Dear Coach: I have been told to take off the day after a long run. What is your opinion? Richard

Dear Richard: The main reason many runners take off the day after their long run is because they do it too hard. In fact, those who do their long run too hard often doing nothing the rest of the day because they are wiped out. If your long run is kept at 60-70%, you will discover that not only will you be able to run the day after, you will also actually want to run. If you have done a really long (17-20 miles), you might be stiff for the first 10-15 minutes but you should loosen up after that.

Dear Coach: When you refer to anaerobic threshold training, do you mean 5K pace? Nancy

Dear Nancy: Your anaerobic threshold (AT) is roughly your 15K or 10 mile race pace meaning it is 25-30 seconds per mile slower than 5K race. It is in the 80-85% range on your heart monitor. For those distance runners who generally race 8Ks and longer, AT training is the most beneficial--you get the biggest bang for the buck. A typical AT workout is 3 times 1 miles @ 80-85% with a 200-400 meter recovery. My favorite AT workout is 20 minutes of nonstop running at 80-85%. You can use the effort test to determine if you are in your AT zone. It should feel like you are engaging in a pretty hard effort, huffing and puffing, but at the level where you can sustain it for a period of time. However, you feel that if you were to pick up the pace slightly you would want to stop.

Dear Coach: I am a runner in my 50s who has been running for 30 years and have found that I can no longer train 6-7 days a week, especially when I race. I find I do better running every other day. What do you think of this approach? David

Dear David: In general as we get older we more recovery and that translates to more days off. As a 53 year-old runner, I too am facing the fact that I need more recovery days. When I was in peak condition 4-5 years ago, I could handle 6 days of training. I now find that my body appreciates a second day off each week. I have found in particular that I need more recovery after a race. I think each of use needs to figure out what works for us and we do that by listening to our body. I have coached a number of older runners who have very successfully applied your every other day approach. If it works, keep doing it.

Dear Coach: I am 48 years old, run 18-20 miles per week and run 10Ks in the 42-44 minute range. Once a week I do 400 meter repeats at 88-90 seconds. Is this the right kind of speed work for 10K racing? Duane

Dear Duane: The only time I have my runners do 400s is at the start of the their racing season. I suggest you do some AT workouts this summer (see my answer to Nancy above) and save the 400s for the fall. It appears that you are running your 400s too fast. You are not working the right muscles when running them too fast. I recommend that your run your 400 meter repeats no harder than 6-7 seconds per quarter faster than your current 10K race pace. Your 10 K pace is in the range of 6:45-7:05 or 1:41-1:45 per quarter. Thus, you should do your 400s between 1:34 and 1:38.

Coach West is a private coach for motivated adult runners. Questions can be sent to him at Kirt West