Ask the coach: Training plans in time rather than miles/kilometres

Why do your training plans have the sessions in time rather than miles or KM?

Ian

Running coach answer: Training plans in time rather than miles/km

It is common for many training plans to recommend a time duration for a run, rather than a distance. This is principally to recognise that not all runners are able to train at the same pace, and it therefore gives an adjustment to prevent overtraining by slower runners. For example, an elite runner might be able to do a 20 mile training run comfortably in 2hrs but a runner aiming at 4 or 5hrs will take much longer.

If a runner targeting 5hrs in their marathon is asked to run 20 miles in training, they are likely to be out for at least 4hrs. This is likely to create excessive fatigue and inhibit a reasonable frequency and quality of training in the week following the long run.

It is accepted that around 2hrs duration of steady state running creates the aerobic fitness you are looking for in your long runs, building of capillaries and mitochondria and developing efficient energy pathways, particularly fat burning. Training for longer does not necessarily bring much in greater gains, and at some duration there is a tipping point in which the additional training volume becomes counter productive.

An exception to this, will be in gaining confidence in that you can run the marathon distance – which will give reason for an occasional run of 3 or 4hrs.

The principle of working by duration can be taken all the way through a training plan – an elite plan may state a 10 mile run, which would probably be done at around 60mins at steady speed. The same run will, however, take a 4 or 5hr marathoner much longer, and cause overtraining in those runners. So, by quoting duration instead of distance, it means all runners are taking on a similar workload.

This also means that as runners improve and get faster, they will cover greater distances in their training week without changing the duration of their weekly training.

There are some exceptions to this, which mostly apply to interval-type training to gain leg speed.

This is when a distance and pace might be quoted for the runner to achieve, with the variation coming from the number of repetitions. For example, at a recent track session, I had my best runners complete 20x300m @ 5km pace, with a 100m jog recovery. The average for the group was about 12 to 15 reps completed (it was the runner’s choice). As I am the oldest and slowest in my group (now), I completed 6 x 300 at whatever speed I could muster, with 100m walk recovery, and finished the session at about the same time as everyone else.

Even so, intervals don’t have to be so regimented on distance. I did a controlled fartlek (speed play) session with a mixed ability group on our Spring Algarve training week in March this year. The session was a time pyramid of 1min, 2min, 3min, 4min, 5min, 4min, 3min, 2min, 1min, varying speed to match the interval duration. It was run on an approx. 800m grass circuit, and each effort had a 60sec jog recovery. Magically, all ran at different speeds – but all finished at the same time!

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