After running 3 marathons in the last year, I'm planning on concentrating my training on shorter stuff, 5 and 10k's etc. For my Tokyo Marathon training I did a long run of 30-35k once a week and one or two medium runs of 22-24k a week. A portion, about 14-16k, of these medium runs was at marathon pace, 4:25-4:30 per k. I think this was good training and likely is what enabled me to get PB's in 5k, 10k, half and marathon since the end of January. Maybe I could have had a better marathon time without the other PB's but that's another question. So now with the decreased mileage I'm thinking about having the medium, marathon paced run as my weekly long run. I think the duration (1:40-1:45) is sufficient for a long run. My question is this: do I need the slow paced run that marathon training is usually associated with? Will I be missing something physiologically if all or most of my runs are at marathon pace or better? Do I need to be in the "fat burning" zone to train for shorter races? (If you didn't notice, he preceding three questions are basically all the same). Looking forward to the input of the collective wisdom of Namban Rengo.
AZ
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4 comments:
Wow, 3 days and no comment yet? The bottom line I think is that marathon training is cyclical. Unless you have a race 3-4 months ahead I don't see much need to do the long long runs. Training is about the right balance between quality and quantity. If you feel like more quality, back off the mileage. You'll probably even get a great benefit out of a higher average pace. Next time you ran your MRT it'll feel surprisingly easy. Pick up the pace Athony! And fat you always burn as long as you're not doing 200-400m reps. Only my .02$. Ingo
As someone that was doing only quality (shorter/faster) runs 3x per week, (plus cycling/swim training), I would certainly recommend maintaining weekly long runs - at least in the build phase you should be doing say 90 minute runs at a comfortable pace. I assume you enjoy the longer runs? Or maybe you are burned out on going round and round the Palace or Yoyogi? Then join me at Tamagawa, Kamakura, Ome, Takao -- the longer run gives you an opportunity to do a different more interesting course.
Thanks, Ingo and Jay, for your comments. I think I keep doing the medium runs at a faster pace. Kamakura sounds nice though, I haven't done that one yet.
Now all we need is for somebody to post a blog above this one.
AZ
Sorry, I forgot about the "beyond" part of Tokyo and Beyond so have not been looking at this.
If you are training for 5 and 10 Ks I think 24k is long enough for your weekly long run. As long as you are doing two other quality workouts per week (eg. tempo and speed), you should be fine.
Bob
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