spoke with Henry Marsh this evening. He responded to an email I sent to him at
henry@henrymarsh.com
. Here's what he shared with regards to his training:
Always took a month after summer track season. Commented that he "always did better late summer in meets than the June nationals in U.S. Said that the type of training he did may have atrributed to a longer peak or late peak in summer.
Henry then spent 1 month "just getting back into a training regime, running 20 -30 miles a week easy".
MOndays were the biggest mileage day, with 3-4 miles in the morning, followed by a 10 Miler ( his long run). Henry mentioned that " the 10 miler got fatser as the year progressed. His fastest was 57:00 towards the end of the year.
Tuesdays: 2-3 Miles am on the treadmill. PM: 3,000 Meters
of longer intervals and he usually ran in a ladder format.
The longest was 1200 Meters. Warm - Up was always a 1 mile jog, followed by stretching and then 1 mile of fast strides on straight, jog the curves and then some more stretching.
Wed: 2 - 3 Miles am treadmill
3- 4 miles pm treadmill or trails. Henry said that if was very tired he cut this down even to 1-2 mile jog an some stretching, because he wanted to be well recovered.
Thursdays: 3 - 4 miles am on treadmill. PM: 1500 meters of reps at faster than race pace; such as 200m, 300, or 400 m reps with a longer recovery. Henry said he got down to 26-28 for the 200's.
Friday: The second lightest recovery day of the week, behind the sunday rest day. 1 - 2 mile jog on treadmill am
1-3 mile jog on treadmill pm
Saturday: Early season, steady mileage of say 5- 7 miles.
progressing to 1-2 mile warm up - tempo run and warmdown. Race simulations in season or races. RAN SEVERAL INDOOR MEETS and SAID THIS BROUGHT HIM AROUND BETTER FOR OUTDOORS.
Sunday: REST DAY
Funny guy, actually. Said that guys in europe would laugh at his workouts and he would comment, "why should I train when i am resting for the races". That his unusaul short jogs of 2 miles or so the day before races or in between short workouts of 3-4 x200M or 800 Meter time trials.
Mentioned that his physical makeup was different than most and alot guys could not handle such little volume, where he could not handle higher volumes. Also got viruses alot from early overtraining before Bowerman.
Hope this is insightful.