37.30 Program

[RobS]

Hi TheEd,

I hope that you are well.

I wanted to wait till I had completed most of a cycle before reporting back.

Since my last post I have reviewed my plan and availability along with the normal 10k plan and have asked myself what I want to achieve and the purpose of following a specific plan and therefore decided it is better to follow as close as possible to it (after all what's the point in following a plan created by an expert if you're just going to create your own anyway). I will still be running AM and PM sometimes (easy days) but will aim to start on a Tuesday advised and do the main sessions and recovery on the set days E.g. 2k session on day 3.

All that being said I pleased to tell you that the session have been good, tough but good to get back to some serious training.

• The 2k session - I only completed 2 laps, not due to fatigue but rather time commitments, pace was good, a little faster than intended around 8 mins.
  
• 1k session  - Completed all 6 of these roughly 3.55-4.00, again slightly quicker than intended but felt nice and controlled (the last 1 was tough).
  
• 5k paced run - I mistakenly forgot to check the advised time on this and I knew you had mentioned not running it too fast, I had in my head 20 mins that I had put down so thought drop it to 21 - This was a mistake as although I did just manage the 21 the last 2-3k were very tough and ran pretty much at top race pace, with the last 1k just holding on - Lesson learnt!
  
• 400s - Completed just this morning and was nice and controlled throughout, hit the 90 second mark perfectly. Tiring slightly towards the end which I put down to lack of recent pace training rather than overdoing them.
  

With park runs cancelled here for another month I will do a 4k time trial on Saturday - Should I run this flat out / pace it just enough to complete?

With the next cycle I have a 10k off-road race on what would be day 9 so I'm thinking to skip the 1k session and then after the race just do 10/11 days easy running before starting the next cycle.

You mentioned varying the 2k session and also some alternative 1500m session? Interested to find out more about these.

How many cycles do you recommend before the off-period/build up and also what should be my goals with the times provided? Keeping the speed work at the same pace for the time being.

Thanks
Rob

[TheEd]

Hi Rob, great to hear from you ..

due to the times we living in and the lack of events etc .. I have changed MrsDuck's group (my wife's group, who I coach) training quite a lot

so balancing things and enjoying things is very well understood from my side

please look at this forum and ask the question about further 10k pace sessions etc

https://www.time-to-run.com/forums/Threa...o-sessions

run the 4k time-trial as you feel

we can play around with a few things

TheEd
ps.. the other forum is more informal and the intention to have those on the programs see different aspects and thoughts to the programs

[RobS]

Hey, thanks for this extra info - It makes for great reading and nice to see a different view regarding training.

From reading other threads I know the cycle is designed to lead up to the "race" by getting you to run faster as the weeks go by but also reduce the distance so we are well rested and prepared, hence the "hard work sessions E.g. 2k and 1k" are early on.....are you effectively saying that without races to do we don't need to be as strict with the program....we can add sessions here and there while also adding in the necessary recovery days and also we don't need it to be quite so cyclical? It can be 3,4 or maybe 5 weeks before we repeat some sessions or perhaps always do the "2k" session every 3rd week but miss the 1k, or vice versa?

I am quite looking forward to some off-road running with friends, perhaps 2 hours over the local hills if I feel up to it, or maybe something else if it peeks my interest....so perhaps not focusing on a formal 3 week cycle would be better for the next few months and to just enjoy the running? Although a part of me loves the hard sessions...

Thanks.
Rob

[TheEd]

Hi Rob .. the programs are results based .. so the intention is to teach the body to adapt to this cycle and then look to achieve results on the given day .. as things are now, there are not many events we can plan towards .. we have kept the framework of the program .. so stick to the framework and then on weekend for example where there is the long run, there is no reason why you should not go do the off-road running with friends

on the Thursday Day 3 .. you can vary the sessions there .. I shall put a list of different sessions under the other thread and then you can select what you want to do and give feedback accordingly

hope this helps a little

TheEd

[RobS]

Hi,

Just a quick check-in.

Completed the 4k time trial in around 16.30. Started out deliberately slower around 4.10 pace and increased after the first 2k, hitting around 4k pace for the final 2. Very pleased overall and it all falls in line with the expected pace I can run at the moment. Just a note that I ran this later on in the evening (around 7.30) than I have been running recently (I used to run evenings all the time however), and after a busy day out, I wanted to do the session but my body did not, the warmup was painfully slow and I thought how am I ever going to do this but surprisingly as soon as I got my "game head" on it all just happened - This I can only put down to the program and being able to produce the results when it matters - I am increasingly running slower on easy days but can just "switch" it on for the hard sessions which again is very pleasing.

Ok so this is longer than a quick check-in but.... completed the 2k session this morning (3 laps as recommended for the 5k version of the program) and it was all very controlled, pretty much 4.05 pace the whole way, had to dig in a bit at the end but that's the session!.

I have to self-isolate over the weekend (for the next 4 days) for reasons we wont go into, so no running and then it will all get a bit messy with my 10k race being on the 3rd Wednesday of the program so I will probably aim to do the 1k session next week some time after a couple of easy days back into it after the 4 days off and then just easy runs until the race, followed by easy days after until a new cycle starts when I will probably try out a different 2k session - I'm fancying the 1500 based one at the moment.

Cheers!
Rob

[TheEd]

good stuff Rob .. do what is best for you and enjoy

TheEd

[RobS]

Hi TheEd,

Hope you're well.

Just a quick check in to say that with some races falling mid week and wanting to enjoy running, I've veered from the program the last few weeks. I've kept most of the harder sessions but it's not been a 3 week cycle as such.

I want to try out the alternative 2k session, looking at this one - 2000m R90 then 2 x 1600m R90 1200m R90 800m then finish with 800m, just to confirm it would be: 2000m R90 1600m R90 1200m R90 800m R90 1600m R90 1200m R90 800m R90 800m? Do i keep it all at the normal 2k pace? Around 4-4.10 pace I've been doing? Or do I increase pace for the shorter intervals?

Thanks.
Rob

[TheEd]

Hi Rob .. great to hear from you ..

with the variation .. you could consider running the last 800m of each set at 10 seconds per k quicker .. so 5000m pace

hope that helps

TheEd