Training question?

Question

I have not really trained much in the last 4 years, but have PB's of 33:35 for 10k Road, and 15:21 for 5k Road, both of which I achieved when I was 17, and only doing 10-15 miles a week of serious training.

I have resolved to start training again, and have set the goals of running 10k in 30 minutes or less and 5k in 14 minutes or less by next January. Could any of you give me any advice on how to build mileage and train to do this?

Answer 1

Assumming that you are not completly out of shape now, I reccoment first building a base. You have 9 months until January so that is plenty of time to be in shape to run those races, though I can't garauntee you will meet your goals.

For the First 2-4 months I suggest just simple runs to build you up. Start out the first week doing 20 minutes everyday, with a 30 minute run one day. If that is easy you can build up. As you figure out how fast you are running, try and increase your mileage by about 5% everyweek, but after three weeks in increasing dropping back down to the previous weeks level. Once you feel comfortable with your training base you can begin some more intense training.
The next phase of your training would be running at your lactic threshold. To do that you should run at around 85-90% of your VO2 max. (You can find your VO2 max by running a 2 mile all out and that will give you your paces). You can do a mixture of workouts such as mile repeats at your LT pace, or Temp runs, where you would run for an hour with the middle 30 minutes at your LT pace. You don't want to do 2 workout days in a row, so the between days just do easy runs again. IT would also probably be usefull to try and work runs between 60 and 90 minutes in every week or at least every other week.
After a couple months of LT training you can move on to VO2 training. I suggest running another 2 mile time trail to get a new training pace bcause you should be fast. Here you should do repeats of about 800 or 1000 meters at your VO2 pace, anda again don't do workouts two days in a row.

The month of December I suggest tapering your training so you will be strong for your races in January. I also don't think it would be bad if you did a race in September of October to provide a gauge for where you are at that point.

Hope this is helpful, good luck with your goal

Answer 2

I do not truthfully recognise any of the ones 3! So... 'Long Train Running' ~ The Doobie Brothers 'Nightrain' ~ Guns N' Roses 'Win My Train Fare Home (If I Ever Get Lucky)' ~ Robert Plant 'This Train' ~ Sandy Denny NP : 'World in Harmony' {reside 1970} ~ Fleetwood Mac

Answer 3

I am i runner myself. I believe you should practice hard and ofter about 5-6 times a week and do different workouts.. like sprinting one day then a distance run the next and then keep strecthing and do breathing excersies. Good luck!