unbalanced aero/anaero

[cory123]

Basically, during races, I feel like my legs arent strong enough whereas my lungs/breathing in general feels fine. During the summer, i did a lot of mileage, but i think doing them at a slow pace (8:30 maybe) and not doing many tempos/hills may have caused this imbalance. Would that make sense?

I want to work on strengthening my legs, especially for the mile for track and xc next year. How should I incorporate tempo runs and hill workouts into my training, and when should i begin doing them? Also, just a gradual quickening of my normal runs from 8:30 to around 7:30 would be fine right? THanks for the help.

[watchout]

How should I incorporate tempo runs and hill workouts into my training, and when should i begin doing them? Also, just a gradual quickening of my normal runs from 8:30 to around 7:30 would be fine right? THanks for the help.

Tempo runs: Wait until 3-6 weeks into your base training before you start running tempo runs... how often should you incorporate them? you probably only need 1-2 tempo runs per week. Lydiard suggest two week periods of 2 5k tempos and 1 10k tempo, and that sounds like a good balance to me. Another thing I like to do, although it doesn't really matter too much, is to have my long run be about the length of two tempo runs... just a preference of mine though.

Hill workouts: Again, wait until 3-6 weeks into your base training before you start incoroprating hill workouts (I'm assuming you mean either hill sprints, hill repeats, or hill bounding)... and again, 1-2 times per week would be just fine.

Pace of normal runs: These don't really matter as much as people usually seem to think ... pace of a run should be determined by how you feel. If you are feeling a 7:30 pace run, and that's not too hard for you, then by all means have at it. If you are feeling more like a 8:30 pace run, and that doesn't seem excessively pedestrian, then by all means have at it. Run by feel, don't run by your watch. You're not going to get better because you run your normal runs at 77% instead of 68% or whatever. In fact, it will leave you more tired for the harder work down the road, and you may not be able to get as many comfortable miles in ... I'm not advocating high milage/slow distance, but what's important on normal runs is that they aren't difficult, and that you get as much comfortable/healthy milage at a non-taxing effort as possible.