I recently purchased the Build Your Running Body book and I love it. It's full of valuable info and I'm attempting one of the 12 week training programs. I want to run a decent mile time in early to mid June. I have decent speed somewhere still inside of me...I hope. My 1500 PR is 3:58 from my one and only full track season in college. Hamstring problems began to occur and I was done. My road 5k PR is 15:45/10k PR is 33:50 and are both from the mid 1980s. My last fast as race as a young man was 56:20 for 10 miles in 1991. After that I ran here and there with a race or two and even a marathon for good measure but nothing sustained for more than 6 months.
Last June I ran 5:29 (sea level) for the mile with most of my speed work consisting of 6x3 min at 5k effort with 2 min recovery along with some build ups after some runs. I had some decent long runs which ranged from 9-12 miles. I live and train at 4500 feet so not sure what role that plays either in my prep. I probably averaged about 35 miles a week in the few months leading up to that race. Recently I ran 20 flat for 5k at sea level...1 above zero temp...brrr! I followed a six week 5k plan fairly close..some at altitude and the last half at sea level. I was traveling a bit so my base training in the fall suffered prior to my implementation of the six week race plan. I'm currently running about 45 miles a week (and building) and my plan is to run 1-2 mile races prior to the one in June.
So enough about my background and my current training status. The book has an assortment of six week race plans. The 5k plan is as close as I can find for a milers plan. Do I just transition from the 12 week training plan into a six week plan? Should I adapt the 12 week plan at all for my goal race? I'm looking to adapt a six week 5k race plan into a milers plan as well. Because I'm a master should I make any adjustments? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
