Warmup +Drills +Strides
12-20 X 400m @ 5k pace w/ 60 sec jog recovery (every 4th repeat hammer interval)
Cooldown
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Summer Workout Series #3
Warmup +Drills +Strides
12-20 X 400m @ 5k pace w/ 60 sec jog recovery (every 4th repeat hammer interval)
Cooldown
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Summer Workout Series #2
Apologies for the length of the video to get to the workout you could skip to about 8 minutes or so.
1) Warmup +Drills +Strides
2) 2X2 miles w/ 3min between repetitions (First 1/3 @ HM Pace, Mid 1/3 @ 10k pace, Final 1/3 @ 5k pace) take 4-5 minute jog after this set going into the following
3) 8X200m @ 1 mile-5k pace w/ 100m recovery then 4-5 jog before
4) 2X2 miles w/ 3min between repetitions (First 1/3 @ HM Pace, Mid 1/3 @ 10k pace, Final 1/3 @ 5k pace)
5) Cooldown
Forgot to mention both 2X2 miles can be on road by track and 200s on the track.
Enjoy
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Summer Workout Series #1
This is the first instalment of a new series of blog posts helping runners out there achieve PRs across all distances especially those in the 5k-marathon range. I will describe in detail workouts for you to complete and challenge yourself with to become a faster stronger runner. All the workouts will have a slightly different focus, and challenge you in a different way. Throughout the series, if there are any personal questions you have about what you should do, or could do to improve comment below the post I will respond to your comment within 24 hours. This is a free coaching service essentially that I am setting up, so whether you have a question about the week's workout or advice on supplemental training such as strengthening, nutrition, or gear such as footwear feel free to comment below. Hopefully these help not only to become a better runner but throughout the series I will also include information about why I'm choosing the selected workout parameters, so that in the future you know how to design a good fluid and effective workout for yourself.
Week 1
Most of these workouts are designed to be done on Wednesday since that will give you a good amount of time to recover and be at full capacity for your weekly long run on the weekend. If it cannot be completed on the Wednesday due to other life commitments Tuesday or Thursday would work as well - just don't want to go Monday right after long run or Friday or Saturday before the long run depending what day of the weekend you choose to complete the long run.
Our first workout for the series is a speed based workout with a mixture of some aerobic strength. First off you want to start with your warmup. Your warmup should be about 20 minutes of easy running. Following the warmup, perform a set a running drills. Everyone has a slightly different routine of drills but a great starter routine can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhzzpZVMtl4. After the drills you want to perform about 3-5 stride repetitions. Strides are about 60m worth of accelerating up to about 85% of your top speed. So almost like a short sprint (but not quite as fast as a sprint and not long enough to get any fatiguing effect). The purpose of strides is two-fold. One, it helps just further activate our bodies physiologically, and two psychologically it helps to prime our bodies to run fast (it also helps to get any pre-race or pre-workout nerves out). After that your warmup is complete. I know right roughly 35-40 minutes of just warming up, but trust me watch any diamond league track meet, or major road race and you'll see all the elites performing similar type warmups. Pretty much the only time when I wouldn't perform such as extensive warmup is before a full marathon. With a half marathon it really depends on your level of mileage, overall ability and experience. For example before a half marathon I will perform this exact same warmup running about 5k pre-race usually out on the course to familiarize myself with my surroundings just a bit then starting the drills and strides. However for a first time half-marathoner I probably wouldn't perform such a long warmup. On to the workout.
Should have mentioned before, perform your warmup run from your house to a track nearby.
