FIRST

The FIRST (Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training) is described in the book "Run Less, Run Faster". The FIRST plan is different in that it prescribes only 3 days of running and 2 days of cross training.

1 Summary of the plan

• Race performances are used to define training paces. (The FIRST plan is very similar to Jack Daniels Running Formula and developed by people who worked with Jack Daniels.)
• Athletes only run 3 days per week, all of them quality runs.
  • Interval Training
  • Tempo Runs
  • Long run
• There are plans for different levels of runner
  • Novice runners training for their first 5K
  • Intermediate 5K runners
  • Competitive plans for 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon
  • Plans dedicated to Boston qualification
• Athletes cross train 2-3 times per week
• There are sections on strength and flexibility training in the book
• For the marathon, the long run is performed faster than most runners training pace. The hardest long run is 20 miles at 15 seconds per mile slower than target race pace.

2 Fellrnr Likes

• Lots of quality running, lots of recovery time
• The authors have tested their plan out, showing that runners do make significant gains using their system.
• There are age compensated pace tables

3 Fellrnr Dislikes

• The training paces are fixed offsets from the race pace, not percentages. Running 15 seconds slower than a 6 min/mile race pace is a much bigger drop than for someone racing at 12 min/mile.
• It's not clear how much benefit there is from the cross training, or what cross training is most beneficial
• I am not a big believer in Tempo Runs and the science indicates that Tempo Runs can provide some benefit for untrained subjects, but not as effectively as either Long Slow Distance or High Intensity Interval Training.
• The book does not have a marathon plan for beginners, but there is one online.

4 Minor grumbles

• The book has the training programs dispersed through the book, making them hard to find.
• There are a lot of anecdotal stories to back up the success of the plan, which interrupts the flow.

5 Conclusion

This is a highly recommended training book. The reduction in training would work well for any runner, but would suit triathletes especially. The principles of running three quality days and cross training for two could be adapted to other plans, such as Jack Daniels Running Formula. I have been interested to find a number of runners who have naturally found this pattern of training (3plus2) to work very well for them.