New Training plan advise.

shels4ever

Hi all,
Well i've finished my training plan this week. Its gone ok with aapart from a few weeks missed with shin splints.

i've taken my 5 mile time down from 49:38 to just under 42 mins now. The aim of the next section of training is to increase stamina and speed. I would hope that by the end of october I will get my 5mile time down to 38 mins.

The plan i've come up with is as follows.

I'm doing up my training plan for the next 12 week now, mileage is to increase from 25 to 40 by the end of the 12 week cycle.

Day 1 Tempo run 5-6 miles (@8:15 / 8:30 pace) + Weight session
Day 2 Recovery run 3-4 miles (@9min mile)
Day 3 Easy run 5 miles
Day 4 Speedwork 6-8 miles 2 mile warmup 4 X 1200m(@ 7:45 pace) , 2 mile warm down. This will start with sets of 2 and increase to 4?

Day 5 recovery run 3-4 miles Weight session.
Day 6 Long run 8 - 13 miles (@ 8:45 to 9 mine pace)
Day 7 Rest Rest

If you have any suggestions please let me know.

Cheers

cfitz

Your speedwork is at a slower pace than your goal race pace (7:45 = 38:45). If you think you can achieve sub-38 you should run these a bit faster. Starting with 2 reps and eventually getting to 4 makes sense.

At the level you are currently at, you might find 2 miles warm up and warm down a bit much. Judge for yourself.

Your tempo run is almost at your current race pace. I would suggest starting off with only doing 2 miles in the middle of the run at this pace and eventually working it up to 4 miles within your run at this pace.

I would put a 90 minute cap on your long run for the next 12 weeks. I wouldn't recommend going beyond 70 minutes too often.

My advice seems to be decreasing your mileage though. But your program looks solid - if you can get through it without missing days you should make progress. You need to avoid things like shin splints, missing days training should be a very rare thing.

All the best with it!

shels4ever

Thanks for that , i'd set the pace for my speed work at that to start as i wouldnt manage a 38 5 mile yet, but would hope the speed work pace would get faster later in the cycle.

but maybe i'll change that. I feel at the moment that my speed is not too bad, its really stamina and weight thats the problem. i could manage a sub 3 min 800m that would prob be as fast as i could manage and would die after that( I found that the hard way on wed night)

This was the reason i set the miles a bit high was to try and speed up the weight loss too.

shels4ever

Ok well i've started this and started with 2 X 1200 m last night. Maybe ran the first one too hard too hard but felt ok .Will increase this to 3 the week after next. Its a hard circut so maybe I will drop them by 200m .

I was also reading a book, Some of suggestions would have been to have 2 speed work sessions a week . One longer one like my 1200m session and one to increase leg turnover( something that I need to do ) this would be maybe 6-8 X 100m at about 85% . Should I try to include this into my schedule also?