Running Around 1-29-07

It was a great turnout for the Calhoun's 10-miler on Saturday. Hopefully you had a great time even if didn't run a great time. In any case, that race should give you a good indication of your fitness.

With such a long, difficult race, it's a good idea to give your legs a chance to recover. So, I'm going to recommend an easy road run on Tuesday for anyone who raced on Saturday. No hard running until Thursday or Friday this week. Then you can pick one of the workouts below. I'm giving you some options with the workouts, and I hope you're mixing them up and not running the same ones week after week.

For those die-hards that race Calhoun's thinking, "I might run a workout," remember that it may take a few days for the race to catch up with you. You might not feel too bad now, but if you keep piling on the workouts, it will hit you sooner or later.

Now for the workouts ... 17 weeks until Expo 10k, and 9 weeks until the Knoxville Marathon:

Expo runners: Choose one from (1A, 2, 3 )
Knoxville marathon or half: Choose two of the three (1B, 2, 3 ). If you race Calhoun's pick only one.

1A. Tempo run. 20-22 minutes continuous @T pace.
1B. Same as 1A but extend cooldown to 5 miles total.

2. Progression run: 75 minutes total with 35 minutes easy, 35 minutes at marathon pace (MP), and 5 minutes easy at the end (as a cooldown).

3. Hills: 5-10 x hills. Usually we run these on Cherokee Blvd, but you could pick a hill somewhere else that is 200-400m in length.

+ Striders 4-6 x 100m twice this week.

Get your paces here: http://www.panix.com/%7Eelflord/vdot.html -or- http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/rp.php

Running Around 1-22-07

Not too much discussion this week. I'll get straight to the point. We have our first big race of the year this weekend -- Calhoun's 10-miler. It's a tough course, so it will be a good barometer for your training so far. However, we're a long way from our peak races, so we'll be training though this week. That simply means we're not going to cut back on our workouts or mileage. It's OK to take it a little easier on Thursday & Friday, but try to maintain your mileage if you can. A Tuesday workout will leave plenty of time to recover, so need to hold back there either.

We're going to do more tempo work this week on the track. Remember we want to progress from workout to workout, so challenge yourself to add 1/2 to 1 mile each week. See last week's email for suggestions on T-workout progressions. If you want a specific suggestion drop me an email.

Marathoners: You should be able to run the full 10-mile race at marathon pace or better. If not, you need to rethink your marathon pace. Use this as an opportunity to practice warmup, drinking during the race, GU, etc. Also consider which shoes you will be wearing during the marathon. You want a pair that is broken in but not broken down. These longer races are a good opportunity to see if your shoes are the right ones.

Now for the workouts ... 18 weeks until Expo 10k, and 10 weeks until the Knoxville Marathon:

1A. 3-6 x 1600 @T pace with 1 minute rest.

2. Race Calhoun's 10-miler

3. Striders 4-6 x 100m twice this week.

Get your paces here: http://www.panix.com/%7Eelflord/vdot.html -or- http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/rp.php

Running Around 1-15-07

I hope you've been taking advantage of the great weather to get in some quality miles! Also, the marathon training runs have had about 95 and 50 participants the past two weeks. If you're training by yourself on the weekends, give the training group a chance, you'll be amazed how much easier it is to run with a group. Plus, you'll have water and snacks at the end.

I want to mention a couple of things this week that I haven't really emphasized much.

First, it makes sense to take a recovery week occasionally. Much like the hard day/easy day theory, you will benefit from dropping your mileage every 4-6 weeks -- especially if you're adding mileage and/or intensity like we've been doing. So, if you haven't taken a recovery week since we started this buildup, I recommend you take one this week. Typically, I'll take an extra day off, reduce my long run mileage, or both. I think a 10-20% mileage reduction is OK. However, don't sacrifice your quality running. Keep the workouts in, and cut back somewhere else. The timing for a recovery week is perfect for Calhoun's. It usually take a few days to notice the benefits of the added rest, so resting this week should give you a little boost next week - just in time for the race.

