March 17, 2014

Winter/Spring Training Block #2, continued...

A few weeks ago I summarized all of my January/February workouts leading up to the Phoenix Half Marathon. This post is a continuation of that entry with two more weeks added.

Key Workouts:


Week of March 10:  8 + 4 x 5 minutes at LT/10K effort2 x 20 minutes LT Efforts; 18 mile long run at 83% MP with 3 mile AT finish.

Other stuff:
-Continuing to follow phase one of Jay Dicharry's program, probably 4X week. I'm about to start incorporating the phase two exercises at this point.
-8 x 100m strides twice a week
-Skiing on weekends

Here's how it looked when put together...


To summarize, the primary workouts during this block of training were the "by feel" LT efforts (green). I started with 2 x 20 minutes, worked down (in effort length), the rebounded back up to 2 x 20 minutes... the second time I ran that workout, I was a bit faster despite having some cumulative fatigue in my legs. Mission accomplished.

The secondary workouts were the combo sessions with hill repeats (blue). These were meant to (safely) get me moving faster, and strengthen the musculoskeletal system for the harder/faster track workouts in March and April.

I used long runs for aerobic support, but these weren't very specific, and won't be until I get closer to Grandma's Marathon.

The red workouts were faster than LT effort, and those were another way to transition into some of the faster track workouts that are coming next.

So, what's next?

I have 7 weeks until the Indy 500 half-marathon which is my primary target. I'll run a 5000m track race on March 28th, then the USA 10 Mile Champs on April 6th. Those are my only races before Indy 500.

Most of the workouts during these next 7 weeks will fall into two categories:
1) Multi-pace track intervals (400s, 800s, 1600s at 1500/3K/5K pace)
2) LT Shuffles (LT efforts with injections of 3K/5K pace). I'll post a more detailed explanation of the LT shuffles after I've done a few of them.

I'll probably get in 3 more long runs over this stretch, and will aim to keep those runs under or around 2 hours. Just aerobic support and setting up the foundation for when I begin some marathon-specific work in May.

2 comments:

  1. Way to go Jake,

    Great workouts in there. Look's to me like your aerobic strength is trough the roof right now, sub 2:20 on your next Marathon guaranteed. I really like the changes you've made to your training, not that it wasn't great before but the addition of a few minor things seems to have really made a big difference.

    I've been following along on your journey for about a year now but haven't ever really commented. Congrats on the Power Par Team Elite selection, you'll be a great ambassador I'm sure.

    I'm a fellow Saucony Hurricane Team mate from Canada, not running at your level yet but hopefully some day. I'm more into the shorter distances until I develop a little more.

    Keep up the great work my friend,
    Dave

    (PS: have you guy's got the new hurricane team gear yet? We are waiting on ours now and have no idea what they will look like, the new spring and summer stuff is pretty rad though, Cheers)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks David. Subtle changes and a smarter overall approach and really going to help me take it to another level (I hope!). I've actually decided on no spring marathon... going to keep working on 5K to 1/2 Marathon this spring (primary focus on 1/2) and then run Chicago in the fall.

      I think this year's uniforms are going to be the same as last season... as far as I know. It's a great racing kit!

      Best of luck to you as well. Your blog is great and I'll be following it.

      Delete