DAA Industry Opt Out Amy Hastings ran 2:27:03 at the Los Angeles Marathon, the third-fastest debut at the distance by an American woman. Just more than three months later, she ran 15:14 to take 34 seconds off her 5,000m PR and qualify for the world championships, where she reached the final. Last summer Magdalena Lewy Boulet also ran a 5,000m PR of 15:14 just months after running a spring marathon; Lewy Boulet was 37 years old at the time.
Hastings' and Lewy Boulet's quick turnaround from marathon prep to short-race PRs highlighted what many elites know (and practice), but what many of us have a hard time believing: With the right training tweaks, it's possible to move quickly from being in marathon mode to a short-distance season. Many runners find that, contrary to the conventional wisdom that marathoning will "kill your speed," after a marathon buildup they're able to set 5K PRs. Consider Paula Radcliffe, who had spent years racing on the track but set her 5,000m PR of 14:29 only after she'd set the marathon world record.
Why does marathon training translate into faster times at shorter distances? Put simply, the building blocks of running a solid marathon -- long runs, tempo runs, long intervals -- put you ahead of the game entering 5K training. The beneficial adaptations to marathon training, such as increased capillarization, increased blood volume, increased mitochondria and a stronger and more efficient heart, are favorable for 5K racing. Brad Hudson, who coaches elites and average runners in Boulder, Colo., says, "Marathon training makes you better at everything. You want to keep what you've built but go after the things that perhaps have been missing during marathon training."
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While we think of 5K and 10K as "short" races, Terrence Mahon, who coaches Hastings and other members of the Mammoth Track Club, points out that the energy demands of the 5K are approximately 90 percent aerobic. The 10K is roughly 93 percent an aerobic event. "A large proportion of success at these distances is due to a big aerobic engine," says Mahon. "Marathon training lays much of the groundwork for this engine."
Hudson emphasizes that, when shifting focus, the first thing to consider is how to address the components of training that may have been (appropriately) overlooked during marathon training. The many long, moderate miles that constitute the bulk of marathon training by necessity push frequent anaerobic training aside. While marathon training won't kill your speed, it does take a little work to become accustomed again to faster running. Mahon says, "The biggest issue for marathoners is getting back their leg turnover after doing so many longer, slower miles."
Mahon starts the transition by addressing the neuromuscular aspect of training. He has his post-marathon runners do 8-12 x 100m strides after easy runs three times a week. Hudson adds that addressing the neuromuscular aspect of training in this way also strengthens muscles and tendons and therefore prevents injury as you shift to shorter, more intense workouts. In addition to strides after easy runs, Hudson's runners do short (no longer than 15 seconds), steep hill repeats to help regain stride frequency and promote muscular variation. (Go to Threshold Workouts to Build Speed Endurance for a feature by Hudson on hill sprints.)
After Mahon's athletes have several weeks of strides behind them and are progressing in re-establishing turnover, they begin to practice 5K pace in short segments. Typically they start with 200m intervals at goal pace. Over several weeks the interval distance gradually increases to longer intervals like 1,000m repeats. Mahon's athletes work up to several targeted, benchmark workouts before racing a 5K. Just as they would do specific marathon-simulation workouts before racing the actual distance, they do several 5K-specific workouts because, Mahon says, "it takes a couple of sessions of this for it to stick" and for them to be ready to race a 5K. See 5While we think of 5K and 10K as short races (next page) for Mahon's guide to getting ready.
5While we think of 5K and 10K as short races
Here's a series of 5K-specific workouts for marathoners moving down, courtesy of Terrence Mahon, coach of the Mammoth Track Club and an online coach at runmammoth.com. Says Mahon, "If you can hit or better the projected paces, then it is time to move up to the next level of workout."
5 x (5 x 200m @ 5K pace) with 30-second rests between repeats and 3 minutes rest between sets
5 x (400m, 400m, 200m @ 5K pace) with 45-second rests between repeats and 3 minutes rest between sets
5 x (600m, 400m @ 5K pace) with 1-minute rests between repeats and 3 minutes rest between sets
5 x 800m @ 5K pace with 3-minute rests, then 5 x 200m a little faster than 5K pace with 45-60 seconds rest
2 x (1K, 800m, 600m, 400m @ 5K pace) with 2-minute rests between repeats and 4-5 minutes rest between sets
5–6 x 1K with 3-minute rests; start slower than 5K pace and progress to running goal pace for the last 3 repeats
Although shorter and faster distances become the primary focus, it's important to maintain the aerobic benefits you earned during your marathon training. Hudson and Mahon continue to have their runners do long runs and tempo runs, but shorter for both types of workouts than was the case during a marathon buildup. Mahon's runners do tempo runs every seven to 10 days when they're not racing. He says, "Tempos that were in the 6-to 10-mile range go down to 4 miles or 2 x 3 miles as the shorter races approach."
Concerning long runs, Mahon says, "Long runs will scale back so that they are more in the 14-to 17-mile range as opposed to 17-24 miles in marathon training. We will typically alternate on a three-week cycle, where one of the long runs is easy, one has a tempo in the middle, and the other would have sprints, such as 8-12 x (30 to 60 seconds hard/2 minutes easy)." These long runs are a nice balance of the aerobic and anaerobic training you need to be like Hastings and make the quick change from strong marathoner to speedy 5K runner.
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While categorizing a marathon as pain-free would be disingenuous, the pain associated with 5K racing is different, stronger and more intense. Because of this, Mahon believes that following a marathon, athletes need to practice hurting again. He says, "Learning how to hurt at higher levels for shorter durations is something that takes a little extra time for the marathoner to develop. They are used to 70-80 percent max-speed pain, and to challenge their systems at higher speeds for shorter times can take some time to callous." Gradually increasing your interval distances at goal pace will help you become reacclimated to the particular type of suffering associated with 5Ks.
