cheryl

Get up earlier :-)

If you slow down by as much as 1 minute per mile it is only 9 extra minutes for the 9 mile run. The pace should be sufficiently conversational to be able to discuss complicated issues, not just exchange a few quips about the weather and the pace.

Yes, but let's say hypothetically you only have an hour to run. Is it better to run 6 miles slowly or 7 at a faster pace?

If you normally would have run 7 miles in an hour and 10 minutes, and you only have an hour, you should probably do 6.2-6.3 in an hour instead. However, if you normally would have run for an hour, but you find that 20 minutes is your limit for the day, you should warm up for 5 minutes, and then run the next 15 at about your 10 K race pace.

Cheryl, It was fine for that particular day. Remember the hard-medium-easy system that we discussed. As long as you take the next day easy, it's actually better as long as you do not overdo the distance for a particular workout intensity.

Sasha, Please don't confuse the runners I coach. I have a system and a cycle of training I want them to follow.

Steve:

Hard-Medium-Easy might work on a very healthy 20 year old male runner with exceptionally fit nervous system, perfect running form, strong bones, strong joints, strong muscles and a schedule that allows sleeping in doubles (9 hours at night + a 2 hour nap). It will likely overtrain anybody else. At least, as healthy as I am, it overtrains me.

I saw a study where you actually see more benefit from a hard workout if the next day is a medium rather than real easy day. I don't remember where I saw it but it made me think. Is that what you have them doing, Steve?

I think it may have been Wetmore's philosophy in "Running with the Buffaloes"- hard, medium, then easy days. Maybe we should ask Nick.

Jon - interestingly enough Nick is currently injured. Hard-Medium-Easy is not for everybody, even if they are very fit and young. However, Easy 5 days a week, a longer Easy possibly with a hard finish on the 6th, and race once a month so far has produced PRs with a very little injury rate on everyone who I have observed. If you can get PRs running easy, why risk injury and overtraining running hard twice a week, and medium hard twice a week on top of it? I'd say wait for the pure base approach to plateau before trying something different.

I certainly agree that a good base is a prereq to speedwork. I was just discussing (in-general) the concept of following hard days with easy vs. medium once you get to that stage.

The big question is when you get to that stage. From what I've seen I am inclined to believe that very few people ever get to the point of not being able to improve with base alone, and it takes a very long time to get there.

Also if your recovery routine is unpredictable (common theme for almost everybody), you do a hard workout or a medium hard, and then you have some work or family emergency to take care of. So you lose a good meal and a couple of hours of sleep while dealing with the added stress on top. Whatever benefits that hard or medium hard workout had to offer are now negated by the lack of recovery. Going moderately long and easy, on the other hand is a lot more resilient to this. You are not just building running fitness, you are also building another type of strength (while you would have spent it in a hard workout) to cope with stress. So essentially you come into stress (no meal, no nap, someone is yelling at you) after an hour walk in a park enjoying the nature vs after an interval session pushing yourself to the limit.

Thanks for all the comments. I think that's the number one running related thing we discuss in our running group, how much to push the pace on our runs.

Who is the coach here? Thank you Jon for backing me up on that. It is a concept that we have discussed recently and some are beginning to incorporate. I have used it before and have had good results. As long as distance, intensity, and rest are properly balanced I believe it to be a good system. Base training contrary to popular opinion is not just composed of slow slogging all of the time.. There are levels of intensity that are gradually increased throught a macrocycle, and even a microcycle per say. My methods have brought me some really good results and on a lot less mileage than some people. I believe in LSD and high mileage. but LSD like everything else can be overdone. Like the old saying goes; Too much long slow distance makes for long and slow runners...

And no Sasha I have not started them on intervals yet. Not until later in the season when we start to approach the St George Marathon. So no I don't crash runners with intervals just for sake of doing intervals in the hope that they might get faster. I know what I am doing..

Medium is defined in my book is 75-80% mhr or for continuous... runs or in other words, just slower than marathon pace.