 patience grasshopper patience that was a comment from a vlog fan and frankly a friend at this point shout out to Susie I laughed when I read that I'm just trying to be patient through this cross training hence the crazy hair just got out of the pool and I did not do any cross training of filming today but it was a good day in the pool and on the bike oh my goodness I'm just trying to be patient not necessarily with the training the cross training it's it's going fine it's the yep I want to make great vlogs for you and I'm just like we're two weeks in now to maintaining a daily running vlog on this channel every single day on crutches and I feel like I'm pulling it off but I just I want to create such great content for all of you so I'm just reminding myself you guys are here for me and I appreciate that and I know it'll be back the running will be back the beautiful shots in the mountains will be back the epic you know tempo runs whatever you whatever I end up filming for all of you it will return at some point so with that said let's dive into it I have your questions here on my phone these are questions that you have asked me over the last basically 10 days there's been a lot of them especially since we can't livestream now where I usually feel these questions instead we're gonna do it here on the daily vlog and basically I will of course always be honest with you you might not like to hear what I have to say and I have to keep my answers a little broad only because I don't know your entire background of training that's where you know that's certainly where an individual coach comes into play where they can get to really know your history within running because that does make a big difference as far as how much volume you've you've run over the past not just the past 12 months but frankly over the past three years five years ten years your experience with different intensity levels of training so with these answers that I'm about to give I will I will do my best to be specific but also keeping in mind I don't know your entire history alright let's dive in and we asked we are gonna talk about five K's half marathons marathons there's ultras there's a lot going on here let's just go for it come on where's the first one here alright this is from Matthew Matthew ass hey Seth I'm about to be a sophomore in high school and these are my best times for different distances 521 in the mile 1137 in the 2 mile and 1946 he wants to try and run basically faster than 1704 because that is his school 5k school record so he asked could you give me some tips to help me get faster for example how often I need to practice and the type of workouts I need to do and how far I need to run Matthew so obviously so Matthew great question and we will be talking more about this in the series of 5k videos that I'm about to create for all of you remember I announced that yesterday but I will help Matthew as best I can right now Matthew if you're so you're a sophomore I would recommend if you're going into your junior year if you're if you've been running 30 miles a week or 35 miles a week consider bumping it up if let's say it's 30 consider bumping it up to 40 and then maybe your senior year it can be 50 now I am not a proponent of high mileage for high schoolers I really high mileage I think it okay for me I trained at about 35 miles a week which was good but I think if I would have bumped it up to 45 to 50 I do think my 5k PR times from high school would have come down I would also recommend Matthew starting your summer training not in early June not in late May I I lean toward the mid June to late June time frame and I'm gonna talk more about this in those 5k videos I'll be creating and then I would not train every day of the week I would lean toward to start I would lean toward three to four days a week at the beginning of the training block in the summer and then slowly increase that to five and then eventually six and I I love training every day of the week I'll just say it but I do know that some high schoolers need a break like your body might be growing at a rate that you can't even comprehend in it anatomically basically your anatomy like it's changing so quickly your body might need a day off so anyway Matthew those are that's like a very rough outline of how I would build training but I would start in mid to late June three to four days a week I would start with 20 miles a week 15 to 20 miles a week that's it and then slowly build from there so I hope that helps as far as building a base and then you're probably wondering well how do I actually run faster oh man okay I'm gonna throw out also plyometrics and strength training and I think this connects to some other answers I'm gonna give as well I think high schoolers when I look at high school guys and ladies but especially guys like guys develop a little later than ladies you probably already know that I'm like guys we got to get a little stronger like you guys some of you and this is me I weighed a buck I weighed like a buck my junior year of high school and then my senior year I finally grew a little bit but I'm telling you guys like don't be afraid to build body strength especially don't be afraid to work on your leg strength and I won't get into details but I do think high school guys could work on getting stronger