General terms defined and how to use this training plan:

NOTE: Our other Sage Running Training Plans all come with a comprehensive “Training Guide
booklet” that includes Hill workout info, Cross Training Advice, Race Day Strategy
Advice/Nutrition, our Sage Running Strength Training Exercise Routine, and much more! The
following details what you need to know to get through the Aerobic Base Building Plan though:

Daily Mileage:
Most of the time we give you a range of miles to run in a day. This is because we want you to
have some flexibility to do what’s best for you and your schedule. The most important thing you
can do is listen to your body. Don’t be afraid to take an extra day off if you need to. All numbers
listed on the training schedule are in miles or kilometers (metric plans) unless otherwise noted.
If you’d rather go by time ask yourself about how long X amount of miles should take you and
then run for that amount of time.

Strides:
About 60-100 meters or about 10-15 seconds speed bursts (not quite all-out sprints though!).
These should be accelerations to near top speed. Walk or jog in between each stride for about 1
minute until you feel fully recovered. Sometimes we will include strides on a slight downhill
(about negative 1-2% grade) which helps promote a quicker turnover while maintaining an easy
effort. The downhill strides are better to do on softer surfaces like grass or dirt. They aren’t
meant to be hard so learn to enjoy them! These should always be done after some sort of
warm-up or at the end of the run. Focus on good running form and moving your legs and arms
fast. Strides build-raw speed and help you become more efficient at all sub-maximal running
paces (including ultra race pace!).

Easy Runs/ Easy Pace:

A comfortable, relaxed pace/effort. This should be a pace where you can easily carry on a
conversation and you aren’t focusing on pushing the pace at all. In fact, don’t even bother
worrying about your pace on these days! Avoid rushing through the run just to get the miles in.
This is your time to smell the flowers and soak in the day! For those of you that wear a heart
rate monitor this is usually around 60 to 70% of your maximum HR. For those of you that have
raced a road marathon under 4 hours, this is usually at least 1:30-min/mile slower than your
marathon race pace. Any warm-up or cool-down (usually before and after harder workouts on
the schedule) should be at this easy pace or even slower. Take your easy days truly easy and
you’ll recovery faster from long runs and key workouts. Talk Test: You should easily be able to
keep a conversation going.
Go here for more info on easy runs: http://www.sagerunning.com/run-easy-benefit-big/

“Fartlek” :
Translates to “speed play.” For the fartlek workouts we usually have you perform faster surges
based on minutes, immediately followed by a certain number of minutes at your easy/recovery
pace. This cycle repeats itself so after a certain number of repeats you’ve worked up a
considerable amount of time at a quality effort. Many of the fartleks in the training plan will be a
strong aerobic stimulus (which means “with oxygen”), so you should never go much above 90%
HR effort on any given “fast” surge. Don’t get too concerned about pace for Fartleks. It’s a good
workout to simply tune into your body and go by effort. Don’t forget the “speed play” part!
Fartleks can be done on either roads or trails if training for a trail race. Talk Test: If you can’t
speak 3-5 words or are slowing down/losing form then you’re going too fast! Likewise you want
to make sure you can still at least jog on the “easy” minutes and not have to totally stop after
each harder surge.

“Tempo”:
In scientific terms this is basically the “Lactate Threshold.” This is about an 84-90% of your
maximum heart rate. For those of you that have run a 10km in under 40 minutes, it is a pace
that is closer to half marathon race pace (on the road). For those of you that have raced a 10km
in between 40-60 min, it is about 10 seconds/mile (or 6 seconds/km) slower than your 10km
race pace. If training for a trail race, you can also do some tempos on the trails while focusing
on going at the right heart rate and not worrying about pace. It should feel comfortably
uncomfortable. If you're going too fast you'll know because lactate will begin to build up and
your body will send you the message that you can't hold that pace for much longer - and if
you're going too slow you'll be feeling like you could go on for longer than an hour. You could
also do the Talk Test: You should be able to say about 3-4 words in a row during a tempo. If you
can still speak in sentences it's too easy, if you can barely get out a word it's too hard.