u/flyingbennyben

I’ve been doing most of my running outside during the summer and I’ve had to wake up early to run every day. Despite getting up and running at the same time everyday, heat and humidity varies so much day-to-day. The heat was too bad today so I decided to do my easy run on the treadmill and was surprised with how much easier it felt and how much lower my hr was (~10 bpm lower) despite not feeling any slower. My question is: can I do all of my easy running and threshold workouts on the treadmill? I won’t be getting any heat training advantages but I’m also not planning on running any long races in hot temperatures so I’m just curious if I can transfer a majority of my training to the treadmill and expect the same running improvements as when I’m running outside.

I just finished my season as a 400m sprinter running 52.8 and I was planning on moving up to the 800m next season. My speed is in a good place right now but my aerobic endurance is pretty bad in comparison (21 minute 5k) so my plan was to improve my aerobic capacity while maintaining my sprint speed:

Monday - Sprint Workout (Max Velocity) + easy run double

Tuesday - Easy

Wednesday - SubT

Thursday - Easy

Friday - Easy

Saturday - Long (Progresses to LT towards the end)

Sunday - Rest

My problem right now is I have to go painfully slow (>10:00/mile) on easy runs in order to keep my heart rate below 150 (75% maxHR). It's gotten to the point where my body feels worse the day after an easy run and better the day after subT workouts. My most recent subT workout was 10 minute warmup, 5x4 minutes (7:30/mi) w/1 minute walking rest, 10 minute cooldown. Could I increase the amount of subT workouts and decrease the amount of easy running until my easy pace gets more comfortable?

Most people recommend extensive tempo during the offseason for developing the aerobic system for 400m runners but why not just do a 20-30 minute easy run instead? Extensive tempo is much more likely to convert type 2a muscle fibers to type 1 because extensive tempo is intense enough (65-75% intensity) to force type 2a fibers to operate aerobically. Slow jogging (40-50% intensity) isn’t intensive enough to recruit 2a fibers so it only uses the existing type 1 fibers. Does this mean slow jogging is a better way to train aerobic system for 400m runners?

Right now my offseason training plan for the next few months looks like this

Monday: Recovery
Tuesday: Accel at beginning then Accel->MaxV
Wednesday: Extensive Tempo (300 repeats)
Thursday: Recovery
Friday: MaxV
Saturday: Hurdle/Extensive Tempo (basically 12x100m @75% with 5 hurdles)
Sunday: Easy jog

My questions are:

1. Why should I do extensive tempo instead of just a short 2-3 mile run? A continuous jog is more effective in building an aerobic base and puts less pressure on joints and muscles because you’re not going as fast as you would be in an extensive tempo session.
2. Should I work on hurdling over the summer at all or should I just make Saturday a flat tempo day? My main problem is that I’m not good at alternating but I’m not sure if going over hurdles at 75% intensity is gonna teach me how to do that.