and I'm telling you it will help you run faster it really will and I'll talk more about that in the 5k videos moving on okay next from Patrick how did you get on to see use team I'm a high school runner only a sophomore oh another sophomore and I'm interested in learning more about the recruitment process and all and really like your videos keep up the hard work thank you Patrick so Patrick I walked on I was not recruited out of high school I ran 1627 in high school I tried to walk on my freshman year of college I did not make it I trained a year alone and bumped up my mileage from basically 40 miles a week to 70 miles a week whoa it was it was good I stayed healthy and my body was I think my body was ready for it I didn't get injured that entire year I frankly didn't do much speed training Patrick like really hardly any at all it was mostly aerobic development at a higher level a lot of you know hill runs meaning I didn't run flat all the time I got some hill work in and nothing like crazy like I wasn't doing 20 mile long runs probably my long runs were in the 14 mile range would be my guess if I just off of memory and I I got faster it's like it's amazing what volume can do for your speed if you can stay healthy that is the trick and I'm learning that right now right so that's a brief outline Patrick I hope that helps you just a little bit we will again dive more into this very soon oh my gosh this is another one about walking on okay ooh I forget the name of this gentleman I think it might have been Mark but I'm not positive sorry about that I forgot to write down your name okay he says this summer I'm looking at putting a good base in to hopefully try to walk on to his cross-country team at Kansas State or run a fast 5k in Oklahoma he'll be starting by his base building phase and peaking around 60 miles per week but I was wondering what sort of 5k 10k workouts you might recommend me to throw in once I start getting into late July and August in order to tune up for tryouts or a road 5k I will be running tempo runs weekly by the end of my base phase but what else would you recommend me to throw in later in my training block to specify my training great question and I'm not sure what distance so for me to walk on to the CU cross-country team you have to race in 8k which is basically just over 5 miles approximately and so I don't know what distance you're shooting for for the tryouts I wrote back to him and said I would recommend shooting for that 70 to 75 miles a week again listening to your body I don't know your entire history but I just that 70 to 75 miles a week it's amazing what kind of fitness you can gain and stay healthy at that volume level if you if you have a history of staying healthy but okay I wrote back also I really love 6x1k with a starting out a two-minute rest but then eventually dropping it down to 90 second rest that's 6x1k on grass not on a track not on dirt on grass now especially if your cross-country course is grass or if you're racing a lot on golf courses grass is hard to run on and and if the grass can have someone find a good park if you can get access to a golf course great but roll just like rolling grass hills is really challenging you might not and it's good for your body so that you're not pounding pavement you're not pounding even even dirt roads that are really packed down that's it's not pavement but it can be pretty close to pavement if it's a dirt road that's really packed down so I'm a big fan of rolling grass hills 6x1k eventually you have to build up to it but if you can hit a solid 6x1k workout with again 90 second rest maybe two minutes depending on where you're at in your in your building phase yes that would be my recommendation also I'm a big fan of like 12x300 you can just measure it off on a again on grass or gravel road 12x300 just getting that turnover going so with a hundred meter jog I'll add that as well so good question and keep me updated I apologize that I don't remember I I think that was Matthew I think that question was from Matthew okay and moving on to a question from Scott who is getting ready for a fall half marathon he wants to run faster in the fall he asked should I run faster on shorter distances or run long distances at a comfortable pace I have not really done threshold or tempo runs in his training and Scott definitely I'm a big fan of tempo runs but not before you build your aerobic base first as I said oh man I'll try and find the vlog if I find it it'll pop out in the upper right hand corner basically oh yeah it's a vlog titled build your aerobic engine first go watch that I explain this in in great detail where I like to build a bigger base so imagine the the pyramids over in Egypt the bigger the base the taller the peak or rather the taller the pyramid you can you can build if the top of that pyramid is getting to the starting line as fit as possible the the bigger your aerobic base the taller you can build your pyramid meaning the faster you can run on race day so Scott I'm actually just gonna say to everybody go watch that vlog upper right hand corner and it will really go into detail on that answer good question Scott okay and moving on to the next question here we go and again I didn't write down the name this gentleman or lady asks I explained the concept of a training cycle