Running Around 3-30-08

Congrats to all who competed at any of the Knoxville Marathon events, and thanks to the volunteers ! There were over 4800 runners competing!! If you've seen Stew Ellington running with us on Tuesdays, you realize he earned his 2:28 victory today with a lot of hard work. He sets a great example for all of us to follow.

If you ran the full or half, I'll recommend a road run 6-10 miles (easy or progression - your choice). For everyone else, hills is the preferred workout. All the details about hills are in the post from a few weeks ago: http://trackworkouts.blogspot.com/2008/02/running-around-2-18-08.html

I won't be at the track this week due to work commitments, so have fun out there.


Now for the workout summary ... 8 weeks until Expo 10k & 5k:

1a. 4-10 x Hills. Up hard, down easy. Volume should be 5% of weekly mileage. The hill is about 0.3 miles each direction. So ...
50+ mpw: 8-10 hills
45+ mpw: 7-8 hills
40+ mpw: 6-7 hills
35+ mpw: 5-6 hills
30+ mpw: 5 hills
25+ mpw: 4-5 hills
20 mpw: 4 hills

1b. Road run or progression run on the roads. 6-10 miles.

2. 20-22 minutes continuous @T pace.

3. Striders 4-6 x 100m.

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

Running Around 3-24-08

Marathon week is here. Good luck to all who are running any of the events. If you're not running and can lend a hand, I'm sure they can still use volunteers. See the following site for more information on volunteering:
http://www.knoxvillemarathon.com/Volunteer/VolunteerOpportunities.cfm

For marathoners and 1/2 marathoners, I have a sharpening workout that should get you ready to run well on Sunday while keeping the legs fresh. See workout 1b listed below. I also strongly recommend doing some striders on Thursday and/or Friday to keep sharp.

For everyone else, we're moving into the next phase of training that focuses on improving VO2 max. That's simply your ability to use oxygen efficiently. These are typically the most strenuous workouts in the training cycle. The most important part of this week's workout is to be vigilant about your recovery time. It should be less than or equal to the time you spend on the hard stuff. So, if you run 1000m in 4:45, your recovery jog should be limited to 4:45 or less.

For those doing 2 workouts per week, the second one our bread & butter tempo workout. We'll probably do hills next week.


Now for the workout summary ... 9 weeks until Expo 10k & 5k:

1a. 4-8x1000m @I-pace with 400m jog recovery. Hard running should be 7-8% of your weekly mileage. Keep the jog less than or equal to the time spent running the 1000s.

1b. 2-3x1200m @T-pace w/1 min rest + 4-6 x 200m @R-pace w/200m jog recovery. For marathoners and 1/2 marathoners.

2. 3-6x1600m @T-pace w/1 min rest. About 10% of weekly mileage.

3. Striders 4-6 x 100m.

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

Running Around 3-17-08

Happy St. Patricks Day to all! We're going to do something a little different this week. I know we have a lot of marathoners that are tapering and they've been doing longer stuff. At the same time we have some folks with an eye on April/May races. Hopefully this workout will fit in with everyone's goals. It's a good workout for marathon tapering and it's one-week break from all of the short, fast stuff we've been working on.

The main part of the workout will be a 2-mile acceleration run where each lap gets faster than the previous by 4 seconds. The final lap should be at R-pace. So, find your R-pace using the vdot link at the end, and add 28 seconds. That is the pace for your first lap. For example, if your R-pace is 85 seconds (per 400m), then you start at 113 seconds for the first lap. Your lap times should be: 113, 109, 105, 101, 97, 93, 89, 85. It's a challenge mentally and physically. The first couple of laps will seem too easy, but keep in mind that you have speed up. If you go to fast early, you'll pay for it later. Don't worry about hitting the exact numbers, just try to get as close as you can.

To add some volume to the workout, we'll do a 2-mile steady run before the acceleration run. For marathoners, do this at your goal pace. For everyone else, do this at T-pace. If your weekly mileage is under 35, shorten this to 1 mile. Jog 400m for recovery before the acceleration run.

Please email or ask if you have questions. This is a little more complex than our usual workouts.

For those doing 2 workouts per week, the second one is just plain 400s. We'll probably do hills next week.

Now for the workout summary ... 10 weeks until Expo 10k & 5k:

1. 2 miles steady + 400m jog recovery + 2-mile acceleration run.
Marathoners do the steady run @MP, everyone else @T pace. Under 35 miles per week, shorten the steady run to 1 mile.
Start the acceleration run at R-pace + 28 seconds (per 400m). Increase pace by 4 seconds each lap. Final lap at R-pace.

2. 5-10x400m @R-pace.
400m jog recovery in between. Hard running should be 5% of weekly mileage.

3. Striders 4-6 x 100m.

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

Running Around 3-10-08

We'll continue to work on running economy with week with an R-paced ladder workout. We'll do sets of 200m, 400m, 600m repeats. Rest should be 200m jog following the 200s and 400m jog for the others.

So, one set would look like this: 200m @R, 200m jog, 400m @R, 400m jog, 600m @R, 400m jog. Then you would repeat that sequence as necessary. I've added 200s to some to fill out the volume a little.

Now for the workouts ... 11 weeks until Expo 10k & 5k:

1. R-pace ladders: 200m, 400m, 600m as follows based on weekly mileage:
50+: 3x(200m, 400m, 600m) + 2x200m
45+: 3x(200m, 400m, 600m)
35+: 2x(200m, 400m, 600m) + 2x200m
25+: 2x(200m, 400m, 600m)
0-25: 1x(200m, 400m, 600m) + 2x200m

2. 2x3200m @T pace with 2 minutes rest between

3. Striders 4-6 x 100m.

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

Running Around 3-3-08

Short and to the point. Lots of choices this week. If you ran the full Whitestone, I'll recommend a road run 6-10 miles (easy or progression - your choice). For everyone else, hills is the preferred workout, but you can do 400s instead. All the details about hills are in the post from 2 weeks ago: http://trackworkouts.blogspot.com/2008/02/running-around-2-18-08.html

Second optional workout for later in the week is T-pace running.

Enjoy the sunshine today!


Now for the workouts ... 12 weeks until Expo 10k & 5k:

1a. 4-10 x Hills. Up hard, down easy. Volume should be 5% of weekly mileage. The hill is about 0.3 miles each direction. So ...
50+ mpw: 8-10 hills
45+ mpw: 7-8 hills
40+ mpw: 6-7 hills
35+ mpw: 5-6 hills
30+ mpw: 5 hills
25+ mpw: 4-5 hills
20 mpw: 4 hills

1b. 4-10 x 400m @R pace with 400m jog recovery. Volume should be 5% of weekly mileage.

2. 20-22 minutes continuous @T pace.

3. Striders 4-6 x 100m.

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