How it works for you.
http://www2.furman.edu/sites/first/Pages/default.aspx
I have an interview with Bill Pierce of the Furman Institute of Running coming up in the next couple of shows but I thought I’d give you a summary of the application. I think the first approach makes good sense and is an excellent compromise between high mileage and quality miles for the reasonably experienced marathon racer.
The bottom line of FIRST is that you only need to run 3 times a week and your mileage peaks out in the mid-30’s per week. The FIRST program is based on the 3 plus 2 training strategy – this means 3 workouts and two cross-training days. The three work outs are speed, tempo and long (sound familiar?).
All of this is described in great detail in Bill’s book and some of the plans are on the FIRST website as well.
When the FIRST training plan hit Runner’s World in August of 2005 it sent shockwaves through the running community. Up to that point ‘real’ runners swore by the high miles and quality workouts theory for marathons and the great unwashed back of the packers just tried to use the standard training plans for beginners like Higdon and many others.
What if you wanted to get the same finishing times, but only had time to run 3 times a week? That’s the FIRST plan. The theory here is that by running fewer, but more focused workouts, you would avoid injury and be much more efficient with your time spent.
The first couple of times I trained for and ran qualifying marathons I used a 6-7 workouts per week plan, but even then my quality workouts were only 3 times a week. Speed, Tempo and long. The rest were base miles – they weren’t pointless but they weren’t focused either. What FIRST does is take the standard high-quality training plan that I used and strip out all the base runs – leaving only the quality.
In addition to this they put in 2 days of aerobic cross-training, like swimming or biking to build endurance without over-stressing the legs.
I used this technique when I was coming off a severe injury and didn’t think I could survive 5-6 days a week of running. I did the 3 quality workouts and 2-3 swim sessions each week. It worked. I ran a qualifying marathon on the 3 plus 2 training.
The caveat is that I did not feel as fit as a normally would coming out of a 5-6 day a week training cycle. In fact I felt like I was holding on for dear life at the end and it took me three marathon tries to get my time. I crashed in the other two.
I felt like the program cut very close to the minimal amount of training necessary to get that goal pace marathon on a good day if all the stars aligned on the right course with the right weather.
I would recommend this type of plan for experienced runners who can cut it close and use their experience to fill in the gaps. I would recommend it for those of us looking to qualify but coming off an injury.
I would not recommend it for beginner runners or very slow runners.
There are two other cool things that they do in this book. They give you all the pace tables for different race lengths sex and age specific for goal setting. You can take your recent race results and predict fairly accurately what your goal should be at any other distance.
For instance if I take my recent ½ marathon times in the 1:30’s this should mean a marathon in the 3:20’s which, indeed it does! This way you can also see if you are over reaching. If your times don’t support your goals.
Conversely you can back into the training paces you’ll need to accomplish to meet a specific goal which is extremely useful. I found it, based on my decades of experience to be spot on.
The second thing that is in the book that is quite useful is age-graded race times. This is great for us ‘seasoned’ runners. It also was incredibly accurate. If I look at what my recent marathon times are and compare them to marathon times from when I was in my ‘prime’ with the same quality training cycles the numbers are right on.
For example if I look at the low 3:20’s times I’ve put forward in the last 2 years and multiply by the age-grading factor they produce times in the 3:05 range if I was in my prime which is very accurate. I for one find this age grading very encouraging.
The book is called Run Less Run Faster and it is published by Runner’s world.
I love this book. After running two disappointing marathons (my first two) I used it to train for and succeed in a PR and Boston qualifying time. I have used it in the intervening years to train for PRs in half-marathons and 5Ks. It’s part of the reason I got into triathlons (the cross-training). As a self-coached triathlete, I use this as a guide for my running program in triathlons. In spite of the fact that I’ve been running even less this past year, due to huge increases in swimming and cycling, I’ve still gotten faster in my run (mind you, I’ve been running for a little under 6 years…so I guess I’m still at that point in my running career where I am getting faster despite my age). I get injured when I run too much, so this program really works for me.