How to train

[Raginglynx]

Hi!

I've been running since June 2009. My program has been a mix of running 2 interval exercises a week at around 5 km and in between that 3 runs in the aerobic zone at 7 km and 1 run at 11 km. That leaves 1 day a week off.

That has been my weekly program for more than a year.
When I started reading at this site I pretty soon realized it's ok to improve by intervals, but that you need a little time for recover and build up.

To give you some of my data (I can also hand over Garmin forerunner 50 data) I've run four races this year. I list them below.

March 10.5 km time: Something between 45 and 46 min
May 21 km time: 1:40:51
August 10 km time: 39:53
September 10 km time: 39:45

Thing is, I really want to reach below 35 min on 10 km.
If someone could help me with that I would be more than grateful.

Since I live in Sweden, now is the time where it gets really cold and no races are arranged. However, last year I ran at the snow and didn't slow down. But what I mean is - Should I take it easier at this time of years since there are no races?

How should I adapt to the sub 35 program at my individual point of view.
I'm used to running both at target heart rate and target pace.

Like I said before it's no problem for me to hand out garmin data with tempo, distance and heartrate.

Currently I'm in China. And where I am here most of the time I only have access to a treadmill with different programs. But I've researched and it seems I will also gain access to a 400 meters track in the future.

Today is my 6th day of the off-time program. Feels hard to go down in effort, but I try to convince myself it's for my own good

Maybe I should also tell you that I do a 500 bodyweight workout twice a weak. I didn't do that before, but believe me, that program feels really good when it comes to strengthen the legs - but also the whole body.

I would be grateful for any suggestion, both at my present situation, but also when I'm at home in Sweden and have access to everything possible.

regards,
Christian

[TheEd]

Hi and welcome to the forums Christian

first off .. you have achieved the sub 40 minute 10km off by the looks of it a little running which certainly shows talent but does not make achieving sub 35 any easier

what I would suggest to start with is to get used to the routine of the cycles and for the first cycle I would recommend the sub 40 minute 10 km program

http://www.time-to-run.com/training/10k/sub40.htm

to start. This way you know you capable of running a sub 40 but you adapt to the cycles without expecting too much so you able to build up towards the sub 35 minute schedule

there a few persons on the forums who will be in a similar position as you, all living in Sweden .. so it is a joint solution for this time of year

treadmills do become favourable

you mention you on the off training, am I to take it that you are training on the off training schedule on the site?

what I would like to see is what your week's training consists of currently and how it is balanced out

our program looks at Tuesday - Thursday - Sunday being the main days of training if Day1 starts on a Tuesday

you also mention a 1.40 half marathon time ... what distance in training did you run in preparation for this

OK .. over to you and the garmin data will make interesting reading

Cheers

TheEd

[Raginglynx]

Hi TheEd!

Thank you for the welcome and the very fast reply

You are right that I now am in the off time schedule you have on the site.
I'm currently at day 9 and have run for 50 minutes the last days at a heartrate around 140.

I ran around 35 km a week most of the year for the training to the Gothenburg half-marathon. The last two months I increased to 48 km/week.
Then I ran 8 km 3 days, 7 km 2 days, 10 km one day.

Last months before the race I also started doing 2 interval days each week.

How do you suggest I proceed, since I'm stuck with the treadmill here. Now I have around 1 week left of the "off time", then I go into the build-up phase. How should I handle that one on the treadmill?

How do you want me to hand you the garmin-data? How long back do you want it to go? I think I have from end of 2009. Of course a few days may be missing

[TheEd]

first off .. the garmin data .. the half marathon data will be interesting as will your event race data

then after a few sessions we should get some understanding of your range

what we need to determine for you is when you are able to race towards a sub 35 minute 10km .. when there are races to participate in

when these races are will determine our next steps, so continuing on the Off Training is fine and a plan towards the future races can be formulated once we know the dates

cheers

TheEd
ps.. what interval sessions were you doing previously?

[Raginglynx]

Hi!

I really wish I had the half-marathon data, but I forgot to save it after the race

What is my event race data? Is it from my 10k races or from my training?

actually I still haven't got any races planned next year at all since I maybe will work in China for 14 months from around March 2011. But in that case I will try to find some to run.

If I don't I will have to find a 10k route to do exercise races at

One of the intervals I have done was:

3 min warmup running at pace 4:30
then 1 min tempo interval at around 3:10-3:30 with 2 min resting pace in between.

This I do for around 7 km. In the end I do 5 min of slow pace.

The other one is the same distance but instead 4 min at 3:30-3:40 and 3-4 min of resting pace in between

thanks!

[TheEd]

ok the future data can be helpful

the interval sessions you shall be doing on this program will differ in that they will be more constructive towards pace judgement development and the rest shorter

this will provide good data to work from

TheEd

[Raginglynx]

Ok

It will be very interesting to get to know what you can get out of my data

I do have all other data. I think I did a half-marathon test race about a month before the real one that I have data from.

And if you need any other race data or exercise data I have it all.

It's only the half-marathon race data I didn't get

So shall I go on now with the off-training period?
For how many weeks?

I'm now at day 11 and have just moved up to 1 hr of running at around HR 140.

Thank you for your help
I'm really looking forward to the possible improvement!

[TheEd]

let's chat at the end of this off training period cycle to see where we can move to next

Day 14 is the last day

Cheers

TheEd

[Raginglynx]

Hi TheEd!

Now I've completed the two-week off training schedule.

Maybe I should add that I do the 500 bodyweight workout every third day too. Is that good for me? (I'm not allowed to post links yet, but you can google it if you want to see how the workout is composed)

I've done it for one and a half month and it feels like it strengthens the whole body.

The days I've done it on the off-training schedule is

day 2, 5, 8, 11, 14

How do you think I should proceed?
How should I hand you the garmin data? I tried to zip it and attach, but it seems to be too big

Thank you

Christian Schmeikal

[TheEd]

I have read a little about the 500 bodyweight workout and may give it some more attention when updating the Strength section of the site in the future

well we can build forward regarding the garmin data from next week .. provide the heart rates for the runs you do in your feedback

if you start on the training cycles now with the 2k and 1k session are you able to do these sessions as we can use this period as adaptation to the 10km schedule

what say you?

TheEd