Preston Pace
Lot of talk lately about PrestonPace, intervals, races etc. I think a lot of people assume I do all my running at 10 minute miles and then go and run 17 min 5ks off talent or something!!
Way back when I was running 3:30 marathons, I did a lot of reading about base training and came across a topic called HADD. If you Google it the full document is easily available and properly boring unless your a data geek like me! I bought into the training, used it as best I could and got myself down to 3 hours for a marathon, and then kicked on to a 75 min half. In fact, from my 5 mile time I was capable of around 16.10 for 5k off zero speedwork.
Important to state that I come from a track background (I may have mentioned once or twice lol), so I know how quick intervals can make you. It's pretty much all I did as a kid! BUT, I think personally people of a certain age overlook base and why it's important.
Base work to me is running easy enough so you can run 10 miles easy the next day. If you're too tired or too sore then you've over cooked yourself. Simples, easy analysis - can I run 10 miles tomorrow? There's you're perceived effort, don't even need a HR monitor :) Incidentally a HR monitor is actually a good investment because most people I know can't help but lie to themselves. Yes this 7/mm pace is far too easy for me - and then crawl the last 5 miles of a marathon at about 17/mm pace!!!
So, you're with me so far (you must be properly bored if you're still reading this) ??!!!
Base work = easy miles. It does not mean running 8/mm. It means running at an easy pace. Genuinely easy, and most people need a HR monitor to tell them what easy is. It's possible that you don't feel great and easy pace is 9/mm OR it may be possible that you feel fresh after a rest day and genuinely 6:40/mm is easy. No lying about the HR data!
The science behind (what most people miss) is that you are looking to improve mitochondria in your blood. Short version is you become more economical at running. Or simply you need less fuel to feed your muscles. Or you can run at that pace for longer. Or you can run at a faster pace for longer.
It's the last statement people miss and it's the last statement we are all trying to achieve!
The main factor is that you are looking to improve over time by increasing training volume. If you train 70 miles per week for 3 months, you may be running 8/mm for 145bpm (easy) runs in week one, but you are looking to run 6:30/mm for 145bpm by week 12.
If your 145bpm pace is 8/mm in week 1, you can expect 6:30/mm to be roughly marathon pace at that time.
By week 12 your 145bpm pace is 6:30/mm, then what is your marathon pace??? 6:00/mm ?? Probably. And no speedwork to do that. If you can run a marathon with back-to-back half marathon splits of 1.18:30 - then what can you expect to run for a straight half marathon? 1.14 maybe ?? Probably. Off no speedwork. Work that back down and you're realistically looking at running low 16 min pace for 5k off no speedwork.
If you get in that shape and then add speedwork you are looking in the 15's for 5k surely.
So, that's #PrestonPace in a nutshell. It's not that I don't believe in speedwork or intervals, I LOVE track running, road reps & hills. The worry for me is that I do hard intervals, I can't do 10 miles easy the next day because my leg conditioning isn't right. Not everyone will read this (actually surely noone has read this far) and buy into it, that's the joy of running. It's hard work but there is more than one way to skin a cat. If you read #DCPace (if he ever updates his blog) he'll write an equally compelling and real argument (and equally boring no doubt) about how less miles and more speedwork can achieve the same aim!
Comments
Post a Comment