Easy Interval Method

The Rebuke wrote:

The very best training for most runners is something inbetween the easy interval method and high mileage easy runs methods.Then we end up to the training methods that avocades 2-3 workouts per week and moderate mileage.

Hi Jan Stensson. Ne handle as usual.

Yes, I eat 2-3 avocados per week.

The Rebuke wrote:

Yes35 wrote:

Klaas,

For Geoffrey Kirui, success came from Renato Canova , not from Piet de Peuter.

Read what Canova said about this. He was sending him his schedule even when Piet was monitoring him.

But, .....but!? That can't be true!? Canova has told it's not possible to coach Kenyan top runners by sending schedules to them, ahaha!

Hey stupid Stensson, Canova has coaches that follow his teachings, working with some of his athletes.

You are so ignorant, at least shut up and pretend not to be so stupid.

Jan Stensson, please don't pollute this thread. Thank you.

lexel, keep the updates coming. It's very interesting to follow.

Klaas, thank you for taking the time to reply.

This week plan (5.May) is:

Mo: rest

Tu: 10x400m

We: 6x1000m

Th: 6x1000m

Fr: 15x200m

Sa: long run (total 19km): 6*1400m + 1 x 1000m (1400m pace is a little bit slower as 1000m pace)

Su: Trail run (300-400 hm), 12-14km

Changes to last week:

- I will do now a 10-20 sec walk break also before restarting a new interval (no flying start)

- recovery interval between 1000m will be easier (recovery pace instead of easy pace)

- 1000m interval pace will be based on mentioned paper and set to 1.1 * vLT (= 10% lower power output as velocity at LT)

- 2 days in a row 6x1000m, with the idea to see how that influences the second day

- Interval length for the long run will be reduced from 1600m to 1400m but 1x1000m will be added. The last 1000m a little bit faster than the 1400m.

5.July , jesus :)

Yes35 wrote:

There are many ways to train or enjoy running. You can't simply cancel everything and do intervals. This doesn't take you far in marathons.

He has steady continuous runs in his plans, and in his book he (Klaas) mentions when he trained this way he often doubled with a continuous moderate effort 8-10k AM run. Also the main focus for this training is 5-10k races not marathons.

Again also, why can't you just do intervals? For the older runner it's a pretty good idea imo.

intervals are always a life or death effort and should be saved for 2 weeks before the race only

NEVER step foot on a track

age old lrc wisdom (idiocy)

Grumpy Skeletor wrote:

Again also, why can't you just do intervals? For the older runner it's a pretty good idea imo.

Yes, so far it seem to be very suitable for me as an old 49y runner.

Interestingly, if you run 6km steady at moderate pace it is not the same stimuli for the body and brain as 6x1000m intervals at the same speed. The pace change creates more stimuli for the brain.

What i have seen so far, the easy interval method seems to create more input for the brain, as steady running.

I agree with the posts referring to older runners. I broke 3 hrs at age 58 by tracking weekly sub 7 min miles using lots of intervals from 100m to the mile. My goal was to accumulate 25 in a week which I was able to do, although most weeks were between 15 and 20 out of mid 40s total.

There's no lack of steady running in the plan. If I run 15x200, with 200m recoveries, and I warm up and cool down, it's not unusual for me to cover 13km in an hour with maybe 100m of walking in total. Would a 13km steady run provide a better stimulus? I don't see how.

A couple of months back I was training for a marathon so I did the same sessions but I'd run to the track further away; 15x200 became a 25km run with the same 3km of quality in there.

That stuff makes racing more fun. I raced a 5000m on the track 3 weeks out from the marathon and felt great, able to close gaps and still attack my group with 800m to go. Doing normal marathon training, I don't think I'd have had that kind of pace.

I'm 40 and mediocre, so right now I'm much more interested in being able to enjoy racing across a wide range of distances than I am specialising at one event. This style of training seems to benefit that approach.

This comment is very true.

