With a few days to go until USAT Nationals in Burlington, VT, it’s time to get in a final tune-up session before your ‘A’ race. But while the general principal of specificity applies in weeks 4, 3 and 2 prior to the race, it’s unwise to simulate race distances and conditions once into the final taper week. Tapering is an art form and everyone responds to a reduced workload in a different way. For an effective taper, you’ll want to reduce volume by 30-50% over the week while maintaining intensity at race pace or better. This is your chance to get rested and dial-in your target race paces and intensities … and if you have easy access to your race course before the race, do a couple of segments of it at race pace (at least 2 days out and short!) to familiarize yourself with the conditions and how you’re going to feel at various points in the race. Therefore, today is about hitting race pace and having a little fun!

10 minute warmup
4 x 100m floaters
15 minutes of 30s x 30s x 30s – that’s 30 seconds of race pace followed by 30 seconds of jogging recovery followed by 30 seconds of bicycle on your back
10 minute cooldown; 4 x strides, drills
15 minutes of ultimate frisbee

Multiples of 8

Ladders are a great way to add some variety into a speed session, practice running fast on fatigued legs, and work on your pacing at various distances. Ladders can go up, down, be a combination of both or use completely random distances. This week, we’ll do a simple descending ladder of distances and repetitions that are all multiples of 8. This makes it simple to remember where you are in the ladder and easy to apply to a common 400m track. In a descending ladder, each step to a new distance should be run at a faster pace and the bottom of the rung should be the fastest. Running quick 100m sprints after a few 800s is perfect for tuning up finish line attacks, making mid-race surges, and generally being able to find another gear at the end of a challenging race.

10 minute warmup; leg swings, high knees, butt flicks
1 x 800m, 2 x 400m, 4 x 200m, 8 x 100m
10 minute cooldown; 5 x strides, skipping

  We’ll continue the endurance intervals that we started last week with an interesting distance that we just experimented with, 600 meters. The distance demands a bit of concentration since it isn’t one that we do frequently and while we’re pretty good at setting our pace for a 400 or an 800 meter effort, 600 is something we don’t run often. For this session, target your 10K race pace or if you’re using heart rate as a guide, set a pace about 5 beats per minute below your threshold heart rate. Remember to adjust your threshold and maximum HR rates for the weather. Take 90 seconds easy jogging between each work interval so that you’re fully prepared to hit your target pace for the next.

10 minute warmup; high knees, butt kick, leg swings, arm circles
4 x 600m x 90s
10 minute cool down
5 x strides; skips, hops, lateral skips, grapevine

Running fast (or more efficiently since an efficient runner is able to run more comfortably at a specific pace than a non-efficient runner) for any length of time longer than 40 seconds is all about building speed-endurance, the ability to maintain a certain pace for a given length of time or distance. This week, we’re aiming to increase our endurance with a solid tempo session of two miles at threshold pace. If you don’t know what your threshold pace is, it’s the pace that you can sustain for a 20 minute effort which for most of us is about 5K race pace or 5 to 10 seconds slower. So after a good 10 minute warmup followed by some leg swings, high knees, skips and butt flicks, run two miles at a pace just slower than your 5K race pace. Then cool down for 10 minutes and close with 5 75m strides, skipping, high knees and fast feet drills. Advanced runners in the group should aim for 2-3 x 2 mile with a 1/2 mile jogging break in between. Remember to adjust the workout to the weather conditions. In the heat and humidity, plan on running 20-30 seconds per mile slower than your target and cut the volume by 25% (for example, run a 1.5 mile tempo instead of 2 miles).

10 minute warm up
leg swings, skipping, butt flicks
1 x 2 mile
10 minute cool down
5 x 75m strides + skipping, high knees, fast feet

Now that we’re adapted to the heat, it’s time to get down to work. This week’s session will be a 5K race simulation that will build endurance for upcoming 5K and 5 mile races. The parameters are simple: 5 x 800m x 200m for a total of 5000m. The execution is a bit more complex. The 800’s should be run at about 10-15s faster per mile than 5K race pace and the 200’s MUST be done as active recovery, no slower than your half-marathon race pace. The key to this session is the reduced recovery time bookended by pace efforts that are faster than your usual 5K race pace. If done correctly, this session will make your next 5K race seem easy by comparison!

10 minute warm up
5 minute dynamic stretching drills (high knees, butt flicks, etc.)
5 x 800m x 200m @ 5K-15
10 minute cool down
4 x strides
10 minute drills (skipping, tiger, arm positioning, body positioning, toe/heel/duck/groucho walks)

It’s still hot outside so let’s take an opportunity to learn how to pace a little better and leave some of the tough work sessions for later. After a thorough warm up and some dynamic stretching, run 6 100 meter pickups followed by 20 minutes of fartlek. Vary the distances of the fartlek from 50m up to 400m and adjust pace accordingly. Your pace should range from sprint to 10K race pace. For fun, pick someone as the leader of a lap and have them clap to start the fartlek and clap again to end it. This will mimic the surge and attack of cross country where you won’t know if your opponent will attempt to cover your surge or will drop off from your attack. Finish the session with a couple of quick 100 meter pickups, concentrating on form and a high leg lift, do a few strides, and finish with 5 minutes of drills and a 10 minute cool down.

10 minute warm up
6 x 100m @ controlled sprint
20 minute fartlek
2 x 100m @ controlled sprint
strides, drills

It’s been a while since I posted weekly track workouts and now that a few people are asking, I’ll be tossing the week’s assignments up here again on a semi-regular basis. We’ll assume that you’ve been running at least 20 minutes, 4 times a week and can comfortably handle runs of 3-5 miles. If you can’t handle the full run distance yet, walk the warmup and cooldown sections and reduce the number of intervals by 50%. Remember to listen to your body at all times and don’t make it do things that it isn’t ready to do yet. If you need to abridge a training session, that’s better than taking a trip in the ambulance or being out for 3 months with a torn ligament!

This is the second week that we’ve had to deal with really hot and sticky conditions. Since long intervals will compromise your hydration levels, we’ll concentrate on neuromuscular firing patterns instead. That means some short, intense stuff rather than a lot of slower circuits of the track.

After a 10 minute warmup, run 6 x 100m with 100m rest in between. The 100’s should be run at a controlled sprint pace and you should run through the recovery at a slow jog making sure to get a full recovery between each. Pick either the curves or the straightaways to run your speed section and then rest on the opposite. For the second set that’s coming, we’ll reverse where you ran the speed. Next, 2 x 300m with 100m moderate jog rest in between. These are done WITHOUT a full recovery! Follow that with one more set of 6 x 100m x 100m run 1-3 seconds faster than the first set with full recovery between each speed section. Finish up with some drills and strides: walking drills – high knees, butt flicks, A-skips (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad0ToqBV3fo), B-skips (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASQamQ3WV-0), straight legs, heel/toe/duck/pigeon/outer/inner – 20 steps each, leg swings :: 2-3 strides. So the entire session looks like:

10’ warm up
6 x 100 x 100 @ controlled sprint
2 x 300 x 100 @ 5K race pace (no recovery)
6 x 100 x 100 @ controlled sprint, 3 seconds faster than set 1
10’ warm down

Drills and strides -

Enjoy the day and be sure to drink plenty of fluids, especially after you’re done with this work!