Running Around 4-3-06

Ahhh ... I think Spring is finally here. I wish I could be out there pounding the pavement, but the hamstring is still day-to-day. I'll probably be back to running hard right about the time the hot, humid weather gets here.

We're getting close to the heart of the Spring racing season, and hopefully the training we've been doing will serve everyone well. We've setup the schedule to peak for (or around) Expo. However, you can still race well leading up to it. In fact, I highly recommend getting some races under your belt in the next few weeks. It always takes me a few races to get back into it mentally and physically when shifting from the longer winter races (1/2 marathon, 30k, etc.) back to shorter stuff like 5k & 10k. If you've been doing striders regularly (hint, hint) you will probably have an easier time getting your 5k legs back.

It's a good idea to pick one or two races to focus on before Expo. If you want to race often, I'd suggest training through all but one or two. That is, don't cut mileage or intensity instead rearrange your week so that your easier days are Thursday & Friday. For your focus races, it's OK to cut mileage & intensity a little between Wed & Sat. Sometimes, I'll take a recovery week (see last week's message) the week before a race I'm focusing on (instead of the week of). I guess it takes a few days for the effects to kick in. You may be different, so experiment to see what works for you.

We'll continue with VO2max work with 1200's. They are the bread & butter of this phase.

Now for the workouts ... Week #13 in the training cycle and 8 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 if you're not racing: 4-6 x 1600m @T pace with 1 minute rest.

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

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Marathoners .... if you want to jump on the Expo bandwagon, please take another week of recovery with easy running. No workouts. Next week, start in with the regular workouts.