 First thought: regardless if a person has any interest in doing the method or not, the book is insightful.

I have the book, and it is an excellent read. I don't actually use the easy interval method, but there are several interesting ideas in the book, and it is concisely written.

However...

AndySmith wrote:

There's no lack of steady running in the plan. If I run 15x200, with 200m recoveries, and I warm up and cool down, it's not unusual for me to cover 13km in an hour with maybe 100m of walking in total. Would a 13km steady run provide a better stimulus? I don't see how.

...I don't agree with this. Stamina is vital, and that comes from running continuously at a solid effort. If you mean an easy 13km, then I would agree with you, but a genuinely steady 13km (or longer) is vital training in many ways, teaching the mind and body to hold a pace, building strength in the infrastructure of the body (tendons, muscles, ...) to tolerate pounding continuously hard, and so on.

Don't get me wrong, I think sessions like 15-25 x 200m with 200m recovery are great, it is important to run quickly as well whilst staying aerobic, but they are not the same kind of stimulus as a continuous, good paced, distance run.

it is important to run quickly as well whilst staying aerobic, but they are not the same kind of stimulus as a continuous, good paced, distance run.

I see that as the weekly 'race' Lok advises. Or at least, I think there's one session per week under EIM where you are free to do that kind of effort. The way I've read it, middle distance runners might be best served racing their chosen distance up to 5k; if you're focussing on 5k-marathon, you can choose from a race, a longer tempo run or a structured long run (fartlek or more structured, like 2k repeats with 1k floats), and if you're doing longer stuff, HM+, you might choose to do a more traditional steady, long run.

I think most training is a compromise, right? For me, I have little to gain in the long run from increasing the volume of steady-paced endurance runs, outside of preparing for specific events. On the other hand, as I age I suspect I am more at risk of losing what little speed I have. Focusing on EIM seems to keep my speed where I want it, and whatever capacity I lose over longer, steady efforts is easily regained from one or two extended tempo type efforts, largely I suspect as I'm not really reducing overall mileage.

Got my 6x1000m and 10x400m in this holiday weekend.

I only go to the track on the weekends, so I run road fartlek 40sec surges the rest of the week. I'm on my 18th straight day of running, but likely going to have a day off this week due to work.

I always run the 6x1000m first in case I can't make it to the track a second time, and I consider that the more important workout since I'm running such high volume of 200s during the week.

1000s went well, slightly quick by a couple seconds due to it being the best running weather we've had in months (4:10-4:12s vs. target of 4:15-4:20). I wasn't ENTIRELY fresh for the 400s, mostly because I ran the 1000s late in the day, and the 400s early the next day, but was fresh enough. A lot of people on the track that second day and I ran several reps WAY too fast (two 80 sec vs. target of 90-92, seven around 87-88 sec). I'm just checking it off as a rare anaerobic effort, which isn't the worst thing if not too often. It was still a whole lot less anaerobic than had I gone in intending to run it as such, as I was still certainly slower than mile pace on each of the reps, but only 1 rep at 10k pace. Despite the faster than recommended pace, each rep was very controlled, and I wasn't really breathing hard at any point (certainly breathing a lot more steady than everyone else that was out there!). Feel it in my legs a bit today though, which I was anticipating during my cooldown yesterday.

The daily 200s varied for me a bit last week, a couple days pushed my turnover a bit more, but slowed down my minute-twenty jog in between. Other days I keep them very controlled and ran the rests at more a regular easy steady pace. In either case I felt fresh the next day. One day I was on fairly technical trail terrain, so on the surges I focused on quick turnover rather than opening up my stride at all.

My next race is a 5k early August. I'll probably add one traditional long next week midweek (slow and steady 1:20-1:30), and a traditional 4-5 mile tempo the following week midweek a little above HM pace.

lexel wrote:

SUPERIOR COACH JS wrote:

Sensd Engels to me and he will have a magical transformation!!! I AM THE FUTURE COACH SUPERSTAR!!!!

