I’m so bored two/three weeks in.
Ive never ran 6 days per week, volume is still low. Routes are boring too, same old streets and the woods are too muddy.
Is it really worth persevering?
Even with Dusty Bin chasing you?
For me, getting fit is about finding things that you enjoy that enable you to gain fitness. So if you don’t enjoy it, choose something else that will enable you to. Although of course that’s extremely tricky with lockdown, as normally the things that enable you to exercise and enjoy have people with you doing it.
Regular things often take awhile to get into, so I’d make sure you give it a chance, and think of something else to do instead, but there’s so many ways of building fitness, silly to choose ones you don’t enjoy.
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There’s the old adage “No one forces a child to play”
As Jim says you need to find something you enjoy, but the current situation isn’t ideal for that.
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Yes, I’m trying to give it a chance - perhaps the routine will adapt me to it - but yes, I need to make it enjoyable somehow.
If I can pass the time for five weeks I’ll be up to 50km per week or 5 hrs, and then I think I’ll put intervals into the medium runs and stop extending them.
Maybe spend some time planning some new routes will help.
I would say definitely do this. Try to get some cheap trail shoes so you can open up a few more options as well. Plus the additional benefits to running off road.
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How can the woods be too muddy?
Learn to use the trails to your advantage - faster when the going is good, ease back when it is not good…this is effectively a fartlek run…
Why up to 50k before including intervals? You could be mixing things up with 6 different sessions per week…
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On the flip side, one good thing about doing the same session every day is that you don’t have to engage your brain or give it any thought- sometimes that’s quite nice, especially if you have got a lot of other stuff going on competing for processing power.
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So I’m trying to do it by “the book” and increase volume slowly, 10% increase each run or overall each week keeping the runs easy until I “max out” distance.
When I get to 50k my medium runs will be 10k/1hr, longer time than that will make it hard to keep them in a weekly lunch routine without interfering with work. Also 50km is well above my average last year, in fact maybe even my peak volume last year because I focussed on intensity.
I wouldn’t say they’re the same session as I have to keep finding slightly different routes for the distances but they’re still boring.
The big, possibly biggest, positive is that they are easy to do. Because I know I don’t have to try very hard it’s been pretty easy to get out the door even if the morning bike session wiped me out.
I am tempted to see if I could get up to 70km per week but pretty sure I’d need to back off the bike to see those lofty numbers.
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Totally agree with this. 
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We’ll, you certainly have part of the book right. The 10% and 10% rule is pretty reasonable guidance although this is the upper limit for novice progression and is evidence inspired rather than evidence based.
Two of the negatives of this method (and a big detractor from all those long slow run training promotors) are that when you do choose to introduce more pace, it will have to be at a modest level and then gradually increase and you could have been x number of weeks ahead here and this is where the 10% rule can be too ambitious). Secondly, the energy cost of running faster could have been in part offset by incorporating those movement patterns in the form of drills.
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So I’m back on the 321 format, not as evenly structured as I was in jan/feb and Ive put in some intervals last week not even 10k pace yet, as you say I’ll have to build them up.
36km last week so aiming for 40 this week. We’ll see if I can juggle the swimming in and keep the run volume up.
I’m keen to do faster running now but my head says if I can maintain near to 50km per week which is 2/3rds more than last years average, the results will come by themselves - so patience…
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Is this where you pick a distance, x, and then run x 3 times a week, 2x 2 times a week and 3x once a week. So if x = 5km then you do 3 x 5km, 2 x 10km and 1 x 15km? Is that pretty much the BarryP pan they refer to on Slowtwitch?
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Yep, he publicised it on ST but it isn’t his as he acknowledges in his posts there.
I think other organisations use this label to distinguish it from the person.
I cant. There’s no hiding from it, any longer! Ive averaged only 30km the last five weeks and skipped three runs this week already.
30km average is still better than last year, but I need to regroup or replan. I could go to 3 runs 1h,1h,2h for example.