With a brief lull in the racing calendar, we’ll focus on some endurance intervals this week. You can adjust your intervals by changing the length of either the work part of the interval or the rest part. Changing the duration of the work interval trains your body to run at a specific goal pace for a set duration of time and efficiently buffer the waste products. Changing the rest interval trains your body to recover quickly, run at goal pace while slightly fatigued, and helps in adjusting to mid-race surges and terrain changes. For this session, we’ll keep the work interval set at a single lap (400m) and shorten the rest interval to a half lap (200m). Make sure to NOT fully recover between work intervals. Your heart rate should still be elevated as you start the next repeat. Beginners should be running 6-8 repeats and advanced runners should aim for a minimum of 12 repeats. Work interval should be run at your target 10K race pace.

Session

Warmup: 10 minutes, include arm circles, reaches and upper body warmup as well as running

Session: 12 x 400 x 200, don’t fully recover between work intervals. Run work intervals at 10K goal pace. HR trainers should be running at about 85% VO2Max.

Cooldown: 10 minutes followed by some basic running drills – butt kicks, high knees, skipping, heel slides, crossovers – no more than 100m each. Follow with 4 50m strides.

Whistle stop! What coach doesn’t like to use a whistle? So in that vain, we’ll be calling the shots and you’ll be picking up the pace on the first whistle blow and slowing it down on the second. We’ll start with a few 2 minute intervals with equivalent rest and will then drop down slowly to 30 second intervals. The 2 minute efforts should be run at 10K race pace and the 30 seconds should be at 15-20 seconds faster than 5K race pace. This is a combination workout that targets both your threshold pace (the longer intervals) and your VO2Max pace (the 30 second intervals). After about 4-6 30×30’s we may throw in a couple of intervals at random times to keep you guessing. You’ll never know how long you have to surge when you attack or when you encounter a hill that you hadn’t known was on the course so be ready for anything!

Session

Warmup: 10 minutes, include arm circles, reaches and upper body warmup as well as running

Session: 4 x 2 minutes, 4 x 1 minute, 6 x 30s, random call

Cooldown: 10 minutes followed by some basic running drills – butt kicks, high knees, skipping, heel slides, crossovers – no more than 100m each

Time for something a little more challenging – introducing the ladder. A ladder is a series of increasing or diminishing interval distances which helps you practice pace conservation for various race distances, helps you hone mid- and end-of-race surges, and teaches your body how to move quickly with accumulated fatigue. Ladders can be done with any combination of distances, for example 1 mile x 800m recover, 2 mile x 800m recovery, 3 mile x 800m recover, but it’s much more common to begin with short distances, progress to longer distances and then return to short distances. Finishing with short intervals leaves you more refreshed for your next training session and focuses the workout on running quickly after a few demanding intervals. The last pair of short intervals should be run as fast as or slightly faster than the first pair and should be done at about 15 seconds per mile faster than your current 5K race pace. The middle of the ladder should be run at about 5K race pace or just slightly faster. Keep interval recovery periods equal in length to the work period. For those using heart rate as a reference, the short intervals should be at about 90-95% VO2Max while the longest intervals should be run at high tempo pace at about 75-80% VO2Max.

Session

Warmup: 10 minutes, include arm circles, reaches and upper body warmup as well as running

Beginner session: 2 x 100m x 100m, 2 x 200m x 200m, 2 x 400m x 400m, 2 x 200m x 200m, 2 x 100m x 100m

Advanced session: 4 x 100m x 100m, 4 x 200m x 200m, 2 x 400m x 400m, 4 x 200m x 200m, 6 x 100m x 100m

Cooldown: 10 minutes followed by some basic running drills – butt kicks, high knees, skipping, heel slides – no more than 100m each

Now that you’ve touched the track again, we’ll do something a little more challenging than 100m strides but still targeted at quick legs for that next 5K on the race calendar. After a good 10 minute warmup, hit the track for 200m intervals. This should be half-way around the track running either from one corner to the opposite corner or from the beginning of the straightaway to the start of the straightaway on the other side of the track. Run your 200m fast sections at about 10-15 seconds per mile faster than your 5K race pace. Recovery should be a light to moderate jog of at least 200m. If you’d like to float your intervals around the track, rest for 300-400m and start your next interval at the opposite side of the track. Make sure you have an almost complete recovery. We’ll shorten the recovery periods as we progress through the summer but for now, you’ll want to be fresh for the next pickup. Remember – if you run the first intervals too fast, your last ones will be slowing down and will be less effective training than if you start a little slower and progressively speed up. Make your last 200 the fastest of the series. Then turn around and run a nice 10 minute cooldown.

