paces were the following:
Runner A: WU/CD = 14:00 min/mile and T = 10:00 min/mile
Runner B: WU/CD = 7:00 min/mile and T = 5:00 min/mile
Do the math and you find that both runners completed the same total duration of workout and same total time spent at T. They elicited the same exact benefits by running the same duration for the same relevant pace.
So when I write a training plan, I pay attention to the duration of the easy day, the duration of time spent at T or MP, or HMP, the duration of the long run, the duration of rest breaks, the duration of the total weekly training, etc.
Calendar says "winter", weather says "summer."
I do something very similar in my non-race season. This past summer, I started adding :10 to my run intervals each week. So, say I started at 1:00/:30 - week 1 I'd go to 1:10/:30, week 2 1:20/:30, week 3 1:30/:30, etc. Because it was summer in FL, I found I did have to increase my walk intervals, too, to avoid overheating, so eventually I was doing 3:30/1:00. I also paid no attention to speed: my only goal was to increase the amount of run time, no matter how slow that had to be to deal with the heat. But the benefit was still there: the longer run intervals gave me a big boost in endurance when fall finally showed up.
Wow, really? Are you new here or what? Because you just insulted dozens of people on this board. Smh
I think if you join in on the running thread or read some of the training journals you'll see lots of people who do have success with all kinds of different methods. It's why I love running so much. There is no single right way to do it.
