Speed!
Wednesday track workout. While everyone else was doing 1600 x 4, I did my own workout 400m intervals. A sub-three woman told me about this training when I asked her how I can improve my 5000m time. Many people point out that my 5000m time is too slow compared to my marathon time, so I decided to reinforce my "speed" this month. The plan was to run 400m with 85 seconds then 100m jog for recovery by 10 to 12 times.
First 400m, 75 sec. I just didn't know the pace.
Second one, 88 sec. Already slower than the target pace.
Third one, 92 sec. This is slower than my 800m interval pace.
Then I started to doubt if 100m jog recovery is right. Obviously not. But I tried two more with this set and ran 90 sec. and 91 sec.
OK, it's time to reconsider the plan. I decided to do 200m jog for recovery.
6th, 89 sec. Still not fast at all.
7th, 89 sec. No no.
8th, 96 sec. Cramp!
9th, 104 sec. What's the point?
10th, 93 sec. What really is the point?
Hmmm, I guess this workout was total failure for me. I need more research for it. Any advice is most welcome.
posted by mika t. @ 1:53 am
5 Comments:
Mika, it is very interesting. After spending the time to build the base for Ohtawara, I also feel that now is a good time to spend a few weeks on some speed work. I did some 400s in Komazawa park on Tuesday morning. But I only did seven (all I had time for) and I gave myself more time for recovery. I think 400/200 is about right, but even 400/400 would not be wrong. I think the idea is to work on the speed side without actually flooding your muscle with lactate. The aim is a bit different to 1000 m type intervals. Don't be discouraged by your times. It will take a couple of attempts to get the format of the session right with respect to target pace, recovery. Try again in a week and I bet it all goes a lot better.
Thanks, Steve. I also read the website you recomended on your blog. Interesting.
I'd advise just practising the actual pace of the fast 400s and have, more or less, full walking recoveries (perhaps start with 1:30 to 2 minutes for recovery). Have a goal of getting the speed of each one exactly the same.
A 400m time of a bit quicker than 3k race pace should be right - perhaps 84secs to start with. Over time, reduce the recoveries in time but still keep them as walking. The goal of the session is the speed, rather then speed plus running X number of kilometres.
Ewan, thank you so much for your advice. I will try this sometime next week.
Funny how this distinction between aerobic capacity and anaerobic Speed keeps coming up among runners... I am of the opinion that to run a faster 5k/10k (at our level) it is much more productive to practice your target race pace, gradually increasing the number of reps and reducing the recovery.
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