or training block and when you should have a prolonged period of rest oh I'm I actually already made another vlog about this go click on this card upper right hand corner so my thesis is that in a calendar year I'll just outline very briefly in a calendar year you can have three to four training blocks in a calendar year personally I think one of the reasons I'm injured right now is because this current training block was just a little too long and I'm gonna go into detail maybe tomorrow as to why I think I got injured and what shoes contributed to my injury but three to four training blocks per per calendar year and I always like to take two weeks off at around Christmas and then after a training block so let's say if you start in January your the end of your first training training block would be early no January March late March early April I always like to take seven to ten days maybe 14 days if you're really tired after a peak race so that's my short answer go watch that vlog upper right hand corner I go into great detail about that all right moving on here we go this is from pre hey said Seth I run distance in high school and I have trouble with motivating myself to go on runs alone in order to build an aerobic base how do you motivate yourself to go on runs alone so this is a little different it's not as much it's more focused on mental pre good question it is connected to training though and I wrote back to pre like make sure you are writing down specific goals that is really key know your why in your training and why you are shooting for a particular race for me my motivation was very very high for Cleveland it still is very high but obviously the injury is making me reevaluate everything but pre that is my short answer if you want to learn more about mental toughness again upper right hand corner there you go okay moving on this is from gasper and I believe he's from Slovenia that is correct he's 16 years old and he's already getting ready to raise a 550 k congrats gasper that's a long ways for a 16 year old but I commend you if you can stay healthy and get after it and he just ran his first half marathon in 147 an hour and 47 minutes so that's really solid and he's basically looking for tips so gasper I am just gonna caution you I think it's okay that you're you're shooting for a 50 okay no I'm actually gonna say be careful jumping from a half marathon to a 50k is a big jump I just want you to stay healthy and you're 16 years old don't hesitate to like it's okay I'm not gonna say don't race the 50k but if you just really really monitor what how your body is feeling because if you want to running a 50k and racing a 50k is totally you know you could probably go out and finish a 50k 50k tomorrow but as far as being ready to race it it will beat your body up the training will will beat your body up and the racing will definitely beat your body up you got to make sure that you're really honed in to how your body is feeling now let's say that you can stay healthy I would recommend really mixing in and I don't know what type of 50k you're racing doesn't have a lot of vertical is it flatter I don't know but I would recommend mixing in quite a bit of hill work into your training don't necessarily go out and run you know a hundred miles a week or 160 kilometers a week I would focus more on making sure your legs are strong again you can do that in different ways hill running and I'm not saying hill repeats hill running so continuous hill run like and it doesn't have to be big mountains it can be rolling hills it's amazing how much rolling hills can add to your leg strength so also plyometrics or going to a gym and doing squats deadlifts again I don't know your background if you don't know how to do those don't go do them make sure you find a professional or somebody who really knows how to help you in the gym but I'm a big big fan of not necessarily big crazy volume for 50 K's 50 milers but instead leg strength so that's my tip I hope I don't want to discourage you I just want to caution you that I've been down that road and it can be daunting physically on the body but I'm here for you keep asking questions gasper I got your back all right moving on here to mark he asked hi Seth I find I get my fastest improvements doing hard intervals fart lakes and tempo runs I base my improvements by race results but I believe I don't have good a good aerobic engine over the winter he's been doing longer slower runs how do you know if you are building a good aerobic base so I would say mark if you want to figure out if your aerobic base is getting better I would recommend don't do interval work don't do tempo work and basically do a let's say a 5k or a 10k personal time trial or you could do a race but even just mark off a 5k or 10k distance go race go run it pretty hot basically all out so you might want to do it a race but then go back to the same course six weeks later and see and continue to do the slow aerobic development and maybe increase your volume just a little bit maybe by 5 to 10% so your weekly volume of of kilometers or mileage or miles and then just go back and do another time trial and I bet I bet you're gonna run faster and that means your aerobic development is happening all right so don't do speed work just build your aerobic engine but make sure