Beginner/Intermediate
20 miles a week for one year | | General preparation: 10 weeks
All mileage should be under 75% of max HR, cycling the volume weekly as well as daily. The goal is to develop resistance to the different stresses. We are training to prepare to train. Intermediate athletes can do 10 x 100 meter strides three times a week. Transition: 4-6 weeks
For all, hills should be 2-3 minute efforts at 80-90%, recovery should be a jog down the hill. Each week should be about the same, such as 8 x 2 minutes up a moderately steep hill.
AT workouts should be at approximately 80-90%. Aerobic threshold varies between individuals--one estimate is the pace we can sustain for 10 miles. |
| AT workouts should be 2-3 miles, in increments of 5 to 10 minutes with 1-2 minutes rest between fast efforts. For example: Week 11: 5x5 minutes at 80-90% with 2 minutes rest (rest is easy running)
Week 12: 3x8 minutes at 80-90% with 2 minutes rest
Week 13: 3 x 10 minutes at 80-90% with 2 minutes rest
Week 14: everything under 75% for recovery. At this stage of development the athlete can only expect to handle three weeks of this kind of effort. Notice that we have increased the volume considerably from 20 per week but the intensity should be low enough the first 10 weeks to allow the athlete to handle the increase. The next three weeks we maintain the volume and increase the intensity. This is the hardest stage for most athletes. Week 14 allows the athlete to get some recovery before beginning the higher quality/race-specific training, such as a typical 10-week marathon training program. | Week 7 | 5 | 12 | 8 | 12 | 5 | 15 | off |