Congratulations on the win everyone! That was a blast. More photos to come. Check the race website for more pics too.

m

Workout for 9/11

Hey Everyone,

Looks like good weather for Saturday. The workout will be at 6pm in Crystal City.

1000
1000
1000
1000
1000

Zero rest.

Thanks for making this a great summer at the track. Good luck at the race. Run Fast. See you at the beer tent!

m

Week 14 - Last full workout

Alright, this is it. One more heavy workout and then get a good run in this weekend and then we should be ready to roll for the 9/11 race.

Here's the workout:

Keep the speed up for the early intervals and then hang on as long as you can as the distances go down and fatigue goes up.

400 - just cruise through to get the feel
1600- half rest through all of these
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200

It's code red today. Lot's of water.

Run fast,

m

Week 13 - home stretch

Hey everyone,

We're down to the last two weeks before we get booted off the track by the high school. Let's make these last couple count.

The rest is backed off slightly on this, but the milage is up. Full rest, but try to keep it consistant. In other words, keep the rest to about 3 minutes after each 800 and about 6 minutes after the 1600.

400
3x800
1600
3x800
400

Run fast,

m

Week 12

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the late post. We are really rolling now and just a few more weeks of Tracky Tuesday before the high school takes the stadium back for games.

This workout mixes everything in. It's got long distance, speed, and short recovery all in there.
After each 1600, take only a half rest and then jump back into a 400. The 400 should be fast. After the 400 take the full 3 to 4 minute recovery.

400
1600
400
1600
400
1600
400

It's hot, drink water.

run fast,

m

Countdown to 911 - Team Tracky Tuesday

Hey everyone,

For those of you following along at home, there's a fun 5k race coming up on September 11th in Crystal City. Team Tracky Tuesday will be competing in the Open category and I think we have a shot at bringing home the belt.

There's no limit to the number of people that can be on a team and there's no restrictions on age or gender. Top 3 runners score. Top 3 teams get an award.

To register for the race under Tracky Tuesday go here and click on "Register Now" and select the Team Members category. Select your team name from the drop down box on the registration form near the top. Then just finish up your registration, pay the fee, and you're in.

Can't wait to see if this hard work will pay off. Let's have some fun and win this thing.

m

Week 11

Hey Tracky Tuesday Nation,

We move more into recovery restriction for this week's workout. Short intervals, but that means short recovery. Half time recovery for most, but a full recovery before moving into the next interval length.

600
600
600
600
Full rest

800
800 You'll really need to key on these in order to maximize the workout
800
Full rest

400
400 Give these 400's all you got. If you do it right you won't think you can finish them.
400
400

Drink water, run fast,

m

Week 10 - phase 3

Hey trackstars,

This week we introduce limits on rest. It will be uncomfortable, but you'll get a great workout by jumping into intervals before you are completely recovered. Your body will respond by improving it's ability to sustain and recover.

Full rest = about the same amount of time it took to do the previous interval
Half rest = about half the time it took to do the previous interval.

1200
half rest
800
full rest

1000
half rest
800
full rest

800
half rest
600
half rest
400
full rest

800

Run Fast,

m

Week 9 - end of stage 2

Hey Everyone,

For those of you following along at home, this summers workouts have been divided into stages. First, we developed some raw speed and now we are working on longer intervals. Next week we start to limit the recovery between intervals.

The final workout of July will be a real gauge of how well it's working.

4 x 1600
400

Drink water.

Run fast,

m

Week 8

Hey speedy, if looking for a fun race in September to see if all this track is paying off join me for the 911 Memorial 5K. It's a great race on a flat course. Best of all, it's a Saturday night race and they have free food and beer.

http://www.arlington911race.com/

Here's the workout:
A pyramid. W did a similar pyramid in June, but we focused on shorter distances and lots of speed. This time the intervals are longer, but if we're doing this right, our speeds won't drop off too much.

600
800
1200
1600 focus on keeping the pace high for this one. It's the focal point of the workout.
1200
800
600

Game of the week.
Fill in the blanks:
"It's ___ outside. Drink ___"

Run Fast,

m

Week 7 - Melville

"Now then, here goes for a cool, collected dive at death and destruction, and the devil fetch the hindmost." Melville, Moby Dick

One of my favorite quotes from the book. It's where Ishmail is sitting in the boat getting ready for his first whale hunt. I feel like that before tough runs.

Here's the workout:

800 - this should be at the same pace you want to run your 1600's
1600
1600 - these two bad boys are where the effort needs to be. Give em hell.
1200 - just hold on. Give the last three intervals whatever you can, but if you've done it right you won't have much left in the tank.
800
400

It's not 100, but it's still hot. Drink water.

