In article <[email hidden]>,
Lori said:Robert,
Thanks for answering. I am delighted that you replied as I respect your
opinion quite a bit. I run for lots of reasons, just like everyone
else, from weight loss to stress relief to the joy of the movement to
quiet time, but to be honest, a big motivator is I love to compete. I
really don't care what distance, type of course, size of race, I just
love to do it. Every distance to me is like a different child, with
its own difficulties and rewards, pleasures and pains. You definitely
have good taste though. The 10 mile is also my favorite distance on the
road and the 50k on the trails.
Plus the mile on the track. As you say, they're all their own races.
Quoted message said:Okay, down to brass tacks. I am the type of person who likes to have a
program in front of me to keep me motivated and on track. I usually
like to have one or two target races a year to focus on, but I guess I
will wait a while to start thinking about that. I can be very patient
with the build-up training and mileage, but I do need that carrot out
there at the end to look forward to. Do you think maybe 10 weeks of
running just by total time and HR (i.e. starting with something like
30min/40min/off/30/40/off/60 for a week and building to something like
45/60/off/45/60/off/90 by the end of the ten weeks) with the HRM is a
good plan? Then maybe I could start with a basic 5k training program?
Would 10 weeks be long enough to get the necessary conditioning for
starting a competitive 5k plan or do you think it would need to be
more? When I do set up a program, I tend to go with a long base, then
strength then speed, so when I did start the program for the 5k, I
would be continuing the base training through the early part of that
program as well.
In terms of time to 'return', I'll suggest it's somewhere between
what you are afraid it might be, and what you hope it will be. That's
how it works for me.
The balancing between 'get back to that fun racing' and 'put in some
sound base' is difficult. HRM or no, I think it's a generally good idea
to train by time. When you're getting started, that 30 minute run
covers less ground than later on, but that's proper; you're not yet
as fit as you will be later. It's self-adaptive with your fitness,
unlike running by distance. So if your 30/40/0/30/40/0/60 week is
already doable (it wouldn't be for me after a year off, but you're
not me) then do start with that. If it's more like 30/0/30/0/30/0 ...
welcome to the club.
In terms of when to start a competitive 5k training program (notice
that on one line you say 'basic' and the next it's 'competitive' ...
you'll probably need to watch yourself for that) ... the question is
how fast you need to be in order to accept the result. If you're ok
with the current result being 5 minutes slower than your racing shape,
as mine was, then I think it's a good idea to get one under your belt
sooner, even this weekend if you're confident of not injuring yourself,
rather than later.
The purpose for that early (slow) 5k is to give you a reference for
doing faster runnings -- keeping it as _slow_ as indicated by the 5k.
The purpose for that is to let you (me, I'm doing it already) get out
for 'speed' work that is appropriately to conservatively paced. But
it helps motivation and form to be visiting the track for faster things --
as long as you can keep the pace down to things appropriate to your
current training levels.
The main training for the next several months, 3-6 at a guess, is
base building. On the other hand, some periodized 'fitness check'
5ks can be done routinely inside that period. I'm thinking on something
like every 5-6 weeks to do another 5k. The main focus is the base,
but having a changing set of 'speed' work and faster 'tempo' runs
(truly they are tempo runs, in terms of heart rate, it's just that
the pace is what formerly was LSD) keeps off monotony and gives a
progress measure without inviting me to kill myself on the long
distance ramp up. A 5-6 week period between 5ks/time tests makes
no sense later on in training, but in the early phase, if you're not
getting yourself injured, you really do make a lot of progress in
short order, and the positive feedback can be helpful.
For Don's comment on speed, I do and don't agree. Specifically
that it comes back in 4-6 weeks (of training for it). For
anaerobic speed, one can max that out in a few weeks -- 4-6 is
a little shorter than commonly quoted, 6-8 seems to be mine, and
8-10 is the more common quote. But that's a niggle. Anaerobic
power doesn't take long to maximize. On the other hand, in
talking to someone who speaks in terms of 10 mile road races and
50k trails, your 100m-400m times (anaerobic racing) are probably
not what you think about as speed. Out at those distances, it
takes substantially longer to peak.
--
Robert Grumbine http://www.radix.net/~bobg/ Science faqs and amateur activities notes and links.
Sagredo (Galileo Galilei) "You present these recondite matters with too much
evidence and ease; this great facility makes them less appreciated than they
would be had they been presented in a more abstruse manner." Two New Sciences