Thursday, January 24, 2008

Large Base vs. Small Base + Speed

I am looking for some feed back on training. I am admittedly very stubborn and not really good at taking advice if I don't agree with it. But, there comes a time when even I have to admit that I don't know it all. So here is my question. I have been reading a lot about short and olympic course training and it seems there is a good debate about large base and build vs small base and increasing speed for the shorter events. What I need to know is if anyone out there has experience with the smaller base and more speed approach to training for short races.

Right now I am going with the faster approach and mainly focusing on my run, but the season is still a long way off, so there is time for a change if needed.

Here is an example of current training:

Saturday Jan 19th long run: 7 miles @ 8:08 pace
Sunday Jan 20th Off
Monday Jan 21st bike: wu 5min main 2x5min tempo 5min recovery, 5x30sec big gear drills, 30sec rest.
cd 5min easy spin
Tuesday Jan 22nd short run: 3 miles @ 7:28 pace
Wednesday Jan 23rd run/swim brick: Run 3 miles 6:40 pace Swim 1000 yards of Drills.
Thursday Jan 24th easy run: 4-6 miles at 8:00 pace.
Friday Jan 25th Off:

The general plan is to do a long run over the weekend followed by shorter runs of increasing intensity throughout the week, and ending with an easier mid distance run. I will be including 2 bikes and 2 swims starting next week. These will mostly focus on form in the pool and base on the bike.

Can this plan work?

2 comments:

TJ said...

I think the main thing to watch is how you are handling the more intense sessions (recovering well, not getting injured, not overly tired and sore). If you are absorbing it and not needing a mid day nap and massage, then it's all good.
Personally, I really have to be careful with intensity (injuries) and am a fan of low intensity or steady paced training (large base) most of the year (especially with running), with race specific pace added in closer to race time.

Steve Stenzel said...

That sounds like something that Pharmie and I are going to try - it's called FIRST, and it tells you to run harder, but only 3 days a week. It sounds good for triathletes like us. We're starting it in March.

Best of luck!!