Part 1: 15-20 minute Tempo Run: A Tempo run is also called a threshold run. This is because this is run at just below your lactate threshold which for most corresponds to your 1 hour race pace. So the pace you would be able to sustain for 1 hour in a race. This pace for speedy runners is approximately half marathon pace but for others may be about 10k pace - if your a 60 minute 10k runner. The best way I've found to describe a tempo run is a pace that is comfortably hard. Your breathing is definitely accelerated but your in control and in rhythm. For me I do my tempo runs at about 3:20-3:24/km. The best source I can suggest to find your tempo run pace would be https://www.mcmillanrunning.com. Simply enter a recent race time and future goal race time and it will calculate all your training paces from easy runs, to tempo runs, cruise intervals, to speed work paces to sprint paces. The purpose of this tempo run is two-fold. One it will help boost your pace that you can sustain at lactate threshold (increase lactate threshold), and two it helps you mentally to get used to running at speed for a sustained period which is what racing obviously entails. Do this tempo run on the road nearby the track. Tracks are great for speed stuff but tempo runs are really meant to simulate racing, which unless your a track runner is done on the road.
Part 2: Ya that's right I said part 2. I never said in the introduction these workouts were meant to be easy. They are definitely made for runners with a decent base of mileage under their belts. When I refer to base, I mean at least 2-3 months of consistently running decent mileage without injury. So take about a 5 minute or so jog break in between the tempo run and part two. For part two perform 3 set of the following: 800m at 5k pace, then 200m jog active recovery, the 400m at 5k pace with 3 minutes in-between sets. So in summary form 3X(800m, 200m jog, 400m) 3 minutes between sets. This is mostly a difficult workout because the 200m rest in between the 800 and 400. By far the most important parameter of any workout is the rest between intervals. A great example is if your doing a 5k race and prior to the race you perform a workout of 5X1km at your goal 5k pace. If you say I did 5X1km at pace it doesn't really equate very much to the race if you took 5 minutes in between each interval. Because well during a race it is 5 of those intervals straight and no rest in-between. Ideally then during any workout you want the rest to be short as possible because then it will better mimic the conditions felt during the race. There are some exceptions to this but I will explain in future posts. So going back to what I was saying 200m is not a lot of time between intervals so that 400 will definitely be a challenge since your heart rate will still be quite elevated. This workout is also challenging yet extremely effective because you are working on keeping a high leg turnover and running fast, despite running on some decently fatigued legs due to the tempo run. This will help build some aerobic strength and mental toughness, and also will help your legs understand and learn how to run fast when tired which will help in the later stages of races. The 400s and 800s will also be above lactate threshold so they will help train your body with lactate clearance. One thing, which I will probably say bunches of times over the next few posts is that a very important thing to having a good workout is to really try to focus on the interval at hand. So when your flying through your 800 don't be thinking, O god I have a 400 coming up right after this. If you do that, you will subconsciously of maybe consciously slow yourself down and the workout's quality will go down with it.
So to sum things up:
1 - Warmup: 20 minute jog to track
2 - Drills
3 - 3-5 Strides
4 - 15-20 minute tempo run
5 - 5 minute jog
6 - 3X(800m @ 5k pace, 200m jog, 400 m @ 5k pace) 3 minutes between sets on on all track
7 - Cooldown 10-15 minutes
I hope you understand everything, if not comment below. Enjoy the workout, it's a tough one, but I hope your willing to take on the challenge. If completed feel free to comment below to share your feelings on the workout.
Week 1
Most of these workouts are designed to be done on Wednesday since that will give you a good amount of time to recover and be at full capacity for your weekly long run on the weekend. If it cannot be completed on the Wednesday due to other life commitments Tuesday or Thursday would work as well - just don't want to go Monday right after long run or Friday or Saturday before the long run depending what day of the weekend you choose to complete the long run.
Our first workout for the series is a speed based workout with a mixture of some aerobic strength. First off you want to start with your warmup. Your warmup should be about 20 minutes of easy running. Following the warmup, perform a set a running drills. Everyone has a slightly different routine of drills but a great starter routine can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhzzpZVMtl4. After the drills you want to perform about 3-5 stride repetitions. Strides are about 60m worth of accelerating up to about 85% of your top speed. So almost like a short sprint (but not quite as fast as a sprint and not long enough to get any fatiguing effect). The purpose of strides is two-fold. One, it helps just further activate our bodies physiologically, and two psychologically it helps to prime our bodies to run fast (it also helps to get any pre-race or pre-workout nerves out). After that your warmup is complete. I know right roughly 35-40 minutes of just warming up, but trust me watch any diamond league track meet, or major road race and you'll see all the elites performing similar type warmups. Pretty much the only time when I wouldn't perform such as extensive warmup is before a full marathon. With a half marathon it really depends on your level of mileage, overall ability and experience. For example before a half marathon I will perform this exact same warmup running about 5k pre-race usually out on the course to familiarize myself with my surroundings just a bit then starting the drills and strides. However for a first time half-marathoner I probably wouldn't perform such a long warmup. On to the workout.
