Track Suggestions

by Bob Grumbine

A little late, but here’s my suggestion for track workouts
between now and January 1, when we will be doing the Great Lengths
races. The distances are tuned towards doing the 2008 Rods
race (about 10 km). But this should be a good series for anything
between 5k and 10 miles. If you want to focus on marathon, they
tend to be short, and if the mile, they’re long.

Dates are for the Tuesday of the given week

        9/17              800 m
        9/24             1600
       10/1               400
       10/8              1200
       10/15             2000
       10/22              600
       10/29             Tempo
       11/5              1200
       11/12             1600
       11/19              800
       11/26             2000
       12/3              Tempo
       12/10             1600
       12/17              800
       12/24             Dealer’s Choice
       12/31             Rest for tomorrow’s race

Tempo is a run where you go for 20-30 minutes at your 1 hour
race pace. If you run a 60 minute 10 miler, then it’s your 10 mile
race pace. If you’re closer to a 60 minute 10k, then it’s your
10k race pace. There are many other descriptions than ‘1 hour
race pace’, many of them being 10 mile race pace (perhaps 15 seconds
slower). The one hour race pace has the plus that it applies regardless
of your speed. Most of the other descriptions assume you’re towards
the 60 minute 10 miler. Your first time out, aim at the 20 minute
end.

If you haven’t already race a hard 60 minutes, you can go by feel
somewhat. This is your ‘comfortably hard’ pace. You are breathing
too hard to want to converse, but not so hard that you can’t get words
out. You’re _not_ accumulating lactic acid (feeling ‘the burn’), but
would if you sped up a little or kept your speed on a slight uphill.

For the repeats, if they take under about 5 minutes, run them at
your 5k pace. If they’re over that, go for 10k pace. If one would
be much over 10 minutes (like the 2000m will be for many of us)
make those days 1600m days as well. If you haven’t run a 10k yet,
guess it to be 2.1 times your 5k time. (Then see my pacing web page
and make it compute your times as that pace for other distances if you
don’t want to compute it yourself.)

Happy tracks,
Bob Grumbine