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