Should have mentioned before, perform your warmup run from your house to a track nearby.
Part 1: 15-20 minute Tempo Run: A Tempo run is also called a threshold run. This is because this is run at just below your lactate threshold which for most corresponds to your 1 hour race pace. So the pace you would be able to sustain for 1 hour in a race. This pace for speedy runners is approximately half marathon pace but for others may be about 10k pace - if your a 60 minute 10k runner. The best way I've found to describe a tempo run is a pace that is comfortably hard. Your breathing is definitely accelerated but your in control and in rhythm. For me I do my tempo runs at about 3:20-3:24/km. The best source I can suggest to find your tempo run pace would be https://www.mcmillanrunning.com. Simply enter a recent race time and future goal race time and it will calculate all your training paces from easy runs, to tempo runs, cruise intervals, to speed work paces to sprint paces. The purpose of this tempo run is two-fold. One it will help boost your pace that you can sustain at lactate threshold (increase lactate threshold), and two it helps you mentally to get used to running at speed for a sustained period which is what racing obviously entails. Do this tempo run on the road nearby the track. Tracks are great for speed stuff but tempo runs are really meant to simulate racing, which unless your a track runner is done on the road.
Part 2: Ya that's right I said part 2. I never said in the introduction these workouts were meant to be easy. They are definitely made for runners with a decent base of mileage under their belts. When I refer to base, I mean at least 2-3 months of consistently running decent mileage without injury. So take about a 5 minute or so jog break in between the tempo run and part two. For part two perform 3 set of the following: 800m at 5k pace, then 200m jog active recovery, the 400m at 5k pace with 3 minutes in-between sets. So in summary form 3X(800m, 200m jog, 400m) 3 minutes between sets. This is mostly a difficult workout because the 200m rest in between the 800 and 400. By far the most important parameter of any workout is the rest between intervals. A great example is if your doing a 5k race and prior to the race you perform a workout of 5X1km at your goal 5k pace. If you say I did 5X1km at pace it doesn't really equate very much to the race if you took 5 minutes in between each interval. Because well during a race it is 5 of those intervals straight and no rest in-between. Ideally then during any workout you want the rest to be short as possible because then it will better mimic the conditions felt during the race. There are some exceptions to this but I will explain in future posts. So going back to what I was saying 200m is not a lot of time between intervals so that 400 will definitely be a challenge since your heart rate will still be quite elevated. This workout is also challenging yet extremely effective because you are working on keeping a high leg turnover and running fast, despite running on some decently fatigued legs due to the tempo run. This will help build some aerobic strength and mental toughness, and also will help your legs understand and learn how to run fast when tired which will help in the later stages of races. The 400s and 800s will also be above lactate threshold so they will help train your body with lactate clearance. One thing, which I will probably say bunches of times over the next few posts is that a very important thing to having a good workout is to really try to focus on the interval at hand. So when your flying through your 800 don't be thinking, O god I have a 400 coming up right after this. If you do that, you will subconsciously of maybe consciously slow yourself down and the workout's quality will go down with it.
So to sum things up:
1 - Warmup: 20 minute jog to track
2 - Drills
3 - 3-5 Strides
4 - 15-20 minute tempo run
5 - 5 minute jog
6 - 3X(800m @ 5k pace, 200m jog, 400 m @ 5k pace) 3 minutes between sets on on all track
7 - Cooldown 10-15 minutes
I hope you understand everything, if not comment below. Enjoy the workout, it's a tough one, but I hope your willing to take on the challenge. If completed feel free to comment below to share your feelings on the workout.
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