Running Around 3-27-06

First, congratulations to those of you who ran the Knoxville Marathon!! It looked to be a great race with some fast times. Here are the Tuesday night regulars (or semi-regulars):

David Tompkins 3:04
Ray Wilson 3:18
Gary Sperl 3:26
Malcolm Oliver 3:30
Alvaro Ayo 3:35

Other than those I knew were running, I just scanned the results quickly looking for familiar names. Apologies if I missed anyone.

Marathoners ....

Take some time off. Let those legs recover. If you insist on running, make it short and slow. If I see any of you running a workout this week, I'll tackle you and drag you off the track.

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With the current I-pace work, we're developing V02max. However, we don't want to neglect what we've been working on since January. With that in mind, striders will help maintain your turnover and running economy. The optional T workouts will help maintain your ability to maintain a strong, steady pace and handle lactic acid. If you're racing, skip the second workout.

One thing I haven't discussed much is mileage. At this point in the cycle you can still keep your mileage relatively high. However, it is a good idea to build recovery weeks into your schedule. Following the theory of recovery days, recovery weeks are simply lower mileage and/or lower intensity. Drop back 10-20% every 3-6 weeks and your legs will thank you. During a recovery week, I'll typically replace an easy run with a day off and cut my long run back 3-5 miles.

Now for the workouts ... Week #12 in the training cycle and 9 weeks to Expo:

1. 4-10 x 800m @I pace with 2:30-3:15 jog for rest. The rest time should be shorter than your 800's this week. Shoot for somewhere around 800m time - 15 seconds. Adjust it if you need to.
Volume: The I-paced running should be about 8% of your weekly mileage

2. Striders TWO times this week. 6-8 x 100m

3. Optional second workout if you're not racing: 22 minute run @T pace.

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

Running Around 3-20-06 (Week #11)

This week we start with phase 3 of our training. This is the most stressful stage. It builds on what we've done so far, and it prepares us for running strong at the end of our training cycle. The main emphasis during this phase will be long intervals. The goal is to improve VO2 Max (i.e. our ability to use oxygen efficiently).

Now for the workouts ... Week #11 in the training cycle and 10 weeks to Expo:

1. 3-6 x 1200m @I pace with equal TIME jog for rest. The rest will probably work out to be about 400m.
Volume: The I-paced running should be about 8% of your weekly mileage
Adjustments: If you cannot run 1200m at your pace in less than 5 minutes, run 1000m repeats instead.

2. Striders TWO times this week. 6-8 x 100m

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

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

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Marathoners .... 6 days until the Knoxville Marathon!

Hopefully you're all surviving the taper. I don't have too much to add at this point. If you have a plan that has worked well in the final week before, there's no reason to change now. If you need suggestions, see the workouts listed below. If I don't see you before the race ... good luck ! If you have specific questions, don't hesistate to email me.

Mileage this week should be low. Again, pay attention to sleep, nutrition, and hydration this week. Your body needs water during the week to store energy, so don't neglect that even though the weather is cool.

Now for the workouts:
1. 2 x 1200m @MP + 2 x 1200 @T pace. Take as much rest as you need between repeats. Remember this is fine tuning, so give yourself a little more than usual. You can do 1 or 2 minutes or a 400 jog.

2. Striders 2 days. 6 x 100

3. Long run this week should be 26 miles, 385 yards.

Running Around 3-12-06 (Week #10)

This marks our 5th and final week in phase 2. You should be comfortable with the intensity of these workouts now. The 800's are tough, but they'll pay off down the road. If you haven't done any hills during this phase, I encourage you to substitute the hill workout for this one.

I've had a bit of a setback with my hamstring, so it will be a while before I'm back on the track. I'm starting physical therapy on Monday, so hopefully that will get me back to where I can train hard soon.