you have goalposts so let's say it's let's say you do it you know June 1st and then do it July 15th so you have six weeks to build your aerobic engine all right does that make sense I'm a big fan of time trials to figure out engage where your aerobic fitness is at but you might just want to do races good question from mark and yes I need to take a drink of water here we go and we're back moving on from mark to Mandy Mandy is she wants to take on her first full marathon next year she's she was interested in some online running plans or possibly hiring a coach and I told Mandy that I would write I told her like I wouldn't hire a coach yet I would first run like run a marathon and see how much you enjoy it and if you really enjoy it and you feel like okay this is great I want to pursue it more then I said okay maybe after your first marathon look into hiring a coach I just said you know get one under your belt first and then she goes on to ask she's been running for 11 years in high school in college she runs about three times a week with one speed workout or tempo day she's also done three half marathons and she's she's that she's new to running longer races and I basically told her if she can increase from three days a week to five days a week I guarantee she's gonna see some some improvements in her times and then I also said if you can mix in one extra day of cross training on top of that five days so maybe running seven days a week is too much Mandy I get it I mean some people like their bodies just can't quite handle that and I think it's good to listen to your body as I keep preaching so I would increase from three days a week to five mix in one day of cross training so the pool or a stationary bike or any sort of bike and then Mandy I would also I think the tempo runs once a week is fine I think you could decrease that though to actually twice twice a month again just building that aerobic engine making sure Mandy that you're mixing in one really quality long run which I don't know your background but let's say you're shooting for I think I wrote back to her if I said to her if you could shoot for 50 miles a week if you're getting ready for a full marathon that would be awesome it's you can go higher than that but if you could get really close to that 50 mile a week mark you're gonna see dramatic improvements in your time so Mandy I hope that helps and again don't know all your background but send me more questions if you have them all right moving on here we're almost done this is from a you on Instagram and he says he's a 14 year old runner looks like he lives in or he's running a 5k in Los Angeles soon and let's see I am running a 5k and I'm wondering if you could tell me how to train or training schedule his personal best is 1809 and he says here that he's running 70 to 80 miles a week and he's 14 year old a 14 years old I'm not sure if that's correct if you are running that much I would say a you that that's probably too much just calling a spade a spade and this is where you might not want to listen to me but maybe you've been running at high volume since you were in middle school and you've stayed completely healthy I don't know but I would I would caution you to I would say decrease your miles I really would you're probably a freshman in high school maybe sophomore and think about your long-term development if you're running 70 to 80 miles a week and your personal best is 1809 I would say something is off like your time I think you might be training tired like you might be racing tired yet that time should be lower I'm just calling it as it is I would recommend dropping down a you to 35 miles a week maybe 40 and just like hone in on some more quality speed sessions interval training and be patient you've got all the time in the world you're gonna get fast 1809 for a 14-year-old is a great time but I bet you'll run 17 15 in six months from now if you decrease your volume and increase your quality speed work specifically on dirt roads grass courses etc etc I just want you to stay healthy brother all right does that sound good oh okay that was awesome I think that is all of my question all the questions from you again you can always email me my email is down below Instagram is a good place to ask short questions don't you know I can't answer a huge long question but short questions on Instagram and of course we can connect on Strava I hope that helps helps you give a little bit of my philosophy behind training and again I will be developing 5k training videos sooner rather than later for many of you out there that are interested in that distance and I love you thanks for being here keyword is training and the question of the day just want to make sure I get it right what facet of training is the most confusing or perplexing to you what facet and listen there's literally probably if you want if you really get down to it there's probably hundreds of different ways to break this question of the day down but what facet of training is confusing or perplexing to you all right I know it's a little open-ended I don't want to I want to just hear from you so I will do my best to field those questions as well thank you guys for your patience we're too we're oh we're actually like two and a half weeks in on the crutches all heading to what Monday will be