Intervals on the Track

Ed -

The Fall sort of marks a start over point for my training.  It's the point where I focus on two areas that you wouldn't think go together:  endurance and strength.  I did this last year and was surprised by my times in a couple of 5K's and 10K that I ran for fun and flavor.  I actually improved in the 5K's and ran the 10K right on where I had earlier in the year when I had actually been focusing on that sort of distance.

My plan then was to run three long runs a week at an easy pace.  The shortest being around 5 miles and up to 12 on the weekends.  On the other day I would hit the gym and do free weights for upper body and lower body at least twice a week.  My favorite day was leg day where I was doing squats, lunges, and step-ups with the big bar and heavy plates.  I did squats with 225 pounds and the lunges and step-ups with 155 pounds.  3 sets of 3 for everything.  Then I would leg curls on a couple of the machines.  I really felt more powerful by the end of winter.

However, I noticed in all of those races that I was really slowing down the last mile or so.  After researching and reading more I looked back at my log and saw that just about everyone of my long runs were very slow paced.  I wasn't doing any of my runs fast enough.  I needed to do them closer to my race pace; something like 80 to 90 percent effort.

That's pretty much what I did exclusively the year I ran my marathon and the next year I ran my Half, and both of those went pretty well.

So this year I'm starting the weight work by doing a kettle bell class so I can get my joints and muscles ready to get underneath heavier weights again, plus this training is both aerobic and anaerobic maintaining the fitness I've gained over the last year.  Plus, I've mapped out my training with a more balanced approach that should move me to another level for the spring.

So now I've got three longer runs per week but only one is easy pace.  My longest run of each week will be targeted at a minute and a half to two minutes slower than race pace.  Those will also be longer runs of 12 to 14 miles.  These build the body's ability to provide more oxygen around for fuel and allow me to go longer before hitting my lactate threshold.  The other two runs will be faster but varied.  One will be a tempo or very long intervals at close to race pace sandwiched in between two easier miles: like a 6 mile tempo run at 7:30 pace with a mile warm up and a mile warm down.  The last one will be a steady pace run of about a minute over 5k race pace and will be my shortest runs of 5 to 7 miles.

All this with one addition: one speed work or hill workout every other week.  This will help me keep the leg speed I gained this past summer (before breaking my ribs and becoming a hobbled wuss boy).  I'm going to keep these runs supporting the longer intervals though.  Nothing shorter than 400's which is what I did yesterday.

10 x 400 on the track with two minutes rest between each.  I hadn't done that workout in over two months so I didn't have high hopes.  However, the training books and guides really do work and it turned into almost the identical splits I did before!  Even better, I wasn't nearly as wiped out lung-wise at the end.  The longer, faster runs I've been doing have really helped.

My splits for the workout were 1:29 (always do the first one "easy" even though it will feel hard), 1:24, 1:24, 1:24, 1:22, 1:23, 1:22, 1:22, 1:20, 1:16.

The goal was to run these at 85 or less and I did it.  In a couple of weeks I'll do some 800 intervals, then back to this one with the goal of doing them at 83 or less.  By spring I hope to be solid at 80 each with only one minute of rest between.  The idea is that whatever pace you can hit for 10 reps and one minute rest, you can do four reps back to back.

I promise Bob will be back soon and the posts won't be as boring!

Run on!