The FIRST Running Program...

So, after my result at London, I've decided it's time to start taking my training a little more seriously.  Like many people, I tended to do what I wanted, when I wanted, with no real focus other than blasting those fatties on flash bikes in Richmond Park into the weeds.  So, to begin with, I've decided to base my running around the FIRST program.

Developed by Bill Pierce, Scott Murr and Ray Moss at the Furman Institute it focuses on the idea of 3plus2 which is 3 runs, plus 2 cross-training sessions.  They make some pretty big claims in their book Run Less, Run Faster about improvements such as 4-7% improvement across VO2 max, pace at lactate threshold and pace at VO2 max.  All off 3 runs a week.  With very low mileage.

The 3 runs consists of a track session, a short tempo run and a longer, slower run.

Example
          Workout 1 - 15min warmup, 8x400m with 400m rest, 10min cooldown
          Workout 2 - 1mile warmup, 3mile at short tempo pace, 1 mile cooldown
          Workout 3 - 6miles at long tempo pace

The paces for the track intervals, long runs, short, medium and long tempo runs are all calculated from your 5k run pace.  Hence, the 5km race pace run I did this evening which I've embedded at the start of this blog.  You add or subtract time to this pace to find the paces you need to run each workout at.

Track Repeat Paces
Tempo Paces
Long Run Paces

As a triathlete, who would easily fit in the 2 cross-training sessions required, this sounds almost too good to be true.  I'm going to follow the program until the Hever Castle Triathlon and see if I improve on my (frankly abysmal) time that I ran at London.  I've also got some 10km races lined up for when I return to London, so should be able to chart any improvements in my 10km times.

Sub 40mins for a 10km is something I've thought impossible.....but who knows......

James out.

FIRST Running Program website
Runner's World article

PS Promise I am in no way associated with the guys who wrote this program or any of that shizzle