Running Around 2-19-06 (Week #7)

There is a new way to get your workouts! The workouts are posted here in reverse chronological order (most recent at the top). There are also some useful links (e.g. pace calculator) and running routes. If you would prefer to get your workout via the website or RSS instead of email, let me know, and I'll remove you from the list.

This week, we'll run some hills. Hills are tough. But hill workouts are great for improving your strength and running economy (our focus in this phase). You can't maintain the same speed uphill as the 200s & 400s we did last week, but we want the intensity of the hill repeats to be the same as that workout. Remember to focus on good form and light, quick steps. Experiment a little to see what works best for you, but some suggestions for hill running include slightly shorter strides, leaning slightly forward, and slightly exaggerating your arm drive and knee lift. Note that I included "slightly" often. These are subtle not radical adjustments.

The hill route is at the Kingston Pike end of Cherokee Blvd. We start at the iron gate and jog down to where the path is interrupted by the road the second time. When you get to the bottom, turn around and run up. Jog back down for recovery. Since you finish at the top, there is no need to do a recovery jog after your last one. The hill is slightly over 400m. The route is here: http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=9492.

The warmup for the hill workouts is to simply run out to Cherokee Blvd. Conveniently, it's almost exactly 2 miles. I've mapped it out here: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=28366 ... Start at the track. Cross the bridge to the Ag campus. Cross Neyland and pick up the greenway next to the river. Follow the greenway and then continue to the intersection of Neyland and Kingston Pike. Cross over to the North side of Kingston Pike to run on the sidewalk. Follow K.P. all the way to Cherokee Blvd. Since it will be dark, be extremely careful -- especially crossing K.P!! If you have any reflective gear, it would be a good idea to wear it.

If you don't want to run the hill workout for whatever reason, you can run 400m repeats on the track.

Now for the workouts ... Week #7 in the training cycle and 14 weeks to Expo:

1a. 6-10 x hills @R intensity.
1b. 8-12 x400m @R pace with equal distance rest.
For both, volume should be about 5% of your weekly mileage. Count only the hard running, not the rest. So, 30 miles per week would run 6 hills or 6 x400m on the track.

2. Striders TWO times this week following an easy run. 6x100.

3. Optional second workout: 2-3 x 3200m @T pace with 2 min rest.

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Marathoners ... 5 weeks to go before the Knoxville Marathon.

These next 2 weeks are the toughest because you're tired from weeks of training at the same time you're doing the toughest runs and workouts. Hang in there. The taper is coming soon!

Workouts:
1. 3200m @MP + jog 400m + 3200m @T w/2 min rest + 2-4 x800m @I pace with equal TIME jog for rest. So, if your 800m was 3:30, jog 3:30 for rest. You can typically cover half the distance. So, shoot for 400m jog. If you ran Strawberry Plains, skip the MP miles.
2. No second workout, but incorporate 3 MP miles into your weekend long run.
3. Striders. If you haven't been running them, start now. 6x100.

Get your paces here ... http://www.panix.com/%7Eelflord/vdot.html

I'm still doing road running until my hamstring gets stronger and I get a solid base again. I'll probably run out to Cherokee Blvd with you guys and then back to the track.

On last thing ... Back in the day, Donnie (and Dave before him) would give an overview/reminder of the workout before we started the warmup. I'm going to start doing that on a regular basis. If I forget, remind me. It will also give you a chance to ask questions if you have them.