First or HADD
October 17th, 2009 by lunamanIt must be time for a bit of a running update, as my 2009 target race approaches. It seems wierd targetting a 10k, such a small distance! But the challenge is to run it at approximately 6:05 minutes per mile and knock a good minute off my PB from May.
I’ve been following an adapted FIRST schedule, for those of you who’ve lost their notes. This schedule incites hatred from all other runners because it recommends RUNNING LESS!
- Monday: rest day – phew. Maybe some weights if I’ve got the energy.
- Tuesday: repetitions on the track. A wide variety of stuff, from 10 x 400M @ 1:19 per lap to 1600M horrible horrible sessions.
- Wednesday: 1 hour biking, usually in the gym because my bike squeeks and it’s dark and cold out there. Squats, lunges, calf raises. Possibly upper body work if I’ve got time.
- Thursday: tempo session, usually incorporating 3-4 miles at 6:19 per mile
- Friday: 1 hour biking in the gym
- Saturday: 4-5 miles easy running (8:30mm). Upper and lower body weights.
- Sunday: 16 -18 mile easy run in the woods (8:30mm)
The Saturday extra run is my concession to logging miles. In the FIRST schedules Saturday should be a cross-training session, and the long run would actually be much shorter but much much faster, more like 7 minute miling.
The plan is to increase the number of days I run after the Brighton 10k race, and up the weekly mileage again. I’ve really enjoyed the FIRST schedules, and kept injury at bay, barring a constantly tight hamstring. But I’ll be targetting marathons again next year, so I think I’ll use the method I tried briefly at the start of the year – a guy called Hadd‘s approach. This is almost the opposite of the FIRST approach – lots of easy miles at a low heart rate to build a strong aerobic base.
The plan is to aim at 3:0x at Stratford next April, then if all goes well, finally go sub 3:00 in the autumn of 2010.