Not AS Slow - Training Update

Phase II of Daniels' 5k Program and a Quick Primer on Daniels' Running Formula

I'm still trying to figure out what I want to write about these days. One day it's personal growth, the next it's on mental health in younger men, and then the next day I want to write about how happy it makes me that my 18-month old finally learned how to 'pull my finger'. But, why can't I write about all those things? I suppose I could but I also think being able to focus on specific or even general topics helps you build a level of expertise that becomes more useful to others over time. Maybe a post for another day but in the spirit of staying on topic and writing mostly about running, we're going to give a little training update.

It's 12/22/24 and I'm writing this today because I'm just finishing up a 7-week block as I train for a 5k in February. The 5k in February is mostly a test and an event to hold myself accountable as racing short and fast events scares the heck out of me. I've put in some "speed" blocks in the past but then mostly transitioned into training for a fast half or full marathon. However, I honestly don't think I've never raced anything under a half marathon in my entire life. The couple of exceptions are chasing my daughter up the stairs and completing the Loco Moco food challenge in Maui three times in one week (no shame). Back to the training...

Jack Daniels Crash Course

I'm a Jack Daniels follower. His 'running formula' found me as I was entering the sport of endurance running and became interested in the physiology and theory of what makes us faster. I truly appreciated the simplicity of his methods and they've stuck ever sense. I've been using his methodologies to some extent in almost everything I've trained for in the past 5 years, from half marathons up to 100 mile races. For road races, I tend to follow some of his programs almost to a T, while longer trail efforts I tend to blend training theory from Daniels with testing some of the newer science coming out in the ultra-running space. What's magical about my approach is that I've essentially never been sidelined from an injury (knock on wood) and have consistently progressed as a runner. There was a 12-18 month window in there where I thought the 'trail by miles' was the best approach and neglected a lot of the speed and running economy development I now know I need, meaning I didn't progress as much where I need to be. But I did accomplish some goals and built an extremely sturdy aerobic foundation that now I'm able to leverage as I know I need to put most of my time and effort into getting faster. All that to say, I've had TREMENDOUS luck following his 40-50 miles per week 5k/10k plan. Last year I ran through Phase II before transitioning to marathon training and I'm fairly certain that 7 week block was the catalyst for a very strong year of growth. This year I decided to repeat it, identically. My paces are faster but my workouts are the same. I'm also running slightly less mileage and because I'm faster, even less time on feet.

Phase II for Daniels is built around 2 core types of workouts every week. A 'repetition' (or R-pace) workout is done earlier in the week and then a Threshold/R-pace combo workout is done later in the week. Weeks 3 and 6 have three workouts with a R-pace workout, an 'Interval' pace workout, and then a Marathon pace Tempo workout in place of the weekly Long-Run. The one change I do make to his program is I do a mini-deload week after Week 3, which is why my block was 7 weeks and not 6. As someone stacking a ton of life stress on top of my training, I've found deloading every 3-4 weeks to be invaluable towards my longevity and overall health. Everyone is different, but I would encourage everyone to consider if pushing through 6 weeks of 2-3 speed workouts a week is sustainable for their long-term journey. I would also encourage you to tell me I'm a pansy who wants an excuse to not push hard every couple of weeks and leave training theory to the experts🙂

Your paces in Daniels' training are based on his VDOT formula, which like previously mentioned I think make training simple, specific, and allow you to easily track progress over time. His formula for calculating these also seems to make a ton of sense theoretically, which you can learn more about reading his book. The VDOT I'm using this cycle is 54, up from using a 52 last year. I chose 54 based on it being the first VDOT with a marathon time under 3 hours. I ran a 3:02 in April of last year and am very confident I could run a sub-3 now, with a small build. When I opened the book to pull out these details, I had wrote where I was in previous years. When I started using this method in 2019 I was a 44 VDOT and jumped to a 48 in 2020. I used 50 in 2021 and again in 2022 (see above for minimal speed progress), and last year I used a 51. Jumping to 54 in one year gives me a lot of encouragement for what is to come and what this means for my ultrarunning potential. Why the VDOT topic is relevant is this cycle I am to be running my R-pace 2 and 400s at around 40 and 80 seconds, my Threshold intervals at around 6:26/mile and my Marathon pace Tempos at 6:49 (this is a sub-3 pace). One other slight tweak I make to Daniels' methodology is I tend to run my 200's faster than R-pace, more at like an 800m pace and not a 1 mile pace, which is how he likens it. Meaning, I ran my 200's this cycle around 38, 400s I aimed for 79-80s, and then Threshold and Tempos I actually went more off of HR, which is a post for another day but I generally shot for the paces I outlined before.

