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** For returners, recent updates to the plan are outlined below. ** |
Speed Key:
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Outside of speedwork where the target pace is specified, you can pretty much follow
your body and aim for the effort level included (e.g. easy, moderate, hard). If you prefer to have something more
quantified you can try to stay roughly within the ranges below: |
| easy: | 8:30 to 10:00 mile pace |
| easy/moderate: | 7:30 to 8:30 mile pace |
| moderate: | 7:00 to 7:45 mile pace |
| moderate/hard: | 6:30 to 7:15 mile pace |
| hard: | 6:00 to 6:45 mile pace |
Glossary:
| Accelerations: | Start from a slow jog and gradually increase your pace over the specified duration of time, working
up to about 90% effort (a little slower than a sprint). |
| Fartlek: | If you hadn't heard of this, please excuse the strange name. A fartlek workout consists of
switching back and forth between a slow jog and a fast-paced run. On a track for instance, you could do a slow jog
around the curves and then speed up on the straightaways. The interval distances and speed are up to you, so make
adjustments based on how you feel. |
| Quarters: | This just refers to quarter-mile repeats, a very popular workout amongst competitive
runners, especially when training for the 1 mile through 5K distances. This is ideally done on a track, keeping
the terrain consistent and flat so that you can really focus on pacing. As a minor note - when doing track workouts
make sure to vary your direction back and forth between clockwise and counterclockwise so that you're not always
turning the same direction (this can cause unbalanced stress on some of your stabilizer muscles). |
| Pyramid: | This refers to an interval workout where you work up from short distances to a peak,
and then make your way back down. It's a great way to practice pacing with various speeds and distances - try
to stay consistent through the fatigue while you make your way back down after the peak. |
Recent Updates
| 10/2/2014: |
Added easy recovery jogs to many of the weeks - getting the blood flowing tends to expedite healing and decrease soreness from the speedwork, and
especially for runners that don't have years of endurance built up these extra miles will help build the foundation that will keep you from hitting
the wall in the latter half of the race.
Added an extra week to Climbing the Peak, to make the increased distance and speed slightly more gradual.
Tweaked the target times for speedwork and tempo workouts as well as the distances of some long runs, to make progression more manageable.
Adjusted speedwork and tempo workouts to avoid repeating a workout in the subsequent week (with improved times) - more than a week is often needed for
the gains from a workout to kick in.
Added a couple notes/tips in the Climbing the Peak section header.
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