Week 5: More Pace Training and Friendly Competition
Posted on January 31st, 2021 by Sarah Funderburk
I hope you’re all enjoying the new Leaderboard! For this week, we will be taking a break from Kenyan Hills, which should leave you plenty of time for the speed session as well as getting in this week’s competition of 4-6 continuous miles (the substitute Chingford League race).
For the speed session this week, you will be focusing in again on practicing your pacing. It is a very similar session to the one you did two weeks ago, but this time you will be getting faster instead of slower. I know some of you found the first session challenging because you naturally ended up speeding up a bit instead of going slower. This can happen as your body warms up and finds its rhythm. However, that does not mean that this week’s session will necessarily be easier! In some ways, it should be harder because you will need to start out controlled so you CAN get faster. The original session via distance is:
4-5x {400m (10k pace) 400m (5k pace) 200m (3k pace), 200m (1m pace) [3min rest/recovery]} = Total 4800-6000m
A time-based variation for this week is:
4-5x {2min (10k pace) 90s (5k pace) 1min (3k pace), 30s (1m pace) [3min rest/recovery]} = Total 20-25 min fast running with 12-15 min recovery
Again, the most personalized way to do a timed version, though, will be to get your goal times from the website. If you want to do it by time, this is what I highly recommend. If your goal 10k time is <50 min, then the time-based suggestion above may have you trying to sustain some of the paces for too long. Similarly, if your 10k time is >55min, then the time-based suggestion may not push you hard enough. But, I want to give you the option if you did the time-based variation in week 2.
As always, warm-up with some easy running and drills and cool down with some easy running and stretches.
For those of you who are coming back from illness/injury or may not have started from the beginning of Week 1, please do exercise caution as the sessions are meant to build on each other. Your cardiovascular fitness develops faster than musculoskeletal fitness. So for those easing back into running, please do ease back in. Although a run may feel easy and good on your lungs and heart, your muscles and tendons may not be there yet. (A lesson I am still learning!)
Happy Running!
Sarah