The Training

Like noted, the bulk of this block was really focused on 200s and 400s in workout one of each week, culminating at a 10x400 in the last week of the build. These went phenomenal and were fun workouts to follow along with because I did the EXACT same workouts and block almost exactly 12 months prior. Week 1 started with only 200s and was 2 sets of 6x200m with a 200m recovery and an 800m jog between sets. This was my first time back to the track since probably December of the year before and it was a great confidence booster. My goal was the 38-39s I mentioned earlier with the intent to run all 12 consistently and not falling off or having the last couple reps feel like 100% effort. This has been one shift in my training and mindset, that we don't need to go to the well every workout, especially when following a "coach" and having specific paces. There is science to the systems and mechanisms we are working and going hell-bent only increases likelihood of injury. There is a time and place, but workout 1 of 15 in 7 weeks isn't the place. Sorry Goggins, someone else will have to carry the boats. This workout I did end up landing the 38-39s and looking back to the year prior I ran 41-43s and in my journal said that "these felt good but difficult. will be interesting to see how the 400s go". Progress baby. I was excited.

Staying on the R-pace workouts, the next 7 weeks was essentially an old-school progression, moving through an increase in overall time at intensity and then an increase in the density of intensity. For instance, the first workout was 12 200s, meaning only 1.5 miles worth of R-pace and only running at that intensity for 38-39 seconds at a time before recovering. Sometimes we see an increase in both, more than likely earlier in a build which we see in Week 2 with a workout of 4 x 200, 200, 400. This is 2 miles of intervals AND now we have 4 sets of 400s at 80 seconds instead of only ~40 second intervals. All of this leads to the 10x400m in Week 7 which is 2.5 miles of intervals that are all ~80 seconds in length. Crushing this workout is a great confidence booster on your way to a fast 5k and a transition into doing more 5k specific paces in the next phase. And that is exactly what we did. In Week 7 I was confident I could crush this workout, but like all difficult things I was nervous. My goal was to land a 79 for every single intervals. And that's what we did. Until the last interval where I decided to carry the boat and dropped the hammer a little bit for a 73 and maybe the fastest 400 I've ever run. Yes, to boost my ego, I can run faster. But hitting that on interval 10 and still feeling good in my 1.5 mile cool down made me very satisfied in this first block.

The other "build" part of this phase is increasing volume at Threshold pace. Here my goal was to run these in the 6:20-6:30 range but stay in Z4, below Z5. We start with 2 x 1 mile in Week 1 and end at 4 x 1 mile in Week 7. In Week 6 we actually have a 3 mile interval only and I used that to test where I was. The goal was to see if I could run a casual sub-20 5k in the middle of the build, which I've only ran once in my life and is my PR. My goal was also to run this staying in Z4, and lets just say my ego got the best of me. The pace I wanted to stick to was actually to land me at a 19:45 and I tied myself to that number, ending up running at 19:38. BUT I spent the last mile in Z5 and pushed a lot harder than the workout was intended. Sometimes that is ok, just know the implications that can have on recovery and training in the coming days and even weeks. After doing that workout and going to the well, the last weeks 4 x 1 mile actually felt relatively easy and I was happy with my effort to close out the block.

The last piece of this build are the two Tempo workouts at Marathon pace in the middle and the end. These are meant to replace your Long Run and both workouts were identical, with a 2 mile warm up and then 9 miles at Marathon pace. The first bout in Week 3 was an amazing workout for my confidence yet again. With somewhat tired legs, I wanted to hold the 6:49 pace and stay in Z3, below Z4. The goal here was to see if my aerobic fitness had progressed enough to stay in Z3 while holding a sub-3 marathon pace. And we crushed it. It got a little hard at the end, but all in all I left the workout feeling that only a short build later and I could run a sub-3 marathon. Fast forward four more weeks and we repeat the workout for the last true workout of this phase. I was little over confident this time and coming out the gates for the first ~3 miles I was 4-5bpm below Z4 (in Z3) and knocking off 6:40s. I decided to stay there and that was a mistake. I ended up running the rest of the workout in low Z4 just to keep my total pace under 6:50 and the last couple of miles ended up being rather difficult. Nothing to be mad about as I know what I did wrong. I also was up for 2 hours in the middle of the night with a sick kiddo and decided not to sleep in. Yes, I'm human and love a good excuse as a crutch, bite me.

What's Next

As we look ahead, I plan to work my way through Phase III of the Daniels 5k/10k program. I did not do this block last year as I moved straight into marathon training when I finally landed my schedule for the year. That could also change for me once we find out our UTMB fate in mid-January, but for now we'll be working towards crushing a 5k at the end of this next 7 week block. Phase III moves to more of an Interval pace focus, which is slightly slower than R-pace and generally close to our at 5k race pace. This will be a good block to try some new training and get really comfortable at my goal pace for the next 7 weeks. We also keep Threshold work weekly, with 5 x 1 mile happening in weeks 3 and 7 to keep the work building from Phase II. Lastly, we add in a little more volume every other week to the Marathon pace Long Runs. A 10 mile Tempo, and 5, 1, 5, 1, Tempo workout, and then the last week we'll be subbing out our Marathon workout for 5k RACE DAY.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!

Derrick