A week off work! How to make best use of the time off in terms of running!

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mjoyeux Oct 2012 9:01am, 16 Oct 2012 14 posts	0 mjoyeux Morning! I'm on holiday from work for a week soon and I'd like to make make best use of the time off I've got in order to get some good training in. At the moment, I'm running six days out of seven: Mon - recovery run Tuesday - coached club session Wed - medium long run 13 miles Thurs - coached club session Friday - rest Sat - park run Sun - long run/race For an average total of 45-50 miles a week. At the moment, I'm working towards a sub 36 minute 10k at the back of November and I think the speed and fitness are there now so if like to make best use of my time off to make sure that I hit that goal for certain! Anyone got any advice on extra stuff I could do during the week to help whilst I'm off? Or should I just train as usual? Any thoughts? Thank you in advance!
Mrs Winkle Oct 2012 9:20am, 16 Oct 2012 6,579 posts	0 Mrs Winkle I don't think you need to do any more in terms of volume, and if your club sessions are speed work / intervals, then it looks fine to me. But I'm no expert at all.
Velociraptor Oct 2012 9:29am, 16 Oct 2012 21,928 posts	0 Velociraptor The problem with running is that you can't take the opportunity of a week off work to have a training binge, you'd just end up broken. The opportunities I can see there are to do short doubles on Monday and Wednesday - an easy 3-4 miles each day in addition to your planned run. Or use some of the time to do some exercise that won't interfere with running, like swimming or an easy bike ride.
Silver Strider Oct 2012 9:05pm, 18 Oct 2012 775 posts	0 Silver Strider Mj - It sounds to me like you need to train yourself to rest. Grab a beer and hide your run shoes for a week.... much better option
JimiG Oct 2012 9:41pm, 18 Oct 2012 819 posts	0 JimiG How about using your week off to run in a new and different way. So you might choose that if you always run in run in town to drive/bus/ train off to some countryside and find a nice long or hilly trail in the wilderness. If you run with music don't take it, if you run fast run long and slow, if you run early run towards sunset (bring a head torch) just do something strange and fun. run to pub and meet an old friend for lunch, take that mate of yours who always says they envy you with all your running but they could never do it for a slow and easy 5K And if you do ll that in a week then you'l be amazing. But a change is always a rest so change it up and throw away the plan for a week, Next week you can go back to the plan PS massively envious of your commitment but being a flake means you learn a lot about what can make you smile. So simply do something that makes you smile like an idiot and you@ll have made the most of your holiday.
mjoyeux Oct 2012 7:00am, 19 Oct 2012 15 posts	0 mjoyeux Thanks for all the advice guys! Think rest and a little alternative training is in order!
Ultracat Oct 2012 7:36am, 19 Oct 2012 10,062 posts	0 Ultracat Take the opportunity to run somewhere different and do some different training sessions.
Willymo Oct 2012 7:39am, 19 Oct 2012 1,007 posts	0 Willymo Your training weeek is identical to mine except I volunteer at parkrun and race XC afterwards! I have a similar week coming up and the intention is to go to the lake district and swap the quality sessions for distance, so put a 70/80 mile week in but all at easy pace. Each to their own though!
Carlos Fandango Jnr Oct 2012 8:13am, 19 Oct 2012 5 posts	0 Carlos Fandango Jnr How about... and I accept the possibilities are endless here: Mon - am: easy 30mins / pm: easy 45mins Tuesday - coached club session - assume 60mins Wed - am: easy 30mins / pm: easy 45/60mins Thurs - coached club session - 60mins agains Friday - am: easy 30mins or day off altogether Sat - park run Sun - long run/race Running twice a day, for short periods, means you get in a lot of genuinely easy jogging about, which is how you recover from the sessions. I left your two club sessions there but would have preferred to move Thursday's effort to Friday and make it a tempo run instead. If you wanted to risk pushing the mileage up a bit to make the most of the time off work (obv be careful with this) then how about: Mon - am: easy 30mins / pm: easy 45mins Tuesday - coached club session - assume 60mins Wed - am: easy 30mins / pm: easy 45mins Thurs - pretty easy 60 mins Friday - pm: tempo 60mins of running, with the middle 30min at the 'tempo' speed Sat - park run if you must but don't push it at all, try to get 2/3 miles in before and after Sun - long run/race - assume 120mins Mon - day off because you're back at work. That's prob more than 50 miles but most of it easy jogging. Depending on what else you have going on in your life you can sleep in the afternoons etc as well, so even though you run more than usual, you also rest more. Easy runs can be about 8 minute mile pace or even slower, don't be embarrassed! Not an exact science unless you're Alberto Salazar. My own experience of weeks off work is that I could shunt the mileage up more than I thought and not have problems - going from about 40/45 a week to 60/65 for the occasional week, provided those extra miles are all just trotting about.
Carlos Fandango Jnr Oct 2012 8:20am, 19 Oct 2012 6 posts	0 Carlos Fandango Jnr www.runnerslife.co.uk/athletes then click through onto a runner, then into 'training sessions'. Gave me some good ideas on how to train, which I then put into practice badly. For 10k training, reading what someone like Jonny Mellor or Matt Barnes does is usually pretty good. A few of the guys are 1500m or marathoners so their training is a bit different of course.