This coming week starts my next training cycle, targeting the Atlanta Track Club Grand Prix Mile.

The Jerome Scales Southside 5 Miler capped my previous training cycle. According to Jack Daniel’s VDOT calculator, an equivalent performance at the mile distance would be a time of 6:56.

The General Plan

This training cycle will be 14(ish) weeks long broken into the usual four phases. I’ll do a planned “down week” of ~75% volume every fourth week. I’m adapting Jack’s 1500 to 2-Mile plan from the third edition of Daniels’ Running Formula for my level of volume.

Phase I will last four weeks and focus on easy running. I plan to increase my “long” run by 5 minutes from 55 to 60 minutes during this phase. I don’t do big volume increases anymore. I’ve had too many setbacks to want to push that. I’ll try to gain as much strength as possible in the weight room during this phase.

Phase II will last three weeks and focus on Repetition (R) workouts. This is an anaerobic pace to improve “anaerobic power, speed, and economy of running.” (Daniels). I’ll slow down in the weight room, but will still try to increase strength.

Phase III will last four weeks and focus on Interval (I) workouts. This is around VO2max pace. During this phase I’ll try to hang onto my weight room strength gains.

Phase IV will last three-ish weeks and will have a mixture of R, I and Threshold (T) work. T pace is around lactate threshold pace. I’ll intentionally de-load on the weights to help peak for the race. The end of the cycle gets a little weird as the race is on a Tuesday. I will sacrifice most of the second week here to get a full week of taper leading into the race.

With my 5 miler result, my training paces are:

Marathon (“M pace.” Kind of a “hard easy” pace)

8:32/mi

Threshold

8:00/mi

Interval

7:22/mi

Repetition

6:57/mi

Phase I

Phase I looks like this:

1. Week 1
   1. Monday: 40 min Easy
   2. Tuesday: 30 min Easy
   3. Wednesday: 40 min Easy
   4. Thursday: 30 min Easy
   5. Friday: 30 min Easy
   6. Saturday: 55 min Easy
2. Week 2 (planned down week)
   1. Monday: 30 min Easy
   2. Tuesday: 20 min Easy
   3. Wednesday: 30 min Easy
   4. Thursday: 20 min Easy
   5. Friday: 20 min Easy
   6. Saturday: 40 min Easy
3. Week 3
1. Monday: 40 min Easy
2. Tuesday: 30 min Easy
3. Wednesday: 40 min Easy
4. Thursday: 30 min Easy
5. Friday: 30 min Easy
6. Saturday: 60 min Easy
4. Week 4
1. Monday: 40 min Easy
2. Tuesday: 30 min Easy
3. Wednesday: 40 min Easy
4. Thursday: 30 min Easy
5. Friday: 30 min Easy
6. Saturday: 60 min Easy

I’ll post the other plans for the other phases when they get nearer.