Run-Down Forums

[mjsbossman]

Hey Dan, I really think I am being overtrained. Here is how my typical training week goes.

Sunday-Long Run(80-100 min.)
Monday-Interval Workout(10x800m or 10x400)
Tuesday-Distance run(about 60 minutes)
Wednesday-Interval workout(5x400 or 10x200)
Thursday-Race(1600 and 3200)
Friday-Distance run


Yesterday at the race I did pretty bad and felt tired. I am sick of this. I think we should just have one interval workout a week, on Tuesday. And we havn't been doing enough distance running and I am getting slow because I thrive on high mileage. Speed training doesn't help me as much as it does other runners.

[Guest]

I know what you mean by having speed out the wazoo. I'm in HS and our weekly mileage is 15. That is everything...warmup, cooldown, workout. How sad is that?! I'm sure some junior high girl somewhere is laughing as she reads how she does more mileage than the team I'm on does. According to my "coach" speed is the only thing you need, and even then the workouts are really poor.

[Anonymously Posted by: 'despair']

[mjsbossman]

Yes, I know. I do really good with high mileage training, around 50 or more miles a week. In fact I set my pr in the mile this year in the early season while I was doing all distance running and no speed workouts. Since we cut back on mileage I havn't even broken my pr.

What should I tell my coach? I am so mad because I trained so hard over the winter and had a great base and now the base is fading.

I think I do great with high mileage because I consider myself more of a sprinter with fewer slow twich muscles than the average distance runner, so I must keep my few slow twich muscles in great shape or my performance declines.

[Dan]

I think the pre-race day intervals are the big problem. It's very unlikely that you are well enough recovered from that to perform at a high level the next day. My advice would be to tell your coach that you feel flat the day of races and need to adjust the previous day. It does him no good to have you run below expectations, so if you present it in the light of how it affects your performances, you might have more look.

Dan