Next, we should be working to advance a particular workout from week to week. For example, if you're running T-paced workouts, increase the mileage or duration slightly over your previous workout. After a few weeks of adding mileage, drop back to your original volume and increase your pace. You'll notice that I'm increasing the hard portion of the progression runs by 5-10 minutes each week. Here are some examples on how to progress through a series of T workouts:

2 x 1 mile, 3 x 1 mile, 2 x 1.5 mile, 4 x 1 mile, 3 x 1 mile (faster pace 4-8 sec/mile), 4 x 1 mile
3 x 1 mile, 4 x 1 mile, 3 x 1.5 mile, 5 x 1 mile, 4 x 1 mile (faster pace), 5 x 1 mile
4 x 1 mile, 5 x 1 miles, 3 x 1.5 mile, 2 x 2 miles, 5 x 1 mile (faster pace), 6 x 1 mile

Finally, you're going to get bored with T workouts if you stick to the track. If that's OK with you, that's OK with me. The progression runs are a good way to add some variety, but I know they're not for everyone. If you decide to give the progression run a try, go back to last week and start with the 30/30 instead of this week's harder 25/35.

Now for the workouts ... 19 weeks until Expo 10k, and 11 weeks until the Knoxville Marathon:

Expo runners: Choose one from (1A, 1B, 2 )
Knoxville marathon or half: Choose two of the three (1A, 1B, 2 ). You could include 6-7 miles @MP as part of your long run as an alternative to a separate progression run.

1A. 3-5 x 2400 m @T pace with 1:15 minute rest.

1B. Progression run: 1 hour total with 15-20 minutes easy, 35-40 minutes at marathon pace (MP), 5 minutes easy at the end (as a cooldown). You can extend this to as long as 10 miles with at least 30 minutes hard at the end. Remember MP is just a pace relative to your current fitness level. Whether you're training for a marathon or not is irrelevant.

2. Hills: 5-10 x hills. Usually we run these on Cherokee Blvd, but you could pick a hill somewhere else that is 200-400m in length.

3. Striders 4-6 x 100m twice this week.

Get your paces here: http://www.panix.com/%7Eelflord/vdot.html -or- http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/rp.php

Running Around 1-8-07

First, I'd like to thank everyone who contributed to my Christmas present ... Thank you!

We've had a solid 6 weeks of pure base training, and now it's time to get a little more structured. We'll be doing a mix of tempo and progression runs over the next few weeks to gradually re-introduce some speed. I'll give you the option of selecting tempo (track) or progression (road) this week. I guess you could run a progression run on the track if you want. Or you could get creative and use the warmup as the easy part of the progression run and finish on the track with the faster stuff.

Why progression runs? They teach us how to change gears and overcome general fatigue (physical and mental). These are important in races because holding an even pace will require increasingly greater focus and energy as the race progresses. Also, they allow us to train more than one energy system during a workout while providing some variety.

Now for the workouts ... 20 weeks until Expo 10k, and 12 weeks until the Knoxville Marathon:

Expo runners: Choose one from (1A, 1B, 2 )
Knoxville marathon or half: Choose two of the three (1A, 1B, 2 ). You could include 4-5 miles @MP as part of your long run as an alternative to a separate progression run.

1A. Progression run: 1 hour total with 25 minutes easy, 30 minutes at marathon pace (MP), 5 minutes easy at the end (as a cooldown). You can extend this to as long as 10 miles with at least 30 minutes hard at the end. Remember MP is just a pace relative to your current fitness level. Whether you're training for a marathon or not is irrelevant.

1B. 3-4 x 1600m @T pace with 1 minute rest

2. Hills: 5-10 x hills. Usually we run these on Cherokee Blvd, but you could pick a hill somewhere else that is 200-400m in length.

3. Striders 4-6 x 100m twice this week.

Get your paces here: http://www.panix.com/%7Eelflord/vdot.html -or- http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/rp.php