Session

Warmup: 10 minutes, include arm circles, reaches and upper body warmup as well as running

Beginner session: 8 x 200m x 300m @ your 5K pace

Advanced session: 12 x 200m x 200m @ 5K race pace – 15s

Cooldown: 10 minutes followed by some basic running drills – butt kicks, high knees, skipping, heel slides – no more than 100m each

It’s track time again! In conjunction with the Wednesday night runs out of Fitness Revolution in Orleans at 5:30pm, we’ll be taking anyone who wants to join us down to the Nauset Middle School track and doing some formal track workouts, stretch and strengthening sessions and other fun stuff. The Nauset Middle School track, a crushed bluestone surface perfect for strengthening ankles and all those other connective tissues which rarely get a good workout, measures to about 0.23 mile on the inside lane. We haven’t put the GPS on it yet but keep in mind that you’ll have to go almost 4.5 laps to make a mile. While I won’t be able to make it this evening due to a flu/cold thing that I’d like to refrain from giving everybody, take this opportunity to acquaint yourself with the track and get used to the running surface. For those who have never worked on a track before, read this introductory post from last year. For tonight, warmup for about 10 minutes and then try some ‘pickups’ along the straightaways or the ends of the circles. A pickup should be a slight increase in pace of about 15 seconds per mile followed by a recovery section of a single straight or circle. Beginners should aim for about 8 of these (4 laps) while more advanced runners can do 16-24 pickups. These 100m or so bursts of speed will improve your neuromuscular adaptation, get you moving a little faster than you might ordinarily run on the roads, and enhance strength without putting undue stress on your legs and cardio system.

Session

Warmup: 10 minutes, include arm circles, reaches and upper body warmup as well as running

Beginner session: 8 x 100m x 100m @ 15 seconds/mile faster than your warmup pace

Advanced session: 24 x 100m x 100m @ 5K race pace – 10s

Cooldown: 10 minutes followed by some basic running drills – butt kicks, high knees, skipping, heel slides – no more than 100m each

Have fun and we’ll see you on the track next week!

We frequently confine ourselves to laps on the track based on distance and fail to take advantage of the other things that we can use a track for.  For example, use the track markings for triggering fartlek-style pickups, beginning and ending every time you pass over a line.  This week we’ll run the two minute drill.  Every two minutes, we’ll run a pickup for 2 minutes and then run easy for 2 minutes, signaled by your stopwatch or the whistle.  Each pickup should be run at about 10K race pace and you should be able to complete 6-8 repetitions without being completely wiped out on the last.  Instead of running a set distance for time, we’re running a set time for distance.  Pick out some helpful reference points around the track and for each two minute pickup, try to go just a little bit farther than the last, picking up the pace until the last rep is your fastest.

Warmup: 10′ easy
Workout: 8 x 2m T x 2m E
Cooldown: 10′ easy

Post-cooldown: high knees, butt flicks, kick throughs, strides, leg swings

Take to the hills!  Sport specific strength is most appropriately achieved through functional strength training and the best strength training for running is hill repeats.  This week, we’ll take you to a short hill near the track and do a few repetitions of different styles of hill training.  For those following along at home, find a hill of moderate incline that takes about 10-15 strides to cover.  A hill of well manicured grass like the edges of a baseball or soccer field is best but these drills can also be done on paved surfaces – just make sure that you have an adequate base of road running before attempting on asphalt.  And stay away from concrete.

Repeat the following cycle about 4 times: UP #1 – sprint (emphasis on drive, leg extension and achieving maximum leg power); down easy; UP#2 – leap or bound for either distance or height; down quickly emphasizing rapid leg turnover, especially at the bottom of the hill where you rejoin the flat; UP #3 – bound laterally, slowly moving up the hill but really emphasizing the side to side motion; down easy; UP #4 – skip for either distance or height, being sure to achieve as much leg lift as you can get from your hip extensors.  Finish with 2-3 rapid sprints, carrying your speed and momentum through the crest of the hill and 10-15 steps beyond.

Warmup: 10′
Workout: 4 x 4 x hills
Cooldown: 10′

Post-cooldown: strides, high knees, leg swings, fast feet