Active Community: Message List - Speedwork

Re: Speedwork

dwm082 — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:49:05 GMT

Good catch, spicegeek. I missed that little detail.

Speedwork puts a lot of stress on your body. The general rule of thumb is to wait until you've hit about 20 miles per week consistently for a few months before diving into speedwork. This level of intensity very much increases your likelihood of overuse injuries if your body isn't comfortable taking a beating.

Increasing distance is, for the time being, the best way to improve your endurance, speed, and resistance to injury. I'd strongly recommend you take a look at the Hal Higdon novice plans for whatever distance you're looking to race.

Don

Re: Speedwork

spicegeek — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:21:34 GMT

Yup - thats pretty much it - I personally would chose to run the warm up just at a easy pace - but that is your choice

HOWEVER .. on saying that .. I would encourage you to just work on increasing your distance and getting your weekly miles up to about 20 - 25 before you start adding speed work - I think your base of 3 30 mins runs per week a little light for this level of training and may put you at risk of injury

Re: Speedwork

dwm082 — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:09:44 GMT

I think, if you'll pardon the pun, that you're ont he right track.

Your total training distance for this workout should be about five miles. This distance includes your warmup and cooldown, each of which should be about a mile and a half (six laps). Your warmup can consist of a slow jog, gradually increasing pace until you're moving at a reasonable pace. You shouldn't be running all out at the end of your warmup, but you should be at a point where you're not accelerating too much to hit your target pace.You should do the reverse for your cooldown; gradually slow down until you're at a slow jog/walk by the end.

Your interval sessions should be three 800m (half-mile, or two laps around the track) runs at a 5:21 min/mile (?! You must be really fast!) pace. Each of these interval session should be separated by a 400m (quarter-mile, or one lap around the track) walk or jog so you can recover a little bit for the next run. It looks to me like you're doing about 1.5 miles of speed intervals with a half mile of recovery jogs.

I think you've pretty much got it right.

If you're looking for another three-day-a-week plan, you should take a look at the Furman Institute for Running and Scientific Training plans. There are modified versions of the half-marathon and marathon plans available at runnersworld.com. They're based on three runs per week plus two days of cross-training. If you're honest about your previous race performances, then you should end up with a training plan that will push you but shouldn't lead to injury.

Good luck!

Don

Speedwork

looseit08 — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:55:43 GMT

I finished C25k in Oct last year and I have been running three times a week for thirty minutes and doing 5ks but I am just now starting up a plan I found on runners world. It is a "moderate" training plan that is 16 weeks long. I want to make sure I understand it correctly. It says

"Speedwork"

"Dist: 5 mi, inc Warm: 3x800@5:21 w/400 jogs: Cool"

So, if I do that following am I on track with what this is trying to tell me?

Walk 5 laps

Jog 1 lap

Run 2 laps fast

Jog 1 lap

Run 2 laps fast

Jog 1 lap

Run 2 laps fast

Jog 1 lap

Walk 5 laps

Is this even close? I am just now starting to look into this and not sure I understand. Also, does anyone have any suggestions for ways to do with without actually being on a track? Do they make a watch or timer or something that will help me? I really like to run on the road. I used my Ipod to time my runs on c25k with the music changing as my cue to start running/walking and I really liked that method.