I thought it would be fun and helpful, to runners and coaches alike, to make-up an imaginary example runner (Jane Runner) with a real world situation and design a training program for them and post here on the Maximum Performance Running blog. Then walk everyone through the how’s and why’s of the program over the next couple blogs. And since most are fascinated with elite and emerging elite runners trying to make the leap to the next level, I decided to make the runner an emerging elite trying to make a go of it as elite professional runner post collegiately.
Example Runner – Jane Runner – Backstory
Jane Runner is a 23 year old female runner who just
graduated from a D-1 University where she ran Cross Country and Track on a
partial scholarship. Jane struggled her
first 2 years collegiately, dealing with several minor injuries, but really
found her stride in last 2 years setting a big PR in her senior Track season
with a 33:07 in the 10,000m at her conference meet to earn her team some
points. Jane’s success in college seems
to be sparked when she added daily doubles to her training mix, with an easy
3-4 mile run each morning before her afternoon workouts with the team. A moderate mileage runner in high school,
Jane struggled at first adapting to the higher mileage collegiate world but
with time and the adding of regular doubles, Jane thrived the last year or two
and it has her dreaming of what post collegiate running might look like for
her. Jane’s training mileage was in the
75-85 miles per week range most of her senior year. Jane’s strengths in college seemed to be more
her natural endurance rather than her speed, she would often get the better of
her training partners on the longer workouts and tempo runs while struggling
more on the short speed workouts. This
has her eyeing the possibilities she might have in the half marathon and
marathon distances. After graduating in
May and recovering from her senior track season, Jane has landed an entry level
desk job at a local company where she works 8:30-5:00 PM Monday thru Friday,
and had been ramping back up her training for her first half marathon in early
October, doing many of the similar workouts she did in college except less
speed work and slightly longer long runs.
She just finished her half marathon running 1:14:32 for 6th place women
overall in a strong regional field. She
feels she gave it her all but is underwhelmed with the results, she was hoping
for something in the 1:13 range in her HM debut. In particular she struggled in the last 3-4
miles not having the pop in her legs she had expected and not being able to
keep up with the pack of her competitors as they pushed for home.
Jane has secured an elite entry for her marathon debut in
the spring and after her half marathon performance she realized she needs some
professional help to get her get on track and be at her best this debut. So Jane reached out to Hadley Running for
help on this marathon cycle and her conversion into a professional marathoner. Jane has set an ambitious goal of 2:30-2:32
for her marathon debut.
After reviewing Jane’s background, training and goal. Coach Hadley has established the following
plan to successfully get Jane to her spring marathon, healthy, fit, confident
and ready to hit her time goals.
Coach Hadley has determined that a 14 day micro-cycle with 5 stress workouts will be the best micro-cycle for Jane with her need to do her long runs on the weekend given her work schedule. Jane had used a 7 day, 2 quality workout and 1 long run micro-cycle in her prep for her half marathon debut. The switch to the 14 micro-cycle will allow her to up her mileage a little as she adapts to the marathon. That 14 day micro-cycle will look like this:
It gives her 2 recovery days after 4 of the stress workouts allowing her to carry a higher mileage level and 1 extra easy recovery day after 1 of her endurance workouts.
This mixture of 2 endurance workouts to 3 quality workouts
in a micro-cycle tends to work very well for most emerging elite marathoners in
Jane’s situation.
Given Jane’s background, mileage level and goals, she will
have an easy secondary run every day except her Endurance workout days during most
of the micro-cycles.
Training Cycle Design
With a couple of very light weeks to recover from her half
marathon cycle under her belt, Jane is ready to start her training for her
marathon. Coach Hadley has established
the following training cycle design for Jane.
Phases
The first 2 weeks (1 micro-cycle) will be a Base Phase in
which Jane adjusts to the new micro-cycle schedule and eases her way back into
workouts.
The next 12 weeks (6 micro-cycles & 3 macro-cycles) will
be in a Fundamental Phase where Jane builds the aerobic power needed to be
strong and efficient for her goal. With
Macro-cycles focused on Stride Power, VO2 Max and Lactate Threshold.
The next 8 weeks (4 micro-cycles & 2 macro-cycles) will
be in a Specific Phase where Jane will leverage the gains made in the
Fundamental Phase and stretch out her endurance and stamina to meet the specific
demands of her marathon goal. Her
macro-cycles will focus on Aerobic Threshold and her marathon goal pace.
Lastly Jane will taper down and go racing in her goal
marathon in a Taper/Race Week Phase. Jane’s
taper will actually start after the mid-week quality workout (11 days out) of
her last micro-cycle in the Specific Phase but will be amplified in her taper week as the race
gets closer.
Since Jane has a good amount of time for this training cycle, Coach Hadley is able to schedule in a race in both the Fundamental Phase
(a 5k or 8k or 10k race) and the Specific Phase (a 20k or half marathon) allowing
Jane to see the benefits of her hard work to build her confidence, and to continue
to build her post collegiate resume and reputation of being a quality
competitor. Also since this is a longer
cycle, Jane has plenty of time to slowly build her mileage and adjust naturally
to the demands of a high level marathoner, with no need to rush things because
of compressed time frames.
It's probably good to note that this is a long cycle, typically a marathon cycle would be between 12-20 weeks in length with 16 weeks being a sweet spot. But given the situation of it being an athlete trying to make a jump to a new distance and performance level a slightly longer cycle makes good sense.
Tune in next blog to as we go through the specific runs
and workouts for the each phase and talk about why we are doing what we are
doing.
