The winter and summer training seasons should be spent doing a lot of high-end aerobic running.
High-end aerobic running should be RELAXED (tip #1) and should be REPEATABLE (tip #2 is consistency). The goal for the track season should be to get as STRONG aerobically as possible…this is where SPEED over 1500 meters up to the 10,000 meters will come from!!!
And the cool thing is this…the day before a good, high-end aerobic run you should do some strides…it all ties together!!!
So, what is high-end aerobic running? Simply, it’s a strong aerobic run that isn’t quite as ‘fast’ as tempo pace or effort that gives you that ‘full-of-run’ feeling. I typically tell my athletes, “It’s a run that when you finish you say, ‘that was a good run,’ and you can do that day after day after day…”
We perform good high-end aerobic running in the form of progression runs and long runs. We call these naturally progressive runs where you start very easy and allow the body to warm up into the run and finish feeling good!
It’s something that takes time and practice to master…but once you do, you’ll find some big gains in your running!
Phillips Running 