Critique my 1500m training schedule.

A few questions and comments:

When you start racing in January, are you also going to be doing 2 workouts those weeks, or will the race replace one of the two workouts?

What will your long run be like once you start racing?

Why do two workouts the week of your peak race? They won't benefit your fitness at all.

I would incorporate strides and hill sprints to some degree from the very start, but make sure the strides are smooth, and that you take genuine full recovery (2-3 minutes) between the hill sprints.

I think one thing a lot of people forget is that the 1500 still relies a great deal upon aerobic fitness. I think you would benefit from maintaining a tempo run once every 2 weeks or so the whole way through. One way to do this would be to do, say, 30 minute tempo runs pre-season, then once you start racing, drop it to 20 minute tempoes followed by some controlled 200's.

Once I start racing I generally maintain a long run but drop it to around 1:30.

In January I'll probably do two workouts on weeks of the minor races (such as the 800m races), but perhaps you're right that I don't need two on the weeks of the major races and certainly not during my taper week.

I've always had a hard time figuring out where to put the uptempo runs during my racing season, but you're probably right that they're important.

Thanks for the comments.

For those minor races, I would say that the way to go might be to make those the weeks that you replace one of the track sessions with an aerobic tempo run. It shouldn't take as much out of your legs as another track workout.

If you were going to go the route of having the races replace a workout (having only 2 intense days per week, regardless), since you will be running short races, I would say that if you have an interval workout and a tempo run scheduled for that week but decide to race, drop the interval workout and keep the tempo.

There are lots of ways to do it, but a good rule of thumb is to not neglect any of the major kinds of training for too long.

I think that it is very important to remember that speed neds to be wrked on/developed year-round. It is NOT something that just magically develops. So...work on it as such. Strides, short sprints, short hills done early and consistently. These are NOT cardio-vascular stimulators. They should be neuro-muscular and to a lesser degree strength stimulators.

Good luck!

So maybe start doing something like 4-6 * 100m strides 2-3 times a week right away?

why March? actually not a bad idea, over sized indoor tracks over the best surface and conditions for a pb. but what about the rest of the track season?

Like you, I figured that running on fast tracks during the indoor season will produce favorable conditions for a PR--there's no wind and no risk of heat, cold or humidity--but at less than two months the indoor season is way too short to optimize performance. My goal is to cut down for my miles for a last chance qualifier meet at the beginning of March and then to hang on for a 1500m or two. If I'm still running really well in April, I will try to keep going, but I want to be able to taper earlier. It's actually pretty liberating not being required to run certain meets for a university team.

I might as well post my likely racing schedule in order to provide a more complete look at my season:

Jan 17: 3000m race (low key)

Jan 24: 800m race (low key)

Jan 31: weekend off

Feb 7: mile race (fast)

Feb 14: mile race (fast)

Feb 21: 800m race (low key)

Feb 26: weekend off

Mar 7: mile race (fast)

Mar 14: weekend off

Mar 21: 800m race (fast)

Mar 28: 1500m race (fast)

Again, I would appriciate any comments that people have on my training and racing plans. Thanks to everyone for all of the helpful comments so far.

Does this schedule have enough races? too many? Should I spread them out over a longer period?

Are there other good ways to work on speed in the off season without taxing yourself too much?

And would it be a good idea to combine long runs with tempo runs later in the season when I want to be focusing on track work? The pro is that this would allow me to work them into my schedule without sacrificing anything else and the con is that this could produce some really taxing workouts right when I need to be feeling fresh.

When I look at the schedule, it looks like a schedule that would be created by someone that is used to the NCAA system (XC, indoor, outdoor) and is trying to draw upon those experiences as a post collegian. The fall stuff looks ok if you are getting ready for 8-10k XC, but a lot of the elements of the training are not geared towards 1500m development.

I agree with what someone said about working on speed year round. In the NCAA sometimes you have to neglect speed development or speed maintenance during the fall because even milers have to run good cross country. If you are not running any cross country then there should be plenty of time to do V02 workouts and work on speed. It doesn't have to be all out speed, just 200s or 300s or hills on grass once every 10 days or so. And V02 for a miler doesn't need to be mile reps, it can be 800-1k reps at a faster pace.

