Ha! I meant 1:30 each. How could I forget 90-second quarters?
"If you have the fire, run..." -John Climacus
Self anointed title
Prince of Fatness
One of these days I may be able to do some workouts so it's nice to have everything in one place. A ways back I switched to running almost all of my workouts by time so I figured I'd throw some examples of that out here.
I was still running lifetime PR's so I never really got to the point where I felt that I needed to do real fast intervals (5K effort or less). Most of my workouts were longer sets with short recovery jogs (Spaniel's #3 from the interval thread I think). Based on my race times I would take some workouts and convert them to time.
These I ran a 10K effort
6 x 4 minutes, 90 second jog in between
5 x 5 minutes, 90 second jog in between
4 x 6 minutes, 90 second jog in between
As I got more fit I would go to less, longer sets, but because the recovery stayed the same the workout was more challenging.
Over in the training thread in the Swamp Ben Schneider listed a few step down workouts. I converted one of those to time just to give it a try. I found it more challenging than the ones above but it did not trash me.
20 minutes HM effort, 3 minute jog, 10 minutes 10K effort, 2 minute jog, 5 minutes 5K effort, 1 minute jog, 2 minutes fast (not sprint but fast as I could sustain below 5K effort)
The reason that I switched to time was because I don't have access to a track. I would program the workouts into the Garmin and did not have to worry about distance fluctuation ... time is constant. Plus mentally I have an easier time thinking about how much time I need to run rather than how much distance. It just worked for me,
Tempos I run for time, too. I generally run them 45 - 60 minutes when I am not fat and out of shape like now.
Damn I need to get healthy so I can get back to doing this shit.
Not at it at all.
Feeling the growl again
For some of my time-based workouts I'd also just look at the total time to cover X distance to show progress. For example with the 10ON/5Off etc workout I listed, I'd do that in a workout totaling 10 miles. Over time I'd see the total time of the workout come down...very motivating...but since there was no finish line for the intervals I had less incentive to "race" each one (ie screw it up).
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
What I did was review the pace of the sets when I downloaded the run to my log. I knew that I was doing OK if there was a downward trend, but I also didn't sweat it if there was an occasional bump in the road. Not every day is the same.
Oh, and for those like me who had a hard time taking the recovery jogs slow enough, what I did to cure it is to purposely walk about 5 or so steps after each set, then pickup the jog. That really helped.
I think you will find that 400m is not a quarter of a mile actually. ("To the max!")
Hahah. The renewed training is showing in your humour, chap!
smart.
Nah, it's the low oxygen.
Regarding track access, I am the idiot who has maintained a quarter oval in the backyard all year for the Beer Mile but has yet to actually run on it.
Options,Account, Forums
!
It's a 5k. It hurt like hell...then I tried to pick it up. The end.
Is that track a certified quarter?, you know for the Beer mile times to be official
Last time I used a wheel on it, it came out within 6 feet, given the difficulty staying exactly 6 inches from the edge I call close enough. Given the small ride in turn 4 nobody is going to call it fast....
Just a dude.
One of my favorite workouts was back in high school... Good old 12x400...
We did them at our 2 mile race pace with a 2 minute rest... As the year went on, the rest was reduced until we were doing about 1:15 rest.
BUT, we didn't actually do them right... We'd hit our times for the first 8 or 9, and the last 3 or so would be borderline races... So I'd start at 67-68 and finish under 60...
But that wasn't enough for us goofballs... We had a cool down of 3 miles... but we'd push a half mile hard starting at about the 1.5 mile mark, and then we'd push another quarter mile hard starting at about the 2.25 mark. Those were borderline races as well...
Oh to be young and indestructible...
-Kelly
Getting back in shape... Just need it to be a skinnier shape...
Good stuff here, some serious, some humurous!
Had a decent workout this morning. I was doing good on hitting the hills earlier in the year but fell off the wagon after the hammy issue in May. I call it a building workout as it's good for strength. Started off with a 2 mi warm-up with light stretching and 6 x accelerations. Then did 12 x hill repeats. I don't focus on charging up the hill as fast as I can. Instead I try to maintain good running form and focus on driving the front leg up and pushing off the back leg. It's a good charge up the hill but with form maintained. I kept the downhills easy except every 3 or 4 I would let it go on the downhill and get good turnover. After the 12th repeat, I rolled straight into a maintenance mile (5:26 - blah) and then about 2 easy miles for a cooldown.
Last time I did this w/o, I did 10 x hill repeats with the mile in 5:13. Should have been faster today. Oh well, I can tell I worked the legs pretty good though.
3 weeks left before I roll in interval work. Lot's of good w/o's to fill in the gaps with. Thanks for all the input. There are the typical bread and butter type w/o's I find it interesting to see the variations and twists that you all have put into them.
OK, I have to ask...I've seen this in various places, but what's the "Swamp".
There have been a lot of good training threads and suggestions posted on the main boards over the years. I especially like the Sticky that Nads started in the General Running section.
The other 2000mi training user-group.
"I want you to pray as if everything depends on it, but I want you to prepare yourself as if everything depends on you."
-- Dick LeBeau