Base training

Vito Andolini

My training has been a bit haphazard of late due to holiday's, an injury and a chest infection.
So with no real goal race on the horizon, I'm thinking of doing a bit of base training 8-12 weeks to leave me in good shape for next year,
What's people's experience of base training?
I did a 10 week phase last year all easy running but was told that was wrong, what workouts should be included?
How long should the phase be?
How many miles? I was topping out at 55 miles a week or so during the summer, I'm hitting around 40 or so currently
Thanks

average_runner

Vito Andolini wrote: »

My training has been a bit haphazard of late due to holiday's, an injury and a chest infection.
So with no real goal race on the horizon, I'm thinking of doing a bit of base training 8-12 weeks to leave me in good shape for next year,
What's people's experience of base training?
I did a 10 week phase last year all easy running but was told that was wrong, what workouts should be included?
How long should the phase be?
How many miles? I was topping out at 55 miles a week or so during the summer, I'm hitting around 40 or so currently
Thanks

Get a hold of Jack Daniels book.

It will ask you to do 4-5 easy runs a week for 6 weeks and then starts stage one of its cycle

Notwork Error

It's a common misconception that base training is all easy running, do that and in all likelihood, you'll start to feel stale. There are 100's of interpretations of how to optimally train during the base phase, I find it best to hit all paces from sprint to recovery and work all the systems. I will still run intervals of 150m to mile repeats and tempos but the recovery and intensity will be a lot more lenient than that of a specific training block. I also like to keep the tempo runs close to halfway between MPE and LT. Also incorporating strides at the end of some easy runs to work on turnover.

All of this is based around my interpretation of Summer of Malmo base training here and a from a few threads where Malmo talks about this:

http://www.bunnhill.com/BobHodge/rtp3.htm

Here's a good thread where Malmo talks about it:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=4051072

Effort and recovery are key. The base phase can be as Long as you want, I find 6-12weeks perfect for me but that's more because I like to race a lot than it being 'optimal'.

Any other questions on it and I'll try my best to answer for you man.

Myles Splitz

Summer of Malmo is an good reference point.

I posted this previously regarding base and was the approach I took for 5 weeks before starting proper sessions and seems to have set me up nicely

Mostly low intensity running but make sure to incorporate 2-3 per week of the following

- Progression runs (finishing no quicker than MP)
- Tempo miles - add to end of easy run with no significant duration
- Steady runs (about 20-30 sec per mile slower than MP)
- Strides
- Long Runs

Krusty_Clown

I've done Steve Magness 5k base training a couple of times, and have found it so good that I often felt I'd run a very strong marathon off the back of it (and have run quite a few PBs, over 5 miles, 10k and 10 mile distances). Obviously it's more ideally suited to someone who maxes out at 90-100mpw, but you could use the general structure with reduced mileage. It line's up well with the info provided by the other posters. Magness 5k Base Period

Vito Andolini

Thanks for the advice, some good reading in it. I'll try put something down on paper this weekend so I'll have some sort of plan to stick to,
Anyone ever seem to be starving all the time during a base period?