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