TrackWorkouts

Four intrepid souls took on the challenge of the Mile time trial at least 2 of whom had never before raced a mile.  Here are the results.

Ed the most experienced of the group, ran relatively even splits and finished 6 seconds ahead of his intended pace.

Dorota reacted with surprise at the pace I’d assigned her, and proceeded to obliterate it by 9 seconds.  A competitive race and a little more experience and a 6:30 mile is within her sights.

Carleen was clearly concerned about my ambitious plan for her to stick with Dorota, but was clearly faster than she believed finishing only 3 second off the pace I’d given Dorota.

Larry made the all too common mistake of mile racers everywhere and went out too fast, but hung tough, and fought till the line.

Below each result is the splits for each of the 4 laps.  Ideally these should be the same.

Ed 5:34

(82, 83, 85, 84)

These splits tell me Ed is very close to even splits, but probably needs to focus a little more during lap 3.

Dorota 6:51

(1:41, 1:45, 1:44, 1:41)

Dorota didn’t go out too fast evidenced by the fact she was able to come back in lap 4 at the same as lap 1.  She just needs a little extra effort/focus during laps 2 and 3.

Carleen 7:03

(1:42, 1:47, 1:46, 148)

Carleen went out a little too fast, but was then very consistent.

Larry 7:25

(1:44, 1:51, 1:55, 1:54)

Larry similar to Carleen, was out too fast.

Last week there were 3 hearty runners that joined me in the rain for the workout.  What was a significant downpour turned into light rain, and then cool and overcast, really perfect for running.  Unless there is hail, or an obvious lightning storm, I’ll be at the track.

Everyone:

15-20 minute warm up

6×100 strides

Mile Time Trial:

I could use an extra pair of hands to record results, and splits, any takers?

This is optional.  If you’ve been doing the workouts all along I encourage you to do it.  The purpose is to give us a real baseline for future workouts and to practice at the intense focus you’ll need to get your optimal performance.  If you have a long history of competitive running, this will be less useful for you, but you may want to jump in anyway.

If you’ve never raced a mile before, don’t be intimidated, this is just a fitness test.  If you make a mistake, it is a learning experience.  That being said, please give it a full all out effort.  You will need to bring extra focus to this, if during a 5k you allow yourself to day dream about mile 2, that won’t work here.

The optimal way to run a fast mile is for all four laps to be the same split, this can be very difficult to accomplish, since your effort will have to ratchet up after each lap.  I will scream my head off at you, don’t talk to me you need all your oxygen.

Lap 1: Control your pace, don’t go out too fast.  Know what split you want to run take 1/2 of that and check it at the 200 meter mark.  If your off, there is still time to recover.  Don’t over adjust, slightly more or less effort will be enough.

Lap 2: The effort that had you breeze through lap 1, is going to need some extra effort here.  You should need to push some to maintain your pace.

Lap 3: This is where you will need to use all your reserves, this is the hardest lap in the mile.  Extra focus, extra effort.  At the same time keep your form together, even when you’re fatigued.  Think focused and relaxed, and push like hell.

Lap 4: This will be a blur, you will be so tired you don’t believe you’re going to make, but it is only 400m to go.  If you’ve got anything left start winding up a kick with 200 to go, with 150 to go unleash it.  You don’t need oxygen anymore, you can go into debt.  Use the form we’ve been working on during strides.  Swing those arms as far as they will go, they will carry you down the final stretch, don’t let your head get wobbly.  If you time it perfectly, you’ll nearly pass out as you cross the finish line.

Congratulations you’re a miler.

It can take many attempts to do this race correctly, don’t be too hard on yourself if you make a mistake or two on your first attempt.

Afterward: Walk a lap or two catch your breath.  Tell some war stories.

If you do more than 30 miles a week, we’ll add on 3-4 X 400 @ 3k-5k pace and then a normal warm down.

If you do less than 30 miles a week, go for an extra long extra slow warm down.  At least 25 minutes.

Others Options:

If you’re opting out of the Mile, and for some of you this make sense.

Group A:

(1600, 1200, 1000, 800, 600) @ 10k pace recovery equal to 1/2 the time of the interval (1/4 of the distance is a good estimate).  Total interval distance should be about 8% of your weekly mileage, we can add and remove intervals depending on your mileage.

Group B:

4 X 400 @ Mile pace + 2 seconds per lap. Full lap recovery in between each