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Ladies and gents,
I am keen to improve my basic speed thus improving my times from a variety of distances from 5k (hopefuly to below 20 minutes) through to half marathon and longer.
I currently have no set pattern to "training". I just put on my daps and go out and run. Sometimes i run 5 miles, sometimes I run 15. I have no plan, no real clue as to how to schedule a way to make myself faster.
My problem is that family commitments mean I cannot make the speed or hill sessions that go on throughout the various parts of the year and from reading the other threads there is a concern from the more knowledgable (and quicker!) runners about using the impersonal plans garnered from the internet.
Below is what I have decided to do starting this week. Does this look like a sustainable and logical plan that will assist my base speed or is there more (or less) that I should be doing? Any advice welcome.
Monday: XC (Cycling. 20-30 miles on a road bike)
Tuesday: Just started hill reps. 1st session was 7 x 0.3 mile at the bottom of Penylan Hill. Sprint up, jog down.
Wednesday: 7 mile easy run (8:20 / Mile)
Thursday: Club Night. I was planning on Joining Claires 1 mile reps.
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Either parkrun (Full speed, possible PB attempts weekly depending on Sundays plans) or easy 7 miles depending on work schedule.
Sunday: Long Run (Minimum 14 miles, building to 22 for prep for Snowdon)unless racing. If racing, Sat parkrun becomes an easy 5k.
Cheers
Marcus
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As Mick has instilled in to me consistency is the most important thing.
After that you just need to cover the fundamentals, ensure adequate recovery and gradually increase your miles.
In a nutshell.
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Hi Marcus,
My one piece of advice is a quality speed session every week without fail, preferably in a group. As you have said you intend to start Claire's mile rep sessions, great idea. But I would also suggest one of Phil's killer speed sessions either Monday or even better track at Leckwith on Tuesdays. Personally it's no pain no gain, the track sessions are so tough, I guarantee your 5km times will improve, then subsequently all your race times will improve!! Also, training in a group will push you out of your comfort zone.
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Looks pretty good to me.
I'd alternate short speed reps (200/400/600m) on the Tuesday rather than hills every week.
You'll probably improve more if you don't race full speed every week. Maybe run parkrun at tempo most weeks and then go for a PB attempt every 3-4 weeks. You can work out your tempo pace on McMillan running and various other sites.
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Sorry for my rushed response there Marcus I only had 2 minutes! All I have got to say on the matter is if you listen to Ed and Jane you cant go far wrong. You are obviously determined and its clear from what I have seen that you are a man with a terrific amount of character, so I'm confident your times will be coming down, and soon. 
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Cheers for the replies lady and gents.
Unfortunately I cannot make the speed sessions as I have family commitments on these days that I cannot get out of.
I have to make use of the time I have so I will use Ed's advice and alternate speed sessions with hills. I can only run parkruns on alternate weeks so on an "off" parkrun week I will instead run a tempo 30 to 40 minutes run instead.
Also following Ed's advice I will can the attempt to race parkrun every week and limit it to every few weeks to gauge improvement (if any!).
Ed, one other thing. How should I construct the session of 200/400/600m reps? IE,how many reps x 200 followed by how many of 400 etc.. Totally new to this so I am really unsure on how to do this.
Thanks
Marcus
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With the reps, I meant a mix of sessions with reps of 200m-600m rather than 200, 400 and 600 all in one week's session (although you can do that as well). As you're planning to do a long reps session on Thursday with Claire it makes sense to focus more on speed on Tuesday.
Many different options for the structure of the reps but I think it's important to mix it up rather than do the same thing every week - varying the type of stress is likely to trigger more training adaptation. You can track improvement by repeating a session after a month or so.
Some examples -
2 * 8 * 200m (1 min recovery, 3 mins after 8 reps)
10 * 400m (1 min recovery)
8 * 600m (2 min recovery)
3 sets of 400m, 300m, 200m, 100m (1 min between reps and 3 mins between sets)
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Cheers Ed, i get what you mean now. I shal structure accordingly.
I appreciate your time!
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Great advice and suggestions by Ed for the speedwork. if you can make make Claire's mile reps Thursday I would recommend shorter reps on Tuesday and as Ed says mix it up and then after a month you could repeat a session of say 10 x 400m and see if you have improved. As Lyndon pointed out, you are obviously a determined guy, as I saw from your before and after photos quality sessions added into your weekly schedule can only help you improve further.
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