Twenty not enough

Completing the first 20 Malta Marathons was not enough for Paul Gardner. The Briton has just sent in his application to take part in his 21st in March.

Gardner is one of the unique group of four runners who have taken part in every (full) Malta Marathon since the inaugural event in 1986, and is the first of that elite quartet to have applied for this year's race.

The others are Konrad Ciappara, Charles Darmanin and Charles Herd, and it will now be interesting to see if their application forms are already in the post.

Hard running per week

Over the Christmas holidays, I was asked by one runner how much of the week's training should be spent at each intensity; in other words, how much of the week should be easy running, how much should be steady and how much should be fast, and so on.

It's a good question, and the subject has been tackled by a number of coaches. It is also possible to check the training of the elites of the past and see how they broke down their weekly training into different effort-levels.

First we'd have to define the different intensities and different runners might define them in different ways.

Someone like American coach Jack Daniels might define them as follows: Easy/Long; Threshold pace; Intervals; Repetitions.

He also calls the intensities in between these "No Man's Land" and explains that he believes these are too easy or too hard to cause the adaptation the running requires.

Daniels suggests staying exactly at the paces required and no straying into going too fast or too easy.

We can classify his definitions even more so that all can understand them.

"Easy/long" is simply a comfortable pace (as the name implies).

"Threshold", Daniels defines as "comfortably hard" which does not really tell us very much since this is difficult to quantify for each individual; instead we might call it somewhere between half marathon and 10-mile race pace.

"Intervals" are run at 5k race pace, and "Repetitions" are short repeats at one-mile race pace.

To now answer the question of how much of each intensity is required in a normal training week, Daniels suggests Threshold; no more than 10 per cent of your week mileage should be spent at this intensity.

In other words, if you average 50 miles per week (mpw) of training, he recommends you spend no more than five miles at Threshold pace.

Although there are a number of ways to incorporate Threshold pace into your training, Daniels recommends building up to being able to run for a straight 20 minutes at this pace as being optimal.

Intervals should total no more than eight per cent of your week or a maximum of six miles total (depending on weekly mileage).

Intervals are to be run at best 5km race pace and no single Interval should ever be longer than five minutes (with a short jog recovery before the next interval).

Repetitions should make up no more than five per cent of your training week.

This session might be made up of a number of 200m or 400m reps at best mile pace interspersed with short recovery jogs.

Easy/long should comprise the remainder of your week (and in elite athletes this is usually 75-80 per cent of the weekly total).

Daniels makes one proviso that your long run of the week should not be longer than 25 per cent of your total weekly mileage. So, if you run 50 mpw, then your long run should be no longer than 12 miles.

Birkirkara 5km today

The last race in the Birkirkara St Joseph 5km Series (which was cancelled due to torrential rain in December) has been rescheduled to take place at 2.30 p.m. today.

The race starts and finishes outside the Local Council office in Birkirkara and I believe it is still possible to apply and take part at this office just before the race.

If you wish to do so (and I recommend it) then be thoughtful and show up and apply in plenty of time because the organisers will no doubt have plenty to do as the start-time approaches and do not need the added panic of a runner showing up and applying at the last minute.