Also, to me there is no need for those 2hr long runs unless you are training for a 10k or longer. Long runs are very important, but people often put too much stock in making them longer and longer. I know the Lydiard fans will argue with this, but I don't see the point of a 2hr long run for a 4 minute race. I think you're better off doing an 80-90min long run progressing over the middle 50-60min from easy pace to tempo pace and treating is a long LT session.

Aug- Easy running w/ strides 2x/wk

Sep- 1x progressive long run, 1x speed development, 1x fartlek/hills (alternating), 4x easy+strides

Oct/Nov- 1x progressive long run, 1x speed development, 1x V02, 4x easy+strides

Dec/Jan- 1x 1500m pace w/o or race, 1x sub-800m pace w/o, 1x tempo, 1x semi-long run, 3x easy+strides

Feb/Mar- 1x 1500m pace w/o, 1x sub-800m pace w/o, 1x semi-long run, 1x race, 3x easy+strides

I don't mean to hijack the thread here, but I am interested in this as well for myself. I follow Eraserhead completely on his program, but run closer to 60-70 mpw. I am going to be a college junior and have decided to focus more on traning for the mile instead of running xc. What are the real benefits in doing this though... I think a lot of it for me will be a mental relief from doing long races. I guess the question is what type of training in the fall will benefit a miler better than doing a cross country schedule? March will be a peaking point for indoor and then again in the end of May.

i have some questions for Coach..what exactly do you mean by easy running? do you really mean that during August all the runs should be at an easy pace, or that there should be no planned workouts. in other words, would it be alright to just go into a faster paced run if you feel good that day?

whenever i see schedules that prescribe a certain amount of time of just easy running, even with strides, i wonder, wouldn't you lose too much of your speed?

Thanks for the useful feedback here.

I'm going to be running the Club Nationals XC race in December along with a 5k-10k road race or two--and I do want to finish well at club nationals--but really I don't want to lose focus on preparing myself to run fast middle distance races in the winter and spring.

So it seems like your primary suggestions for training adaptation are 1) more focus on strides, hill sprints, and short race-pace intervals throughout the fall--I am now thinking maybe 4 * 200m at goal mile race on the track once a week or so--2) to cut back the volume on the long run and to make it into an uptempo type of run and 3) to add some very fast stuff once the season starts.

These sound like solid suggestions to me. I worked with a Lydiardesqe coach in college who really advocated the very long runs. On the plus side, they've always made me feel mentally tough and given me really solid endurance, but, on the negative side, they usually wear me out for several days afterward making speedwork, form-drills, and workouts difficult.

Just for fun I think I'm going to resurrect this thread during the racing season with updates on how this training plan is or is not paying off.

I just put easy running down as a general idea of the type of training in August. It really depends when the previous season ended and when you started back training. If you finished in May or June, you probably will take 2-3 weeks off and then begin back with 4-6 weeks of mileage buildup. That probably takes you to August 1st before beginning any type of hard training. The first month would probably be strides, easy hills, easy tempo and easy fartlek. I call that the transition phase. That will all be built upon until you reach proper training levels where fartlek becomes intervals and easy tempos become proper tempos.

Once proper sessions have begun, typical speed sessions during the fall for a miler might be:

10x150m hills with jog down recovery

3x (3x300) in 48-46-44 on grass w/ 100m jog and 3min recov

4x (3x200) in 32-30-28 on the track or grass with 100m jog and 3min recov

Short fast tempo (12 to 20 min) + hill sprints or easy 200's

Just my ideas.

I think one thing you are leaving out of your plan is recovery. This should be just as planned out as your training. Do you have down weeks planned in your training where you back off?

I have my athletes take a mid-season break every season where we cut the mileage and the track work. For one week we just run, do strides and if they do workout it is fartlek off the track. This allows them to stay focused and mostivaed all the way to the end of the season when 90%of athletes are fading because they had to max out just to get to the finals.

it sucks.....especially nov-dec part

I generally take a day off every third week or so, and I often let these 6-day weeks serve as down weeks with workouts scaled back and everything like that.