07-11-2024, 01:35 AM
Hey Coach,
It's been uhhh five years, I guess. Anyway, I've been running, and here is a bit of an update.
I came out of 2019 going gangbusters, but then COVID hit, and my country had an outdoor mask mandate which really hurt my training. I basically stopped all exercise for about three years. Even after the mask mandate went away, it was hard to get back on my feet. Last spring, though, my work sponsored entry into a local race so I joined the 10km even though I was in terrible condition. I ran walked and finished in something like 54 minutes, and felt terrible the whole way.
That was my wake-up call, and after that I started training again. I was aiming at 21km distances, and due to my schedule I was using a modified version of your plan that worked for me. Last fall I ran just over 90 minutes (90:16 if I remember correctly), and this spring I was the same. I kept training, and on October 6 I ran 86:00 in the half marathon, so am feeling pretty good about my condition. I am five years older, but my 21km time in 2024 is right around my 2019 time, so that's satisfying.
Anyway, I signed up for a 10km race on Nov 17, and decided that I would do 2 cycles of your system leading up to the race, which was a perfect fit since it was exactly 6 weeks after the Oct 6 half marathon. I didn't have time to run a 4km paced run, so have just been attempting to hit the sub-40 interval times (7:55 2km and 3:45-3:50 1km). Anyway, for whatever reason I have been way off the mark on the 2km intervals, but have been hitting the long runs easily, and my 1km intervals have been on target (3:43, 3:46, 3:50, 3:46, 3:50, 3:50 yesterday).
Gonna keep working for a while and see how things go. Hope all is well on your end.
It's been uhhh five years, I guess. Anyway, I've been running, and here is a bit of an update.
I came out of 2019 going gangbusters, but then COVID hit, and my country had an outdoor mask mandate which really hurt my training. I basically stopped all exercise for about three years. Even after the mask mandate went away, it was hard to get back on my feet. Last spring, though, my work sponsored entry into a local race so I joined the 10km even though I was in terrible condition. I ran walked and finished in something like 54 minutes, and felt terrible the whole way.
That was my wake-up call, and after that I started training again. I was aiming at 21km distances, and due to my schedule I was using a modified version of your plan that worked for me. Last fall I ran just over 90 minutes (90:16 if I remember correctly), and this spring I was the same. I kept training, and on October 6 I ran 86:00 in the half marathon, so am feeling pretty good about my condition. I am five years older, but my 21km time in 2024 is right around my 2019 time, so that's satisfying.
Anyway, I signed up for a 10km race on Nov 17, and decided that I would do 2 cycles of your system leading up to the race, which was a perfect fit since it was exactly 6 weeks after the Oct 6 half marathon. I didn't have time to run a 4km paced run, so have just been attempting to hit the sub-40 interval times (7:55 2km and 3:45-3:50 1km). Anyway, for whatever reason I have been way off the mark on the 2km intervals, but have been hitting the long runs easily, and my 1km intervals have been on target (3:43, 3:46, 3:50, 3:46, 3:50, 3:50 yesterday).
Gonna keep working for a while and see how things go. Hope all is well on your end.