Tuesday, May 13, 2008

interpreting the aggie schedule

I've been looking at the 10k/marathon outline on the asics aggies page. I think I pretty much have it, but have a few questions.

Sun: Easier long run (20-25% of weekly mileage). 14-16 miles. Pretty simple although "easier" is a little vague.

Mo - Maintenance run -- How long? How hard? Based on the way the terminology is used on the other pages on the site, I think the answer is 40-60 minutes at 75-80% 5K effort. The chart only goes to 19:30 for 5K (they don't imagine someone as slow as me -- not even the women), but extrapolating, I think 8:20 - 8:40 is about the right pace. Intuitively, I did 5.3 at 8:30 pace on Monday, so I guess my intuition was "right."

Tu - 3 x 3 hill reps. The explanation from another page is pretty good on the workout. I did it this morning and liked it. I wondered how much warmup and cooldown I should be doing though. I've been doing workouts Benji Durden style in the past with pretty a long warmup up/cooldown (30 min wup + 30 min cdn). I'm guessing Rubio expects a little shorter warmup/cdn? Maybe 15 & 15 and then get the extra mileage with the "optional" 20-40 min pm run. Today I did the long warmup/cdn and a 30-minute pm run, so maybe that was too much. I wasn't sure I'd get to run this afternoon though and once I had a chance, I didn't want to give it up.

We - longer hilly run easy to medium effort. I'm not sure whether easy to medium is 70 (recovery effort) to 75 or 75 to 80. The mileage says 12-15% of the week, so for 70 miles, that would be 8.5 to 10.5. I was going to do one hill loop at work, which is 9 miles. Running to work would work also -- 10.5 miles. Unfortunately my ride home got a new job, so running to work isn't as easy as it used to be. I've taken the bus home a number of times but it's kind of a pain (~80 minutes versus a 30-minute car ride).

Th - 30-40 min easy or recovery or day off. Easy enough. I guess the "or" means that easy and recovery are different pace. Easy = 75%?

Fri: "10-12 x 1k’s at MP or 6-8 miles at 80%. Optional second run of 20-40 min easy. Can substitute race for workout if desired. Races during this stage should be CONTROLLED!" When it says "substitute race" does that mean a Friday race or a Saturday race? If Saturday, I guess this just becomes Saturday's maintenance run?

Sat: Maintenance run. Optional second run of 20-40 min easy.

Well, I think I've over-thought that now.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Greg,

All right, I'm thinking this post might be geared for me partially :)? Let's try to help you out here:

1. You are correct on your Monday run. 45-65:00 at a very comfortable pace.

2. Tues. hills: Joe's thinking these hills--since they occur during the base phase--should be short affairs--probably :45-1:30 at most. Run these fast but comfortable--you should not feel your brain fall out of the back of your head here. It should be controlled...

Per wm+cd, the long approach is fine, especially w/ the marathon as a goal. 30 wm, 20 cd might be fine.

Joe's philosophy is the hard days should be very hard, easy days easy. IMO, if you're going to double, T & F should be the double days. I think more than 2 days of doubles for a 19 5k/3:15 marathoner might be a bit much.

Also, IMHO, if you do double on T/F, I'd take the Fridays off.

3.The nine miles should be fine. Rememeber, this is an outline; it should be adjusted to fit your life. Easy to medium should be very easy base to moderate base, especially w/in the first eight weeks or so.

4. Take R as recovery. When I was in my best shape, I did the R run at 9:00 pace. In other words, a slow easy jog, if not a downright day off.

5.Correct about the substitution of a race. You'd take a F's workout on SA, and then do R and F as easy runs. In Joe's schedule, he's expecting the races to have a long warm up and cool down. They're meant to get you into shape.

A couple other things to note:

1. Be sure to take the recovery week every 4th week!!! This is important. Everything--weekly vol, # of intervals, length of midweek and LR--goes down by 15-25%.

2. Joe's marathon schedule is based on progression theory. If you're going to top at 70 mpw, you'd start the schedule at 55-60 or so.