Now for the workouts ... Week #10 in the training cycle and 11 weeks to Expo:

1. Sets of (200m @R with 200m jog, 200m @R w/400m jog, 800m @R w/400m jog).
Keeping in mind the 5% rule for volume, use the following guidelines based on your weekly mileage:
50: 3 sets + the 200's from a 4th set
45: 3 sets
40: 2 sets + 2 x 400m @R with 400m jog
35: 2 sets + the 200's from a 3rd set
30: 2 sets
25: 1 set + 2 x 400m @R with 400m jog

2. Striders TWO times this week. 6-8 x 100m

3. Optional second workout: 15 minutes @T pace, 3 minutes easy, 10 min @T pace, 2 min easy, 5 min @T pace.

Get your paces here ... http://www.panix.com/%7Eelflord/vdot.html
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Marathoners .... 14 days until the Knoxville Marathon

The mantra for the next 2 weeks is "do no harm". You can't do much to improve your fitness between now and the race, but you can undermine all of your training by overdoing it now. You've put in the hard work. Enjoy the reduction in mileage -- you've earned it.

While fitness can't be improved much, you can do plenty to sharpen for race day. Keep up the quality running, sleep as much as you can, eat right and stay hydrated. If you start to feel antsy this week, then you know the taper is working. You'll probably feel like you need to be out running more. Resist the temptation.

Review last week's workout for mileage guidelines. Summary: I suggest reducing your mileage by 20%.

Now for the workouts:

1. 3-4 x 2400 @T pace with 2 minutes rest. Use your judgment on 3 or 4. Keep it under control. No faster than T pace!!
2. Long run this week should be 10 miles (or less).
3. Striders 2 days. 6 x 100
4. If your legs are feeling good, incorporate 2 miles at MP during an easy run on Thursday or Friday. If you're feeling a little tired, skip this one.

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

Running Around 3-6-06 (Week #9)

We're now in our 4th week of work on running economy and strength. Hopefully by now, you're feeling a little more comfortable with the fast stuff. This week we go back to the hills.

I gave a detailed description of the hill route and the warmup route two weeks ago. See the 2/19 posting on the website (http://trackworkouts.blogspot.com/) if you need a refresher. If you want a longer warmup, you can run the greenway out to Sequoyah Hills instead. That's about 2.8 miles. See the route here: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=50927

I'll be doing 6 or 7 on the roads, so I'll either run with the recovering Whitestone runners or out to Sequoyah with the hill runners.

Now for the workouts ... Week #9 in the training cycle and 12 weeks to Expo:

If you ran Whitestone, you might want to put this workout off until Thursday.

1a. 6-10 x hills @R intensity.
1b. or 8-12 x400m @R pace with equal distance rest if you don't want to run hills.
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: 40 minutes continuous run @T pace + 15 sec per mile. So, if your T pace is 7:00, run this workout at 7:15 pace.

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

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Marathoners ... 20 days to go before the Knoxville Marathon.

Let the taper begin!

Tapering is about 2 things: reduced mileage and added quality. Simply reducing your mileage will likely leave you sluggish instead of sharp. To sharpen, you have add some quality to replace the reduced mileage. Not counting striders, you should run some MP or faster 3 times per week. Simply add 1 or 2 miles @MP during 2 of your regular runs.

It's hard for me to give general advice on tapering since it is more art than science. You have to experiment to see what works best for you. Plus, your taper depends a lot on what you've done in training and how it has gone. Here are some guidelines to get you started. This is what I've done in my last 2 marathons. If you have specific questions, let me know.

Mileage: If you've put in the miles during training, I believe in doing an aggressive taper. Drop your mileage 20% each week. So, you might do something like 55 (last week), 45 (this week), 30(next week), 15-20 + marathon. Another example might be 55, 44, 33, 22 + marathon. This probably won't work for you if you've been running low mileage.

Long run: If you've been running 60 or less per week, keep your longest run/workout to 13 miles or less this week. If you didn't run Whitestone, you may be able to get away with 15, but listen to your body and be prepared to cut it short if you need to. Next week's long run should be 10.

Workouts:
1a. (Raced Whitestone) Road run on Tuesday. No hard running until Thursday. Thursday or later, you can do 2 miles @MP + 400m jog + 2x1600 @T with 2 min rest.
1b. (No Whitestone) 3x3200 @T pace with 2 min rest.
2. Add some MP miles during 2 of your runs.
3. Striders. Following two runs this week. 6x100.

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