This mental disorder is called narcissism.

The correct term is actually Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Yes35 wrote:

Klaas,

The study you referring didn't compare between intervals and steady runs (as you suggested in the book).

It compared intervals at 5/10k Pace (or faster) to tempo runs 10-12 second slower than 10K Pace.

Yours 1k Pace in the book is about M Pace. So you can't cite the study claiming it meant your intervals. It wasn't.

For Geoffrey Kirui, success came from Renato Canova , not from Piet de Peuter.

Read what Canova said about this. He was sending him his schedule even when Piet was monitoring him.

Finally you can't take away steady runs (regardless of the Pace easy/moderate/hard) are the main component of aerobic development.

There are many ways to train or enjoy running. You can't simply cancel everything and do intervals. This doesn't take you far in marathons.

Hi Yes35,

Now YOU are comparing 'my' 1k paces, while I am talking about 400m paces. Important are paces around race pace.

You are so very misinformed about Geoffrey Kirui: Piet de Peuter made the schedules for Geoffrey Kirui since he was 18 years old. Geoffrey once trained with some runners of Canova, that's all. Canova is wrong about this, although he once visited Keringet.

(I am now and then chatting with Piet de Peuter; see his photo with Kirui in my English book.) There is also some information about Faith Kipyegon on the internet, as if Canova made her schedules as well... NOT TRUE. Piet de Peuter did this until 2020, now she is trained by Patrick Sangh. Geoffrey Kirui at this very moment is working with Piet for the Boston marathon.

As you probably know (did you read my book?), in the schedules for marathon you can find runs of 20-35 km (and even longer for world class runners). So I don't take out the long runs, contradictory to what you say. And I also implement some runs of 7-10 km for shorter race distances. But in a way as I describe in my book!

So, you are writing utterly nonsense when you write "You can't simply cancel everything and do intervals." I think you have the Verheul Method in mind. I use this as the body (trunk) of my programs.

You also say: " steady runs (regardless of the pace easy/moderate/hard) are the main component of aerobic development."

I say this: Even Lydiard didn't do his 'steady' runs in a steady pace. I suggest you try to do a lot of aerobic interval training around 1-2km, and you will find out.

Anyway: most of what you said is wrong: you have the wrong information and have never experienced that you can build a lot of aerobic stamina with aerobe longer interval training!!!

Just to clarify:

Yes35 suggests (by writing "You can't simply cancel everything and do intervals") that my schedules just contain interval training. That is nonsense. I think, Yes35, that you haven't read my book.

Klaas Lok wrote:

Just to clarify:

Yes35 suggests (by writing "You can't simply cancel everything and do intervals") that my schedules just contain interval training. That is nonsense. I think, Yes35, that you haven't read my book.

Maybe Yes35 is JS ...? :)

Whoever it is, definitely not read your book, thanks for clarification.

This is really hot stuff information you give here in this comment, Klas!

And there can only be one true version of this I guess? Then if this is the true version you

give us here , Canova just trying to take credit from coaching work he never did !! ?

Really hot stuff info I say! And extra interesting is that Kirui ran his fastest marathon before Canova

claimed to have coached him.

lexel wrote:

Klaas Lok wrote:

Just to clarify:

Yes35 suggests (by writing "You can't simply cancel everything and do intervals") that my schedules just contain interval training. That is nonsense. I think, Yes35, that you haven't read my book.

Maybe Yes35 is JS ...? :)

Whoever it is, definitely not read your book, thanks for clarification.

Klas system is a very good system and of course nothing new if we look at the history of running . It really works

to improve aerob/ anaerob capacity by running almost exclusively intervals.It has been done by Stampfl , Gerschler, Igloi, Zatopek, Waern, Schul and many more before....... Keep up your good work Klas!! :) Cheers!

Ps! I`M NOT yes35

- The Magic Wizard -