Share Your Favourite Speed/Track Workout
9 watchers
Jul 2013
6:40pm, 3 Jul 2013
2,046 posts
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Sweaty Frank
I am always looking for new ways to torture myself at the track, so please share some of your favourite speed/track workouts. In addition to the details (interval times and distances, recovery times and distances, number of reps, etc.), I would like to know if the workout has a specific purpose or objective, and how it fits into your overall training plan, for example, how often you do that particular workout, how close to the target race, etc. I'll start it off with a new one I began running this year. 1.5 mile warm-up 16 or 20 x 400 @ your roughly your 5k pace, with 200 recovery at about 15% slower than your marathon pace. 1.5 mile cool-down I love/hate this workout, because there is no stopping, with the objective of building speed endurance and increased VO2 max. I use it as a part of my marathon training, but it would be helpful for shorter distances. After warming-up, I run the first 400, then cruise into a 200 recovery which takes me to the start of the next 400, and so on. The result is 4 to 5 miles at race at 5k race pace, with recoveries that allow your heart rate to go down slightly before the next repeat. I would advise to try fewer reps (maybe 10 or 12 initially) and possibly slower recoveries, until you build-up your speed endurance. |
Jul 2013
7:47pm, 3 Jul 2013
103 posts
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ZokasTRK
Our coach at Larkhall YMCA Harriers give us this one every 4-6 weeks and for some reason I actually love it! It's basically 300m with 100m recovery but we do it tag team style with a partner. So I'd start at the 100m finish and do 300m (to the 100m start) where my partner would be standing, I'd tag them and they'd run 300m. Meanwhile I'd be jogging back 100m, to meat them where they finish (the 200m start line), where they would then tag me back in to start again. So your rest only lasts the length of your partners rep, so ideally you should be with someone of a similar standard. We do 12 x repeats of this I hunted my diary for my splits but can't find them! I'll keep looking! |
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Jul 2013
4:43pm, 4 Jul 2013
2,047 posts
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Sweaty Frank
Yep, I've done that one as well, Zokas. We had a large group of runners, and we all partnered-up and ran it with someone of relatively similar pace. The track looked like chaos, but in fact it was a well orchestrated work-out.
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Jul 2013
4:45pm, 4 Jul 2013
28,890 posts
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Hills of Death (HOD)
I like 800m or 1k reps about 5-6 at 5k pace 
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Jul 2013
6:23pm, 4 Jul 2013
2,048 posts
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Sweaty Frank
HOD, what recovery do you allow between reps?
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Jul 2013
10:43pm, 4 Jul 2013
669 posts
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Canute
Frank I was about to start a similar thread, but with a different emphasis. Whereas you emphasise your wish for self torture, my plan was to invite a discussion about aerobic interval sessions specifically designed to minimise stress. I do not want to side-track your thread so maybe I should continue with my plan for a thread on minimum stress interval sessions, but perhaps it would be interesting to discuss the pros and cons of ‘aerobic’ v ‘anaerobic’ interval sessions here. I have been developing a session somewhat similar to Zokas' 300/100 session, but with a crucial difference. I allow long recoveries to ensure that any acidity developed during the effortful epoch is dissipated during the recovery. As a result it is possible to do large number of repetitions without much stress. For example, I do 25 repetitions of a 270m on a loop of woodland trail at 3K pace, with a 270m jog recovery. I use a woodland trail because I enjoy running relatively fast through woodland. Being a cronky old-timer, 270m at 3K pace takes me a little over one minute, and the jog recovery takes 2 minutes. Because there is no accumulation of acidity, I scarcely notice any build up of fatigue after 25 repetitions. Thus, I can easily cover almost 7Km at 3K pace in an exhilarating session. The point of this is to develop the neuromuscular coordination required for faster running while also developing aerobic fast twitch fibres. I hope this will allow me to delay the inexorable loss of speed with age. However. I cannot yet say whether this type of session will allow me to achieve this goal. |
Jul 2013
1:07am, 5 Jul 2013
10,438 posts
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SODIron © 2002
good session for me tonight....15 mins progressive w/u followed by; 6 mins tempo, then straight into 2 mins @ LT (60s recovery jogs), 30s 'balls out', (3 mins recovery jog) repeated 6 times Finish with a steady 10 mins of jogging... T'was a good session, really worked the legs and got me processing the lactate. |
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Jul 2013
3:33am, 5 Jul 2013
28,893 posts
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Hills of Death (HOD)
Usually 50% of the rep
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Jul 2013
1:51pm, 5 Jul 2013
2,049 posts
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Sweaty Frank
Canute: I was making a little joke with the '...torture myself', apparently it was too little a joke to actually be detected. The objective of the thread is exactly the type of discussion in which you have engaged, various types of speed training we are doing and why we do them. I know that you are in a believe that traditional speed interval workouts do not account for the affects of the Cori cycle, and I am interested to see if you have success with your alternative approach. I hope this thread encourages some younger runners to try it as well.
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Jul 2013
3:45pm, 5 Jul 2013
2,050 posts
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Sweaty Frank
"I know that you are in a believe that..."??? Sorry, but I actually meant to say, "I know that you believe that...".
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