Running Around 7-31-06

I had a few questions about striders last week, so here is a refresher ... Striders are short, fast runs of between 50 and 100 meters. They are run at a "comfortable sprint" pace (i.e. fast with good form but not all out). Think fast and relaxed. You should be concentrating on quick leg turnover and good running form. Don't over stride. Take a full recovery between each repetition; you shouldn't be out of breath before the next one. If you find yourself tying up before the end of each strider, either slow down, take more rest between reps, or shorten the distance of the repetition.

Since I haven't heard any complaints, we'll stick with the greenway for at least this week. We may do some hills next week. For the tempo section, shoot for a pace that is T pace + 15 sec/mile. It should be about half way between MP and T paces.

We'll follow the same route as the last 3 weeks. I've mapped it here ... http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=287194 ... start where we normally finish the warmup and head down to Tyson Park via Volunteer and Cumberland. If you get to the Bi-Lo at the end of the greenway, you can connect to the new section on Sutherland to get to 4 miles. Look for mile markers (and some every .5 miles) painted in dark blue on the right side of the path.

Get your MP here ... http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/rununiv/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm
Get your T pace here ... http://www.panix.com/%7Eelflord/vdot.html

Now for the workouts ... Week #4 in the training cycle and 20 weeks until Autumnfest:

1. 1-hour Quality Run: 20 minutes easy + 20 minutes MP + 10 minutes tempo + 10 minutes easy.

2. Striders after the workout: 4-8 x 100m

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Fall marathoners ... 12 weeks until race day (for Chicago; others see notes that follow)

Get ready to pick it up a notch. This week's primary workout is tough, but the fitness gains are worth the hard work. It might be a little more than you can do on Tuesday, so plan accordingly in terms of time. Also, since it is a longer workout, it might be best to do it in the morning.

1. TLT: 4-5 x 1000@T pace w/1 min rest + 1 hour easy run + 3 x 1000 @T w/1 min rest. Be sure to do at least 1 mile warmup and cooldown. If this workout is too long, reduce the first T session to 3 repeats. I suggest extending the warmup and cooldown to make this your weekly long run.

2. 6x400 @R + 6-10x200 @R pace. All with equal distance rest. Total R-paced running should be about 5% of your weekly mileage.

Marathoners for races other than Chicago have the following number of weeks to go. See the previous posts at http://trackworkouts.blogspot.com/ for the corresponding workouts:

Marine Corps: Do the marathon workout from 7-24-06
NYC: Do the marathon workout from 7-17-06
Chickamauga: Do the marathon workout from 7-17-06
Huntsville: Do the marathon workout from 6-19-06

Anyone running Huntsville or later can substitute the regular track workout if you want to run with the group this week.

Running Around 7-24-06

The warm weather continues, but fortunately it will be a little cooler than last week. Stay diligent with the fluids before, during, and after runs.

We'll continue with theme of 1-hour quality runs. This week, we're going kick up the intensity a little and do some pure T pace. If you can't get all the way down to T pace, get as close as you can. When you get back to the track, do 4-6 x100m striders.

If anyone has feedback on these workouts, I'd love to hear it. I'm not quite back up to 100% with my hamstring, so I'm keeping my fastest running at about MP. That means I'm modifying the prescribed workouts a little, and it's hard to judge the difficulty -- especially with the heat. Hopefully running on the greenway is helping in that respect.

We'll follow the same route as the last 2 weeks. I've mapped it here ... http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=287194 ... start where we normally finish the warmup and head down to Tyson Park via Volunteer and Cumberland. If you get to the Bi-Lo at the end of the greenway, you can connect to the new section on Sutherland to get to 4 miles.

Get your MP here ... http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/rununiv/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm
Get your T pace here ... http://www.panix.com/%7Eelflord/vdot.html

Now for the workouts ... Week #3 in the training cycle and 20 weeks until Autumnfest:

1. 1-hour Quality Run: 15 minutes easy + 30 minutes MP + 5 minutes T + 10 minutes easy.

2. Striders after the workout: 4-8 x 100m

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Fall marathoners ... 13 weeks until race day (for Chicago; others see notes that follow)

This week's main workout will be for running economy and turnover. The secondary workout is a bread and butter T workout. Don't sacrifice your long run to do the secondary workout. You might consider incorporating the T stuff into a long "run" by extending your warmup and cooldown. You could do 5 miles easy, 5 T miles, 5 miles easy for a 15 mile day.

1. Sets of (200m, 200m, 400m) @R pace with equal distance jog. R-paced running should be about 5% of your weekly mileage.

2. Weekend long run

3. 4-8x1600 @T pace with 1 minute rest. T-paced running should be about 10% of your weekly mileage.

Marathoners for races other than Chicago have the following number of weeks to go. See the previous posts at http://trackworkouts.blogspot.com/ for the corresponding workouts:

Marine Corps: you have 14 weeks to go. You are 1 week behind Chicago, so look at 7-17-06
NYC: You have 15 weeks to go. You are 2 weeks behind Chicago, so look at 7-10-06
Chickamauga: You have 16 weeks to go. You are 3 weeks behind Chicago, so look at 7-02-06
Huntsville: You have 20 weeks to go. Go to the week 1 workout on 6-11-06

Anyone running Chickamauga or later can substitute the regular track workout if you want to run with the group this week.

Running Around 7-17-06

It's going to be hot out there this week, so drink, drink, drink, and run early or late. We'll try to escape the heat by doing a quality long run on the greenway again. The drinking fountain in Tyson Park is operational, so take advantage of it.

