Run Run Away

Question:

Happy New Year, gang: I am gradually increasing my long runs…. adding about five minutes every two weeks or so. Whatever feels comfortable. I’m currently at 1:20, and am shooting for around 1:45, my "goal" time for a half marathon in May. Then I’ll see about moving beyond that.

May…  That’s, umm, five months from now…  Sounds like you’re right on track to me. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – My real question is: given the above mentioned increases, how should I (or should I at all?) increase the length of my other daily runs? I hear about people running for an hour each day…. that’s something I’d like to get to sometime, but I’m in no hurry. Do I take my long run to a certain point, leave it there, and then begin to increase the lengths of my other runs (keeping in mind the 10% rule) ? I currently run 30 – 40 minutes each day, and during *my* serious race training, will go up to 45 minutes for one session per week, the 2nd longest run of the week. Thanks for any advice, Cam (Christmas was kind to me…. lots of new running clothing…. woohoo!)

I like to throw in some higher intensity running as the training cycle approaches the competitive season.  Long runs are good for establishing a base, but they essentially focus on aerobic conditioning.  You are training for the half-marathon distance.  A good performance at this distance means running very near your lactate threshold over the entire distance, and so training designed to push back lactate threshold should be useful.  Perhaps one day per week, you could throw in some tempo runs, hills, or medium distance intervals (repeat 1000m – 3000m).  This has the added attraction of variety and reduced risk of overuse injury.

Response:

Happy New Year, gang: – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I am gradually increasing my long runs…. adding about five minutes every two weeks or so. Whatever feels comfortable. I’m currently at 1:20, and am shooting for around 1:45, my "goal" time for a half marathon in May. Then I’ll see about moving beyond that. My real question is: given the above mentioned increases, how should I (or should I at all?) increase the length of my other daily runs? I hear about people running for an hour each day…. that’s something I’d like to get to sometime, but I’m in no hurry. Do I take my long run to a certain point, leave it there, and then begin to increase the lengths of my other runs (keeping in mind the 10% rule) ? I currently run 30 – 40 minutes each day, and during *my* serious race training, will go up to 45 minutes for one session per week, the 2nd longest run of the week. Thanks for any advice, Cam (Christmas was kind to me…. lots of new running clothing…. woohoo!)

Response: