TrackWorkouts

All of long distance running begins with a sustained period of easy aerobic running. Building a solid aerobic base can take years. If you’re early in your running career. The two most important things are:

1) Put your shoes on.
2) Get out the door.

Most of our track athletes are in need of an additional aerobic base.

Before the next workout.

For those running less than 30 miles a week.  We need to get your mileage and consistency up before track workouts will have the  desired effect.

Run one additional day next week that you usually don’t run for at least 35 easy minutes.  When I say easy I mean very easy, as slow as you can tolerate.

For everyone, during one of your easy runs.  Do 6-8 strides in the middle of an easy run, distance and pace don’t matter.  Focus on form, by the end of the stride your arms should be pumping high so you can see your fists, you should be up on your toes like a sprinter.

For inspiration on what your form should look like, watch Lauren Fleshman accelerate from 500M out, in a 5k race.

Knowing that many MRCers are unfamiliar with doing track workouts, and may have never step foot on a track. I’m going to cover some basics, of etiquette and terminology.

Track Etiquette:

Intervals are done in lanes 1 and 2, recovery running/jogging warm up warm down is done in lanes 4-6. As soon as you finish your interval move to the outside lanes and continue jogging. Don’t just stop and stand in Lane 1 at the end of your interval.

If others are passing you while you’re in the middle of an interval, don’t try to get out of their way by moving outside. Stay in lane 1 and let them move around. I’ve seen any number of well intentioned runners cause a pileup by moving out at an inopportune moment.

Track workouts are not a race. When we’ve established a training group, stick together. Passing only if the person ahead of you is fading. Work together, run as a pack. It is easier to endure when we’ve got company.

If there are walkers on the track I’ll politely ask them to yield lanes 1 and 2 to runners.

Pacing:

Pacing is based on your current fitness, not your goals. Don’t go faster than the prescribed paces, it is better to be a little slow than too fast, especially early in a workout. When you can race faster, you can train faster not before.

Most intervals will be done at 5k, 10k or Lactate Threshold (LT) pace. 5k and 10k are obviously your race paces for those distances. LT pace is your pace for a race of about 1 hour, 10 mile race pace is close enough for most people.

You can figure out your race pace by using one of a few calculators. Enter your most recent race, it is best not to use a Marathon as the entry, as there is too much variability in that race to use as a predictor.

http://www.runbayou.com/jackd.htm
http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/

The total volume of intervals should be about 10% of or average weekly mileage, for LT workouts. And 8-10% for workouts at or near 5k pace.

Example:

Lets take runner Mike Hartin, his last race was a 5k in Wakefield and he ran a PB 21:19

Looking in my calculator, these are Mikes training paces with a VDOT of 46
5k 21:19 (6:52 per mile) (1:43 per 400m)
10k 44:16 (7:07 per mile) (1:47 per 400m)
LT 7:17 per mile pace (1:52 per 400m)

A good rule of thumb is the following for the 400m splits, subtract 4 seconds per 400 to get to 10k and 5k pace from LT.

LT- 4 seconds = 10k pace
LT- 8 seconds = 5k pace
1:52 – 4 = 1:48
1:52 – 8 = 1:44 real close to the above.

Lets assume he averages 40 miles per week, his total volume intervals shouldn’t exceed 4 miles. If he’s doing 800m repeats, no more than 8.

Workouts:

I’ll send workouts beforehand. They will be written like the following.

4-6 1200@LT (60 sec recovery)

This means 4-6 intervals of 1200 meters, 3 laps of the track 3/4 mile at your lactate threshold pace . With a very slow 60 second recovery jog in between each one, about 100m.

I’d like to offer a weekly track workout open to MRC and Mystic members. I’m planning doing it this spring and summer at the new Pine Banks track on Thursday evenings starting at 6:30 pm. The paces and distances would be specific to each runner with as much overlap as possible to promote pack running. Most of the workouts would be applicable to road racers doing distances 5k to 1/2 Marathon.

A good way to determine your training paces is from a recent race. The following calculator will tell you where to start.
http://www.runbayou.com/jackd.htm