PREFONTAINE

 Below from FIRST training Program

4. Run Three Different Kinds of Tempo Runs
The tempo run has become a mainstay of many training programs, but the FIRST program carries the concept a little farther than most, adding more variety and nuance. FIRST runners do three different kinds of tempo runs?short tempos (three to four miles), mid tempos (five to seven miles) and long tempos (eight to 10 miles). Each of these is run at a different pace. "We've found that the long tempo run is particularly helpful," says Pierce. "You're basically running at your marathon goal pace, so you're getting maximum specificity of training, and improving your efficiency at the pace you want to run in your marathon."

5. Put More Variety in Your Speedwork
Many runners do no speedwork at all. Those who do often fall into a rut, running the same workout time after time. Pierce learned long ago that this approach makes speedwork much harder than it should be. "I used to run the same speed workout week after week," he recalls. "After a while, I would start to dread that workout. Speedwork is much easier when you change it around a lot." The FIRST runners do many different speed workouts at different paces, generally taking just a 400-meter jog between the fast repeats. For the sake of simplicity, we've narrowed the selection to four distances at four paces. (See "The FIRST Paces"). But be creative. Pierce has just one more rule for speed training: Start modestly, but after a month, try to get the total distance of all the fast repeats to equal about three miles or 5000 meters (i.e., running 5 x 1000 meters, or 12 to 13 x 400 meters).

8. Follow a 3-Week Taper
The FIRST program builds for 13 weeks, with the second 20-mile long run coming at the end of the thirteenth week. After that, the program begins to taper off, with 15- and 10-mile long runs during weeks 14 and 15. The speedwork and tempo runs taper down just a little, with a final eight-mile tempo run at marathon goal pace coming 10 days before the marathon. "The marathon taper has tripled in length during my career," Pierce notes. "When I first started out in the 1970s, we only did a six-day taper for our marathons. Now the conventional wisdom is three weeks, and that makes sense to me. It seems about the right amount of time to make sure you've got the maximum spring back in your step." If you feel sluggish doing just the easy running in the final week (this is very common, by the way), do five or six 100-meter strides or pickups after the Tuesday and Thursday workouts. Get in some extra stretching afterward as well.