Could someone please critique my training?

Bananaleaf

Hi all

I've been running fairly regularly for about 3yrs. Did just over 1,000km last yr and the year before.

My main focus for this year is my first marathon. DCM. For this I know that once the training for it begins, it will mean about 5days running each week.

Consistency has always been my weak point, so with that in mind I have been working on being more consistent since November of last year and have been doing well so far - going out at least 5 times per week and sometimes 6 times per week.

I would like to show you what my training for the past 3 weeks has been like (including my average km pace) I only started adding some speed work this week.

My main worry is that my pacings are all over the place. Recent times (that I know I could achieve) are: 5k - 27:50, 10k 59mins and 1/2 marathon - 2.16.

The past 3 weeks training has been:

week 1
Mon 7th 7km @6.34pace
Tues 8th 5km @6.36pace
Wed 9th 4km @7min pace
Thurs 10th 3km @5.47pace
Fri 11th REST
Sat 12th 5km @7.07pace
Sun 13th 10km @6.19pace

week 2
Mon 14th 8km @6.35pace
Tues 15th 5km @6.45pace
Wed 16th REST
Thurs 17th 9km @6.21pace
Fri 18th 5km @6.05pace
Sat 19th 5km @5.35pace
Sun 20th 12km @6.11pace

week 3
Mon 21st REST
Tues 22nd 5km @6.20pace
Wed 23rd 5 x 1kms @5min pace
Thurs 24th 3km @6.23pace
Friday 25th 2km @5.46pace
Sat 26th REST
Sun 27th 16km @7min pace

I know I should be doing a long run each week and that it should be slow. I also know that I should be doing some speed during the week but I don't know what pace the other 3 runs a week should be run at.

Should a recovery run be faster than the LSR? Should that be after the LSR or after the speed?

Sorry - I know this is long!
Thanks for reading

DukeOfDromada

Hi. Doing great getting out 5/6 times a week. That is the hardest thing to do and the consistency will pay off in time.

Keep the training simple and don't increase distance or intensity too quickly from week to week to avoid injury.

The long run on the Sunday should be slow. Conversational pace. Increase the distance by 1km each week and then every 5 weeks take a break by dropping the distance right down. Jumping from 12 to 16 can be too much.

Never do 2 hard days running back to back. The long run is a hard run.

Do the steady or interval run in the middle of the week. Increase the intensity and duration very slowly week to week. There is many options here that it gets very confusing. I would lean more towards the steady run. After a warm up run 20 mins at a pace where you are working reasonably hard. Not so hard that you are struggling to finish the 20 mins but reasonably hard that when the 20 mins is up you feel like you are still able to complete another km at that pace. To get the right pace takes trial and error until you figure it out.

Inbetween those 2 runs sprinkle in 3 or 4 25-30 min jogs all slow conversational pace.

Running comes from hips. Do core strength exercises to allow you to train and avoid injury. Join a Pilates class or do a few at home. The plank, side plank, squats, lunges and single leg balancing exercises are great.

And finally, look after your muscles. Get a sports massage, foam roll or stretch.

TFBubendorfer

I wouldn't worry at all about pace. My easy runs are all done at the same EFFORT level, and the pace can be all over the place, depending on how I'm feeling and what time of the day it is and if I ran late the day before and ... you get the picture. The pace doesn't matter, as long as the effort level is appropriate.

The one big thing I would question is the value of 2 or 3 km runs. It takes a while to get warmed up and only then will you settle into the effort and if you run for less than 20 minutes you don't ever get to that stage.

I think that unless you're a beginner, your runs should be at least 30 minutes long, otherwise you will gain very little from it. Running 5 times a week consistently is great but you still want to get values from those runs.

Bananaleaf

Thank you very much for your feedback - it is much appreciated.

@TFBubendorfer - first of all, thanks for taking the time to reply. The 3 and 2km runs are happening purely because I am also doing 3 evenings a week strength and conditioning on top of the running and I feel like I have to be running the 5/6 days so I run to gym and back. Timewise, I just can't fit any more than that in.

Once my gym membership expires (it runs in 6week cycles so I only have to wait another 3 weeks) I am going to reduce my membership to a once-a-week class in order to make more room for longer runs.

I like the idea of running according to EFFORT. I feel that is what I am doing right now as I don't concern myself with planning a pace or anything like that, I just run and I make a note afterwards of what the watch tells me I did, hence the 'average pace' numbers in my plan above.

Am also doing yoga once a week. Trying to cover all bases but can be hard to fit it all in.

@DukeOfDromada - thank you for taking the time to read my post and reply. I have a foam roller, but we are not as well acquainted as we should be! I will dust it off! I also have a really good book that has plans at the back which include not just suggested runs but also suggested stretches and s&c exercises to be done on certain days. I am going to add these to my weekly plans.

Thank you

rom

DukeOfDromada wrote: »

Never do 2 hard days running back to back. The long run is a hard run.

For someone starting off yes but have had the best results for a long tempo on Sat and Long run on Sunday. Rather than 2 days back to back I would be saying Matt Fitzgerald 80/20 rule makes more sence which is basically 20% of your training should be quality/speed which 80% easy.

I have found this a good tool in the past:
mcmillan calculator
https://www.mcmillanrunning.com/
1. Enter your half PB time(recent times that you know that you could achieve mean nothing really other than you should probably do a race to see) in 1 and 2
2. Click calculate my paces
3. Click on Training Paces from the right side menu.

Taking your half time 2:16* (though I have no idea what is your PB)

* You really need to run a half , 10M 10k to see where are at really.

Long run 6:40-7:25
Easy run 6:38-7:09
Rec run 7:15-7:46 (day after long run or speed work)

1k repeats 5:26-5:45

btw if your are doing 5x1k at 5min/k I bet your not easy jogging between intervals. If you can't easy jog off intervals that long your going too hard.

5x1k should be at around 5k pace.

The one thing is that "Recent times (that I know I could achieve) are" means nothing really and you need some actual race results to get recommended pace times. So do a 5k and come back i'd say.