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

---

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.