My salty dogs
Older, slower, and trying to keep up with Tall Dave.
"Beep, Beep!"
Life's journey is not to arrive safely to the grave in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming ... WOW! What a ride!
On the run today, I was mentioning that I had asked a friend about specific speed workouts for marathon training once the base has been built. It supports other stuff that I've read and generally believe about having 2 quality workouts a week, with the rest being easy base miles. Anyway, here it is for anyone interested:
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I think the best way to organize your training is to have 2 "big days" per week which are your longest runs and also include most of your quality.
So a sample schedule might look something like:
Mon - 5 easy/recovery
Tue - 7 easy w/ strides
Wed - 12 (workout #1)
Thu - 5 easy/recovery
Fri - 7 easy w/ strides or hill charges
Sat - 7 easy/recovery
Sun - 16-20 (workout #2)
So on Wednesday the 12 ish miles includes warmup/cooldown/recovery jogs and whatever workout you do. Some good options are:
8 x 2 minutes on / 1 minute off where on is about 10k pace and off is easy pace.
3 x 8 minutes on / 3 minutes off where on is maybe 10 mile to HM pace and off is easy.
a 4-mile tempo run @ HM pace
6 x 1000m @ 10k - 15k pace / jog 200
4 x 1 mile @ 10k -15k pace / jog 400
After any of the above workouts I like to finish with something fast, like 4 x 30 seconds at ~ mile race pace with full recoveries or if I'm on the track I'll do 4 x 200m / slow jog a 200. So you'll see in my log a lot of workouts that look something like this:
3 mile jog to the track with 2-3 strides (warmup),
6 x 1000m @ 10k+5 secs / jog 200,
800m easy jog
4 x 200 fast / slow jog 200
4 mile jog home the long way.
Tot = 12.8 miles.
For workout #2, (your long run) I like doing progression runs, fast finish runs, or MP runs. Or you can just do a plain old easy/steady long run if your still building up the distance of your long run. Basically the first time I run a LR distance during a training cycle, I just run it at an easy/steady pace, then the next time I might incorporate some of the other stuff.
The key is keeping the easy days really easy so you can hammer on the hard days (Wednesday and Sunday.)
Hey Lance,
Thanks for posting the schedule. Too much rain this week for me to hit the track so I did tempo and intervals on the treadmill. YUK! Guess there is no way to cheat...
My focus will be more on form- then speed during this session.Poor form does more damage during speed workouts-- practicing proper form during a speed workouts help to maintain it during a race or long run when tired.Tuesdays form focus will be arm swing. Relaxed low shoulders, arms bent at a 90 degree angle, swinging from the shoulder, elbows moving to the rear, loosely closed hands, hands not crossing the mid section of the torso and not going back past the ribs., and the rate of swing 170-180 per minute.
My focus will be more on form- then speed during this session.
Poor form does more damage during speed workouts-- practicing proper form during a speed workouts help to maintain it during a race or long run when tired.
Tuesdays form focus will be arm swing.
Relaxed low shoulders, arms bent at a 90 degree angle, swinging from the shoulder, elbows moving to the rear, loosely closed hands, hands not crossing the mid section of the torso and not going back past the ribs., and the rate of swing 170-180 per minute.