Jogged up to Highland High and then did 9 miles in 1:08 with Allie, Josh, Andrea, Jake and Steve Ashbaker.
Went to the gym. Short strength/core workout, hot tub.
"Running Your Best 5k"
1. Their are lots of commonalities to training for every event from the mile to the marathon. If you have several months or years of steady, consistent miles under your belt, you are already well down the road to being able to run a fast 5k.
2. Any good 5k program will have one VO2 Max workout built into every 7 to 10 day training cycle. If you don't want to have your VO2 Max scientifucally tested, you can just run a 3200 meter time trial on a track and use that as your VO2 Max pace.
3. A good VO2 Max workout would be 4-5 X 1000 meters with a 1:1 recovery interval.
4. Tempo runs are important. Over the course of a 10 mile run throw in two to three miles at 10k race pace. One every week to 10 days.
5. Several weeks out from your goal race, maybe 10 weeks, you need to start thinking about the capacity of your body to run anaerobically. This involves running fast. This means all out, 100% effort, fast running.
6. Start by throwing in some short, steep hill sprints into your schedule a couple days/week. No more than 10-15 seconds on these sprints. Allow plenty of time to recover between each as the emphasis is on the quality of the effort and propor form, not getting the workout over quickly.
7. After several of these hill workouts, you can start doing some "Flying 30s or 40s" two days/week. These are usually done on the track because the football field markings help or you can just set out a couple cones to mark off the distance. After a good warm-up you do 8 X 30-40 yards at 100% effort with a slow 800 meter jog between each. This is a continuous run and each hard effort is done on the fly - hence the name. You might find yourself covering 6 to 8 miles in this workout depending on the length of your warm-up and cool down. If you aren't used to running at top speed, you will be sore the next day. That's good as the body is transitioning into fast running and making the necessary adaptations.
8. Finally, we get to the workouts that will really improve your anaerobic capacity. A couple examples...
4 X 400 meters at max effort with 7 minutes rest between each.
1 X 800 meters all out. Rest 30 minutes. 3 X 300 meters all out 5 minutes rest.
In order to run fast, an athlete must be conditioned to both physically and mentally experiencing running fast through their entire athletic career. Speed must never be neglected at any stage of development whether it be in the cold of winter, the precompetitive season in the spring, or the peak of summer. Speed must be sustained from week to week, month to month, and year to year. The skill of running fast is a learned response and, in order to be developed, it must be included in the regimen of the athlete. The more the athlete runs fast as a part of their development, the more they expect to run fast, and, as a consequence of expecting to run fast, they do.
- Dr. Joe Vigil
These are the basic principles I've used with my Alta XC team and with Kramer Morton, the defending 5A champ and course record holder. It's mostly about confidence. Kramer trains so that he knows that he can sustain any pace over the first couple miles. His confidence comes from knowing that he can run VERY fast over the last 400 to 600 meters when he is VERY tired.
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