Winter Training and Improving My Times

Leoln7
Leoln7 Posts: 12
in Fitness and Exercise
My primary goal since joining MFP has been weightloss, I'm working on cutting down to a certain weight before I begin to bulk around January.

However recently took a small break from my training while I was away on holiday and have been getting into it the past week and a bit since I got back.

Routine consists of Weight training: X Cardiovascular Training: Y With my week looking like this: X-Y-X-Y-X-X-Y

I have a 1.5 mile fitness test coming up on my college course which will be taking place 1-2 weeks before Christmas. I ran it in 14:26 in September and have improved to 13:14 today and I would like to improve on it more before Christmas.

My problem is I'm having a hell of a time adjusting to the weather, the cold air alone today took my breath away and left me with a tension headache by the time I finished.

Do any of you more experience road runners have any advice or tips that I can use to improve my time and adjust to this weather? I'd rather keep to the days I'm doing currently but I'm open to suggestions about training differently.

Replies

  • Im4gin3th4t
    Im4gin3th4t Posts: 29 Member
    what have you been doing to improve your running times? how far have you been running every week? And what kind of cold are you running in?

    Really the best way to get faster is to run faster and run longer. The below suggested distances are assuming you are already running about 16 miles per week. Lower the distances if you have averaged less mileage than that.

    http://www.attackpoint.org/trainingpaces.jsp

    That calculator can tell you how fast you should be going for different distances and if you do one long distance easy run (at suggested pace, prolly a 3 or 4 mile run), one tempo run (at suggested pace, prolly a 3 mile run), one speed workout (either the 800m or 400m repeats at suggested pace.) plus one 2 mile recovery run per week you should get faster.
  • Leoln7
    Leoln7 Posts: 12
    I have been running 2 miles 3 days a week, so about 6 miles a week, as well as circuit training in my college on a Wednesday.

    I'll take a look at that thank you very much!

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