[Scott Johnston]

Tim:

Thanks for writing in with your very good questions.  It is good to have this background and you do sound like someone with a good aerobic training history.  It is just that a lot of it was in the higher-intensity zones.  You will find even more speed and endurance once you put a better aerobic base under that top-end.

ME:  There are many methods you can use to get a good ME training effect.  I have tried many over the past 30+ years and all will work.  I settled on the Gym ME program you are currently using after having very good results with it for mountain runners. If you are seeing good gains with it I suggest staying with it.   It is a bit more load each workout than the original Verk ME with 2x/week.  But our ME 1x/week allows more time for running training which I think is still important for its aerobic benefits.  Verk’s guys were 800-1500m runners so lower aerobic running volume.

Lastly, congratulations on coming back to running from what could have been career-ending injuries.  Keep going.

Scott