Has anyone used the over/under and VO2 max workout plans for running?
I’m wondering about using the workout formats to structure my run training. For example, if my run FTP is 7.5 mile/hour, I can use the percentages from the Kaiser workout to plan out a VO2Max run workout and just use the same amounts of time. These would be treadmill workouts through the winter.
I’m an age grouper triathlete in the off season. Currently, I’m riding Mid level sustained power build and I start a complete base, build,specialty for half distance in March. Out of the three sports, my run is my weak spot. I feel like I need the same kinds of workouts that are in sweet spot or sustained power build with VO2, over/unders, and endurance runs. Has anyone done this? Does anyone foresee an issue?
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Biggest issue I see would be with sweet spot… which is a lot of time at a relatively hard pace. I don’t want to go down the polarized training rabbit hole very far, but I think the data for runners doing well by focusing mostly on easy miles with a little bit of VO2 max work and only a short period of race pace work is pretty good. As I understand it, the risk of injury goes up with the effort level much moreso in running than cycling.
That said, I don’t have a good overall answer for you. I don’t really like the TrainerRoad run workouts (I don’t have a technical issue with them; I just find I don’t enjoy them much, and end up not sticking with them), and in the past when I’ve run with a dedicated running group I was getting injured a lot. Right now I think a big part of the answer has more to do with consistency than almost anything else, and a really big part of consistency is avoiding injury, hence the value of doing a lot of endurance effort miles (and favoring two-a-day runs over longer duration runs).