Martin Maletz is from Meißenheim, a little village near Lahr, in Germany.

Martin writes “I´m a 20 year old runner from Germany. I began with running in 2008. I bought your book in October 2008 and read it quite thoroughly. Before training the Lydiard way my PB over 10k was 37min01sec. After following the training advice in your book my 10k PB came down to 33min51sec.

You are very accurate in describing the “peaking-process” of a middle-distance runner, but what should the peaking process of a 5000m and 10000m runner look like?

Should I do more VO2-max-intervals and maintain the long runs until the major competitions start?

I would be happy if you could answer me those questions.”

ANSWER:

Hi Martin! Congratulations on getting a good 10k PB in your first year of running! With several more years of good steady work, who knows what you could end up running? The trick is to improve, be patient, and NEVER get injured by training too hard. Some guys I know have been fairly ordinary when younger, but just trained consistently for years and improved in small bites, and ended up as Olympians!

You are quite right about the slight difference in approach for 5k/10k. For these far more aerobic events, it is important that you stress the VO2 work about once a week, and balance it out with some good leg-speed work and some sub-threshold running, and the other sessions would be all easier aerobic runs, of varying lengths.

Based on your 10k best of 33:51, for training purposes I estimate your current 5k best could be around 16:18; 3000m 9:20; 1500 4:21.

Your sub-threshold pace at present would be about 3:40/km. Your threshold pace would be about 3:35. Sub-threshold runs are extremely useful for building up aerobic capacity without tearing your glycogen stores down too much. You could include a sub-threshold (‘3/4 effort’) run somewhere each week in your training.

As you get naturally fitter, faster, and stronger, to really maximise your times it would be useful to regularly race 800m and 1500m distances on the track as well, but you could do this very well with just VO2 Max intervals on Tuesdays, leg-speed runs on Thursdays, and 800/1500 races on Saturdays.

These hints are useful for you as you attempt 5000 and 10000m distances. Hopefully you know all your heart rate training zones by now so you can control your efforts on your harder aerobic effort days.

1) Long EASY runs are maintained in-season, throughout early races, until about 2 weeks before THE major competition/peak race

2) These long runs may be far more relaxed and quite a bit slower than during your base phase (ie: they can be 1 min/km slower and you will still get the aerobic/slow twitch Type I fibre stimulus you need). This is important because your more intense sessions during the week will tend to deplete your valuable glycogen stores, which we need for fast racing, and we want the aerobic running as easy, active recovery. Go for easy running time rather than distance.

3) One weekly session of VO2 max type intervals, and one steady sub-threshold run (ie: 45min-60min S.T. inserted into an 80 minute run, when not racing).

4) Do an easy morning jog (6-8k) on your interval days (this will ‘warm you up’ for an evening interval session, and keep an aerobic stimulus present).

5) You need very little glycolytic work (ie: 300m-400m repetitions @ 800m/1500m pace) for 5000/10000m- it can be too anaerobic to yield a benefit for essentially aerobic-dominant events. In fact if you overdo 1500m/800m-type workouts, you could find your aerobic enzyme levels drop to compensate a bit. However, something like 8 x 400m @ 5000m race-pace might be fine, with 200m jog recovery.

6) I’d only do ONE 1500-type glycolytic workout in a leadup to a 5000,about 7-10 days out from the race, with plenty of aerobic running before and after, and only once you have successfully completed several weeks of the VO2 work, AND seem to be improving well on it.

If you dig yourself into a little hole and feel more tired than you feel you should in the next days, just jog for an hour or so each day until fully recovered. It’s better to be fresh and recovered and miss a planned harder session than to race tired or to ‘over-reach’ in training.

The 10000m is raced at a pace halfway between your VO2 Max and your Anaerobic threshold. The 5000m is run at 95% of your VO2 max. So for most of your leadup, you could get away with a strong set of intervals @ 5000m pace, with equal or shorter recovery. As you get to the last two weeks, you could make the intervals a bit faster, at 3000m pace (100% VO2 Max pace). You might do one less interval to cope with the increased intensity and recover well. To make this training fun, you could do it around a parkland loop, or on trails.

It doesn’t have to be on the track. IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT YOU TRAIN AT YOUR OWN LEVEL IN ANY INTERVAL WORKOUT; a little bit too fast, and you might harm your recovery. You get stronger in your good recovery time.

Here’s a sample early-season week:

Make M-W-F your easier running days year-round. Wed can always be longer, and M-F can be shorter to recover from Sat & Sun (M) or actively rest for Sat & Sun (F).

Mon: 1 hour easy jog

Tue: am: 8k easy

pm: w/up 3k easy. 10 x ‘rolling start’ 60m leg-speed runs, with 1-2 laps easy jog recovery. INTERVALS: 4 x 1000m @ 5k race pace (appx 3:15), 2:45 rec (ie: 1 every six minutes- easy to set watch).

Wed: 70-90 minutes very easy running on parkland/river trails/etc.

Thu: am: 8k easy

pm: w/up 3k easy. 10 x ‘rolling start’ 60m leg-speed runs, with 1-2 laps easy jog recovery. Then 30 minutes light, fun fartlek on parkland, in racing shoes or track shoes. Work efforts and recoveries to suit; make sure that the surges aren’t too long or hard- should be relaxed and fun. Then 15 minutes warm-down, easy.

Fri: pm: 1 hour easy jog.

Sat: am: 8k easy jog

pm: RACE, or 80 minutes incl 45-60 mins @ sub-threshold pace (for you: about 3:40 per km). The 80 mins would include the warm-up,the progressive easing into sub-threshold, and the cooling-down.

Sun: Long easy run 2hrs +.

Later on, you keep the easier days much the same, but would ‘tweak’ a couple of energy systems in just to keep them all trained. So you might do your Saturday session as above, but raise the tempo to nearer your threshold (at present, about 3:35/km would do- it may be faster as you progress). You might also do time-trials just to iron out psychological flat spots, on a track, for 5000m or 100000m. These trials should be constant laps, and may be over minute slower than your best (5000m) and 3 minutes slower for 10k. The key for time trials is rhythm, constancy, no real variation in lap times, and to train your concentration.