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You might have noticed that your program does not demand a specific number of KMs run per week. Maybe you’ve wondered “Why?”
When setting a schedule for a group of runners of varying ability, KM is not always a KM. If I was to set all of you a session of “2 x 1km efforts at Threshold pace”, then some of you would complete this in around 10 mins, while others will cover that distance in around 16 mins.
A minute though, is always a minute and your T pace has been tuned to your fitness and running capacity. So “Run for 10 mins at T pace” is the same effort for everyone.
It also makes it easy to add to over time. If you are running 20 mins per week at T pace, then it’s a simple matter of adding a minute to that in order to level you up. You can easily follow that on any $5 watch, but if I was to ask you to add 250 metres?
Incidentally, after starting at your baseline, a good guide for adding workload is no more than 10% (time or distance) per week. If you ever get a rush of blood that urges you to push beyond that, then resist! Injury awaits.
Lastly time based programs mean course making is a cinch. For a distance specification, you definitely need a distance watch, but a time based out-and-back run at an even pace will land you back where you started of you simply turn and recount your course at half-time.
Boring post eh!