Running Around 2-5-07

Now for the workout you've all been waiting for .... hill repeats! Yeah!

Hill workouts should be run at about the same intensity you run 400m repeats on the track. Remember to focus on good form and light, quick steps. Experiment a little to see what works best for you, but some suggestions for hill running include slightly shorter strides, leaning slightly forward, and slightly exaggerating your arm drive and knee lift. Note that I included "slightly" often. These are subtle not radical adjustments.

The hill route is at the Kingston Pike end of Cherokee Blvd. We start at the iron gate and jog down to where the path is interrupted by the road the second time. When you get to the bottom, turn around and run up. Jog back down for recovery. Since you finish at the top, there is no need to do a recovery jog after your last one. The hill is slightly over 400m. The route is here: http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=9492.

There are two warmup options for the hill workouts. The first is to run the greenway (cross the Ag bridge) out to Cherokee Blvd. That route is about 3 miles. The second route is Kingston Pike to Cherokee Blvd. Conveniently, it's almost exactly 2 miles. I've mapped it out here: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=28366 ... Start at the track. Cross the bridge to the Ag campus. Cross Neyland and pick up the greenway next to the river. Follow the greenway and then continue to the intersection of Neyland and Kingston Pike. Cross over to the North side of Kingston Pike to run on the sidewalk. Follow K.P. all the way to Cherokee Blvd. Since it will be getting dark, be extremely careful -- especially crossing K.P!!

Now for the workouts ... 16 weeks until Expo 10k, and 8 weeks until the Knoxville Marathon:

Expo runners: Choose one from (1A, 2)
Knoxville marathon: 1B + choose one from (1A, 2).
Knoxville half: Both 1A & 2.

1A. Hills: 4-10 x hills. Each hill is .3 miles long. Shoot for 5% of your weekly mileage with a minimum of 4 repeats. Examples: 50 mpw = 8, 40 mpw = 6, 30 mpw = 5, <30 = 4.

1B. TLT workout: 2-4 x 1600m @T pace + 1 hour easy + 2-4 x 1600m @T pace. Yes, this is a hard workout, but marathons are hard races, so you need to be prepared. Don't forget warmup and cooldown with this. You can substitute this in place of your long run by adding cooldown miles or extending the easy run between the T's if you need more mileage.

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

2. 3-6 x 1600m @T pace. If you're doing a lot of T workouts, make sure you are progressing your workload as described here ... http://trackworkouts.blogspot.com/2007/01/running-around-1-15-07.html

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