I'm Getting Schooled... Part 4 of 5 (10k Training Plan)

As I alluded to in the first part of this series, I have done alright on my own as a runner, and have come a long way since my clueless beginnings.  However, my marathon PR still sits 20 minutes away from a Boston Qualifier, and I am looking for better improvements.  Hence, it's time for a coaching change (I'm firing myself).


With the change comes a new and welcome training plan, customized for me by Coach Wadsworth.  In the short term, I've got my sights on a 10k race, and that training plan is what I'm going to share with you today.  While this 5 week 10k training plan was tailored for me, I'm sure there are many runners who could gain something by it.


I would describe the plan as advanced, and geared toward a half or full marathoner who needs to squeeze in a 10k.  Note that the minimum daily mileage besides Sundays and race week is 6 miles, and it maxes out at about 56 miles in the third week.  One possible inconvenience is instead of listing paces for each workout, the speed is determined by heart rate zones.  I will go into more details after the training plan chart.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Rest or (E-A) 6 miles	(E-A) 6 miles	(E-A) 7 miles/strides	(T) 2 miles	(E-A) 7 miles	(E-A) 10 miles	Rest
Intervals 4x800, 4x400, 4x200 meters w/equal jog rest (T-I) zone	(E-A) 7 miles	(E-A) 7 miles/strides	(T) 3 miles	(E-A) 7 miles	(A) 12 miles	Rest
Fartlek 15x60 sec. w/equal jog rest (T-I) zone	(E-A) 7 miles	(E-A) 8 miles/strides	(T-I) 4 miles progressive	(E-A) 7 miles	(A) 14 miles	Rest
Intervals 5x1000, 4x200 meters w/equal jog rest (T-I) zone	(E-A) 7 miles	(E-A) 7 miles/strides	(T-I) 4.5 miles progressive	(E-A) 6 miles	(A) 10 miles	Rest
Fartlek 10x90 sec. w/ 2 min. jog rest	(E-A) 6 miles	(E-A) 5 miles/strides 8x200 meter fast w/ 200 jog	(E-A) 4-5 miles	Easy jog 3-4 miles w/ strides	10k Race	Rest

Notes: Blue denotes a recovery week.  Week 1 was denoted a recovery week because I just raced a half marathon the day before.

Heart Rate Training Zones:

(E) - Easy/Recovery Zone:  70% LT - 84% LT*

(A) - Aerobic Maintenance Zone:  85% LT - 95% LT*

(T) - Threshold/Steady Zone:  Lactate Threshold HR ± 2%*

(I) - Interval Zone: 102% LT - Max HR*

*To make this plan as generic as I could, I converted the zones to percentages of Lactate Threshold.  You will have to either get a LT test done or make some educated guesses to obtain desired heart rates.  One estimate to determine LT is to take 85% - 90% of your max HR.  My LT is about 88% of my Max HR.  If you want to throw out all this Lactate Threshold and heart rate stuff, you could simply think of the 4 zones as slow, medium, fast, and fastest.

One of my pet peeves of a lot of other training plans found across the world wide web is they only give minimal information like distance and maybe a 2 word description.  They might say nothing about intensity or specifics of the speed work.  Hopefully I can fill in the gaps.

• E-A runs start in the Easy zone, finish in the Aerobic zone.
• Jog between intervals.  Allow HR to dip below Easy zone before starting next one.
• For all Interval, Threshold, or Fartlek days add a 2-3 mile easy warm-up and a 2-3 mile cool-down to what's listed in the chart.
• The fartlek repetitions should get gradually faster (progressive) so that although they might last the same duration, you should cover greater distances as the workout goes on.
• Strides are 100-200 meter accelerations at 80-95% max speed with a short 1-2 minute rest between. Aim for 4-8 repetitions and relaxed but fast running.  Do strides at the end of the day's run with no jogging in between.

Feel free to contact me if I left out any details.  Maybe this training plan will be helpful to others who are needing to mix things up a bit like I did.  In my final post for my coaching series, I will go over what all this advice has been costing me.  Thanks for reading.



Go To:
Part 1 of 5 (My New Coach)

Part 2 of 5 (Lactate Threshold Test)

Part 3 of 5 (AlterG)

Part 5 of 5 (Coaching Costs)

Counting Calories

It's been almost a week since my marathon success.  I might add I've had my share of epic fails in marathons too, so I'm relishing this one a bit.  I've already signed up for my next marathon, the Austin Marathon, next February 20th.

One reason I felt I did so well this time around was I shed a bit of weight.  I'm not talking a lot, but I'm about 5 pounds lighter than I was for my last marathon, and I've lost about 10 lbs. since July.  I had to brace myself for ridicule whenever I would mention my stricter diet plans because everyone else thinks of me as a skinny runner already, but I knew I had the weight to lose.  I also knew I would feel better, run faster, and run longer without getting injured as easy.  I've been told that for each pound of fat I carry around, I should add 2 seconds per mile to my pace.  Doesn't sound like much until you start adding it up.  Losing 10 lbs. would mean an automatic 20 second/mile improvement or a 9 minute improvement on a marathon time.

Over the Summer, I was at the point where I had gained a few pounds, and even though I was putting in 60+ mile weeks, I needed to change something to get down to where I had been several years ago.  My strategy was to count my calories.  The idea is if I consume less calories than what I burn, I will gradually lose weight, and that's what I did.  Counting calories didn't sound fun, and it seemed impossible to account for everything I ate, but I found a website that made everything bearable.

The website I used is called "fitday.com" (there are others like it).  You can actually track quite a few things.  Besides keeping track of the food you eat, you keep a daily total of the calories you burn, and how much you weigh.  It has a database with foods to choose from, and if it's not in the database, you can create and store custom foods.  It also tracks the nutritional info of all the foods which I utilized some.  For instance, I could see how many of my calories were coming from fat, carbs, or protein.  From the Runner's World articles I've read, ideally 70% of calories should come from carbs, and 15% each from protein and fat.  I found that even though I tried to eat healthy, I was eating too much fat, up to 30% fat calories per day.

Here are some of my screen shots from FitDay.com to illustrate.

Foods and their calorie breakdown

Daily Activities.  You give duration, FitDay calculates number based on age, weight, sex.

Calories burned versus consumed.  Looks like I was a good boy that day.

Pie Chart showing distribution of calories

My weight chart from July to October.

Maybe this information can help another runner out there who is in a postion like I was.  Feel free to let me know if anyone finds this useful.