SmartCoach Pacing - Page 2 - General running

Pammie*

27/09/2007 at 15:03

A 13 miler long run on the Sunday before.

Gobi

27/09/2007 at 15:19

nice :¬0

toddytyke

27/09/2007 at 19:19

and what guidelines would you use to write plans?

Gobi

27/09/2007 at 21:57

old school

hard easy principles.

runalong

28/09/2007 at 04:02

There is no allowance made for age. Or am I still supposed to be able to run the same pace I used to when younger? ie I used to break the hour for 10miles and 90mins for a half. But my last run out was only just under 2hrs for a half, but there is a 40 year gap between those times. You should definately have to put your age in to get a correct pacing time!

toddytyke

28/09/2007 at 05:52

okay, so using a race time and mcmillan, which will take account of current ability and the amount of time that i have (4 runs each week at lunch time, one evening club run and one long weekend run), here is my current plan.

Monday (5 mile club run @ tempo pace)

Tuesday (3 mile easy paced run)

Wednesday (3 mile interval session - 1/2 mile warm up and cool down, middle 2 miles split between 1 minute @ interval pace and 1 minute @ recovery pace)

Thursday (3 miles @ easy pace)

Friday (3 miles @ easy pace)

Saturday (90-120 minutes @ easy pace)

Sunday (Rest).

How does that look? I have a variety of races coming up, 5 and 10 miles trail, 10k and HM road. Was also thinking of doing a repetition session (intervals at mile or fast pace every third Wednesday). Should I be looking to do longer intervals (2 minutes perhaps). Should Friday's easy be something else?

spiky_r

28/09/2007 at 17:43

I may be missing a really easy point completely here, but when it says run 2mi
@13:13 what does that mean? Should I be running 2 miles in 26 minutes 26 seconds?

toddytyke

28/09/2007 at 20:24

yep. 13:13 is the pace per mile.

28/09/2007 at 23:38

runalong - given you have to put a recent race time in why would it need your age to determine your pace? wouldn't it just do it from the race time?

karinsmiles

30/09/2007 at 11:45

I agree with M., age doesn't determine your pace as much as previous pace does, but age probably does have a bearing on how much recovery you need and there's no allowance for that.

Maybe some of us need to try and follow the plan and then feed back what our experience is? The plan it gives me for a slowish marathon looks harder and faster than I have done in the past, but then again my times are slipping backwards (that age thing again)... it may just be what I need ;o)

Bionic Ironwolf pirate

pirate

30/09/2007 at 14:37

Sorry, I think SmartCoach is utter rubbish. I ask it for a marathon training plan, and it gives me 2 days of running per week, with a longest run of 15 miles and only one of them at that. Highest week mileage 21 miles. I've run 38 marathons so far, and my PB came off a 6-day per week plan with an 18-20 miler for 3 Sundays of each month and a 23 miler on the other, highest weeks 85 miles. I don't think I could even finish a marathon on less than a minimum of 3 days per week, and I certainly don't think one 15-mile run is anywhere near good enough. Even looking at other RW articles on this site, they advocate 3 days per week at least as a get-you-round plan.

Pammie*

30/09/2007 at 16:10

Absolutely agree with you Ironwolf, i've only done one marathon and would not feel comfortable or even confident if i didn't do at least 18+ milers (i did about 4) and felt i didn't do enough, and a weekly mileage that is less than the race distance itself is absolutely barking.

squirrellypoo

03/10/2007 at 13:24

I really wish we could get our schedule in kilometers instead of miles!! I've got all my kit set up in km and I entered my details in km (though I actually had to get out a converter widget to work out how many miles I do per week!), so I'd have to manually convert all the milages to get it workable for me!

ugh, I'll just go out on my owninstead...

runalong

03/10/2007 at 18:50

M, I agree with what you say about recent race time being enough info. But I am more concerned with the amount of speed training the schedule threw back at me. Because I think I could get injued doing that much interval training. I rely mainly on steady state runs with some hill work and a bit of fartlek at the moment. and I feel that had I put my age in the equation then a more suitable schedule would have come out of the pot.

Lisa Rolston

03/10/2007 at 22:39

hello everyone, i am doin my first marathon this w'end-loch ness!

am nervous coz i have been bit lazy over the past 3-4 wks and not doin my long runs-just ticking over w 2x half marathons and 2 x10ks(1 a forest-quite tough). have been doin lots of yoga tho..........om. thats my excuse-am studying for my teachers cert.

the marathon plan i got was out of my loch ness booklet and it looks nothing like the one smartcoach gave me- i put in all my details coz i am hopin to do dublin in 4wks.

i think its a bit of trial and error until you get up to serious standards.

my friend has ran over 50 full marathons, and has stuck to the old fashioned 18wk plan for the past 30 yrs. wow!

so im a long way off that yet.

good luck y'all.

Pammie*

03/10/2007 at 22:53

Hello Lisa welcome to RW

And Good Luck for Sunday. And for Dublin i did that one last year and had a good time, can't believe its a year already.

I'm sure you'll be ok you wouldn't want to be doing long runs too near the event anyway.

Lisa Rolston

03/10/2007 at 23:00

thanks pammie, will let you all know how i get on.

away to bed to dream of nessie!

good luck with your training.

bye4now.

ShaunV

04/10/2007 at 16:28

Hi,

I'm a bit of a plodder and have just been doing my own thing for the last few years and seem to have ground to a halt in progress terms. To re-invigorate things I thought I would try this programme, but because I haven't been taking it too seriously feel a little un-certain about a few things on the plan I have.
I currently run 5k in about 28, heart rate building throughout the run.If anyone could help I would be much obliged.

warm up and cool down: at what pace?? normally I warm up for 5 minutes at fast walking pace, but should this be for the full mile before and after like my plan suggests?
For the speedwork it says 3x800@4:19; is this 4;19 mile pace or for the 800 metres and is it in mph or kph??
Following the plan what sort of pace should I be aiming at for my 10k race, still at 6.4mph or lower?

Sorry for the quantity of questions, but i'm still on the learning.
Thanks for any advice in advance

toddytyke

05/10/2007 at 10:41

ShaunV - I do warm up and cool down at EASY pace. I use McMillan to calculate what that pace is based upon my time for a recent 5 mile race. Distance depends on how much time I have. If you have time then do the full mile. The speedwork is 800metres @ 4:19 minute mile pace. That does sound fast to me based upon your time for 5k, however, again use McMillan as it will give you a 800 metre pace. McMillan can also give you a pace for a 10k race. If training goes well then aim for the 10k for the first 5k and then try to increase slightly so you do a negative split, overtake some folk and run faster than the 10k pace given. A winner all round.

fattodrop

05/10/2007 at 11:39

Hi All

I am really confused! I want to improve and am desperate for a training schedule that is realistic to get me from 10k at 65 minutes ( I am old and flabby!) to a half marathon in 16 weeks. This one looked good to me - with distances I can achieve now to maintain motivation but the thing that worried me is the pace. It seems very slow - two miles at 12.27 will bore me stupid. Is the slow pace to help me build up distance and I can increase speed later? I do have trouble evening out my pace, so find I do the first two miles in under 19 mins, then gasp later on! And then I read all the comments from much more experienced runners and don't know whether to start or scrap this schedule and look elsewhere!
Help please!