This week is another 1-hour quality run. We'll start with 10 minutes easy. Then we'll cycle between MP, tempo, and easy paces. Finish with 10 minutes easy as a cooldown. That way we're not running hard up the hill from Tyson Park to the track. For the tempo section, shoot for a pace that is T pace + 15 sec/mile. It should be about half way between MP and T paces.

When you get back to the track, do 4-6 x100 striders. I'm tired of nagging about the striders. It's something I think is very beneficial for developing good turnover and running economy. But I also understand that everyone has different goals, so I won't mention them again except in the workouts.

I've mapped the route here ... http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=287194 ... start where we normally finish the warmup and head down to Tyson Park via Volunteer and Cumberland. If you get to the Bi-Lo at the end of the greenway, you can connect to the new section on Sutherland to get to 4 miles.

Get your MP here ... http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/rununiv/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm
Get your T pace here ... http://www.panix.com/%7Eelflord/vdot.html

Now for the workouts ... Week #2 in the training cycle and 19 weeks until Autumnfest:

1. 1-hour Quality Run: 10 minutes easy + 2x (10 minutes MP + 5 minutes tempo + 5 minutes easy) + 10 minutes easy.

2. Striders after the workout: 4-8 x 100m

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Fall marathoners ... 14 weeks until race day (for Chicago; others adjust accordingly)

This week, the highest priority run is a continuous MP run. In coming weeks this will build in distance. Quality long runs are extremely imporant in improving at the marathon distance. Long, slow runs have their place, but if you want to get faster at long distances, you have to practice it. Workouts in order of priority are:

1. Continuous run 6 miles @MP. Be sure to do a proper warmup and cooldown of at least 10 minutes each. I'd prefer 2 miles for each which will give you a solid 10-mile day. Ideally you should run this on the road or greenway, but you might try starting and ending with a mile on the track to lock-in your pace.

2. Weekend long run

3. Sets of (400m, 400m, 800m) @R pace with equal distance jog. R-paced running should be about 5% of your weekly mileage.

Marathoners for races other than Chicago have the following number of weeks to go. See the previous posts at http://trackworkouts.blogspot.com/ for the corresponding workouts:

Marine Corps: you have 15 weeks to go. You are 1 week behind Chicago, so look at 7-10-06
NYC: You have 16 weeks to go. You are 2 weeks behind Chicago, so look at 7-02-06
Chickamauga: You have 17 weeks to go. You are 3 weeks behind Chicago, so look at 6-26-06

Anyone running the above races can substitute the regular track workout if you want to run with the group this week.

Running Around 7-10-06

Well, we've had some rest time and some time to do some pure base mileage, but now we'll slowly start to re-introduce a little speed. I'll call this the "base plus" phase because the main goal is to still work on building mileage and getting stronger. We'll do some runs on the greenway and maybe the road over the next few weeks. Hopefully that will keep us both mentally and physically fresher than running on the track.

We've traditionally ended our fall season at Autumnfest, and we'll do the same this year. We are 20 weeks away from Thanksgiving.

This week we're going to do a progression run. The concept is simple. The pace will progress (get faster) during the run. This week we'll progress from easy pace to marathon pace (MP). Even if you're not a marathoner, you can still run MP. It's a little slower than T pace, so you should be able to maintain it for a significant distance. So .... let's do a 1 hour progression run. The first 30 minutes should be at your easy/long run pace. The second 30 minutes should be at MP. There are blue mileage markers painted on the greenway that you can use as a guide. Don't worry about hitting an exact pace. The goal this week is to just reintroduce your body to some faster running. If you fell like you need it, run a couple of cool down laps around the track. Let's also add some striders at the end of the workout.

I've mapped the route here ... http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=287194 ... start where we normally finish the warmup and head down to Tyson Park via Volunteer and Cumberland. If you get to the Bi-Lo at the end of the greenway, you can connect to the new section on Sutherland to get to 4 miles.

The normal pace calculator doesn't show MP, so try this one instead ... http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/rununiv/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm ... enter a recent race time and use the pace it shows in the marathon column. You can probably get close by running 30-40 seconds per mile slower than T pace.

Now for the workouts ... Week #1 in the training cycle and 20 weeks until Autumnfest:

1. 1-hour Progression Run: 30 minutes easy + 30 minutes MP

2. Striders after the workout: 4-8 x 100m

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Fall marathoners ... 15 weeks until race day (for Chicago; others adjust accordingly)

Move to two workouts per week. I've prioritized the hard days (long runs and workouts). If you can get all three, that is ideal. If not, drop the lowest priority. You can always find time to do some striders, so don't neglect those.

1. Long Run
2. 4-8 x 1600@T pace w/ 1 minute rests
3. 8-10 x 400 @R with equal distance jog

Running Around 7-2-06

Due to the holiday on Tuesday and Fireball on Monday, we will not be meeting on Tuesday. For this week, continue with base work with a road run. Next week we will move into the "base plus" phase of training. That means we'll be doing some faster stuff, but it will be on the roads or bike trail instead of the track.

Fall marathoners ... this is the 4th week of a 20-week training cycle.
Remember that this is a generic schedule, so you have to make sure you're on the correct week. Go to http://trackworkouts.blogspot.com/2006/06/running-around-6-11-06.html for the beginning of the schedule.

Mid-week: 3 miles at marathon pace w/ 2 min rest + 2 miles @T w/2 min rest + 1 mile @T + 4 x striders. You can run this on the road or track.

Weekend: Long run ... keep building

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