Individually tailored workout levels make this ideal not only for the 1500m specialist but also for those 800m racers who wish to step up in distance, 5K to marathon specialist runners who feel they could benefit their overall speed by stepping down in distance, and newbies to the sport who are lured to the exciting mile as a foray into racing.
Plan length: 12-24 weeks. Choose your start date and race date - the plan adjusts automatically.
Fitness level: All fitness levels, from the couch potato to the seasoned runner.
Days of training: Select 5, 6 or 7 days a week training.
Training outline (12-24 weeks):
- Phase 1: Base – progressive aerobic conditioning from your current fitness level (5-10 weeks)
- Phase 2: Hill Leg-Strengthening – for faster work (2-4 weeks)
- Phase 3: Anaerobic Conditioning – working on form, efficiency, oxygen debt and pace (2-4 weeks)
- Phase 4: Coordination – specific workouts to sharpen you for 1500/mile (2-4 weeks)
- Phase 5: Taper – cutting back the workload with shorter faster feel-good workouts (1-2 weeks)
Optional Programs: Ride the Peak with Race-Week / Non-Race-Week add-on plan for a continued racing season.
It's Not All Speed:
It makes a perfect sense to train upward of 2-hours to prepare for a marathon or a half marathon. But many athletes and even coaches fail to understand that, in middle distance beyond 800m, it's not how fast you can run but how much energy you have left in the final stage of the race that you can utilize the best speed that you have. It makes a perfect sense, as a matter of a fact, to develop your aerobic foundation first so you can manage more race-specific training, and racing, because most of energy system required in running 1500m, upward of 70%, still comes from your aerobic system. This is why most of world top middle distance runners "train like a distance runner or sometimes even as a marathon runner" before the season begins.
Balance of Doing the Right Workouts at the Right Time:
Lydiard Running Wizard 1500m Training Program provides correct balance of training that stimulate each energy system at the right time. It leads you to build up your volume of aerobic run in the first half of the program in a sensible, yet challenging, fashion. Uphill running that follows will strengthen your legs to produce powerful strides for good milling. Once you cover seemingly short, but adequate and just the right amount of, interval phase (which many people wrongly think is the most important part of middle distance running preparation); and the Coordination Phase will carefully, but surely, lead you to the Peak Performance by coordinating longer tempo runs for strength and shorter faster tempo runs for speed.
With well-coordinated and balanced training program Lydiard Running Wizard 1500m Training Program provides, you will surprise yourself with new-found "speed" off strength training; just as predecessor like three-time Olympic champion, Peter Snell, found himself more than a half a century ago.