Run Fast,

m

Week 6 - cooking

Cooking. There are multiple definitions. One is "be heated so that the condition required for eating is reached". Another is "perform or proceed vigorously or well".

It's going to be near 100 degrees for the workout so I think only one of those definitions will apply at the track this week.

Due to the ridiculous temperatures, humidity, and high pollution levels I'm curtailing this workout.

6 x 800
400

That's it. Nothing too fancy or clever. Just pound em out as fast as you can but really listen to your body. If you get too hot, stop. If you think like you live in the Sahara or something crazy go ahead and do the full workout of 8 x 800s , but I don't recommend it.

Drink plenty of water before, during, and after the run.

Run fast - Stay cool.

m

Week 5 - speed as the base

"We need speed. Speed's what we need. Greasy, fast speed!" Mickey in Rocky II

Now that we've put a solid month of speed in there we're going to start to transition to longer intervals. Still the same amount of rest after each one, but with longer intervals there will be fewer times to rest. The idea here is to force you to adapt at running fast for longer. To make this work you're going to have to keep that speed up through the whole workout.

1200

600

1200

600 - if you aren't sure if you can finish after this one you are doing it right

1000

600

1000

400

Drink water.

Run fast,

m

Week 4

"Speed, it seems to me, provides the one genuinely modern pleasure." Aldous Huxley

Last week was impressive. That really shocked a lot of you into more speed than you probably thought you could handle. It surely will force your body to make efforts to adapt, but it had the added bonus of upping that pain threshold. Yee-haw.

The workout this week is still focused on speed so keep the rest high, but note that sexy little number on the first interval. After the 16, bounce back with a quick 400 and then try to keep the pace on the 600's the same.

1600

400 - it's important to do this one much quicker than the 1600

600

400

600 - by this one you should really feel like doody.

400

600

400

200

Longest day of sunlight of the year. Bring some water. Drink it.

Run fast,

M

Week 3 - Pyramid

Hey Trackstars,

Good stuff last week. I know it was good because of the number of people that cussed me out after running it.

Still piling on the speed. We'll keep a main theme this week and in week 4.

Classic pyramid workout here. Full recovery after each interval. This means that you should rest for about as long as you ran. For example, if your interval took you 3 minutes, you should rest for about 3 minutes.

200 - go fast, but not all out. It's a long workout.

300

400

600

800

1000 - Really focus on getting through these longer distances a fast past.

800

600

400 - As fatigue levels go up, the distances go down so you can keep up the pace.

300

200

Run Fast,

M

Week 2-

Hey speedsters,

It’s the 2nd workout of the year and we’re still developing some raw speed. Throughout the year we’ll slowly build up the distance of the intervals and reduce the amount of recovery. But for now, run fast and take your time in recovering.

Nice long warm-up
800
200 fast
800
200 fast
800
200 fast
800
200 fast
1000 – for this one keep at least the same pace as the 800’s

Go as fast as you can reasonably handle for each interval. Focus on running very fast for those 200’s. 200 meters is not much distance, but the idea here is too run faster than you may be used to. Running fast can be a blast. Try to have fun with it.

Drink water and Run Fast,

M

Week 1- June 1, 2010

Hey everyone!

Can't wait to get back into these track workouts. Running fast is fun.

Here's what's we'll be doing:

400- nice and easy. just cruise through to get the feel of it.
1200- this will be harder mentally than anything if you aren't used to track work yet.
3x600- Somewhere between your 5k and 10k race pace.*
4x400- Fast. Think of a reasonable pace and then go faster.

*if you don't know your 5k or 10k race pace, try going a pace that is a minute or two faster than your comfortable speed. For instance, if you normally run about a 10 minute pace, try running 2.30 laps (9 minute miles). If it doesn't feel too bad try 2 minutes a lap (8 minute miles). Or you can go here for a cool pace calculater: http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm

Full rest after every interval. This means that you shouldn't be in a hurry to start the next one. Make sure you have your breath back and are feeling recovered before you go.

We're hear to run fast, but don't over do it. This is only the first workout of a long summer. And it's hot out there. Drink lots of water before, during, and after.

Run fast,

M

Welcome to the 90's!

Welcome runners! I finally decided to get on board with a public forum to make sharing workouts easier. Instead of emailing a rapidly changing list of people every week I'll update this blog with workouts and then people from all over the the world can check it whenever they are ready to get greasy fast.

First workout of the summer track season is Tuesday June 1, 2010.

Workouts will be held at the Washington & Lee Track.

Warmups start at 6:30.

All are welcome so feel free to pass along this blog.

Run Fast,

Mikey