Week 5

Hey track stars,

It's the last workout of June! Moving into July we'll start lengthening the intervals and reducing the rest.

Tip of the week: aggressive rest. You should be as aggressive with your rest as you are with your workouts. You can only get strong if you give your body time to adapt to the stresses these workouts are putting on it. Make sure you take an easy day or two after these workouts.

Workout:
400
800
1200
1000
800
700
600
500
400

Keep that speed up. The idea here is to slowly reduce the interval length so you can stay fast even as fatigue sets in. This should be a fun one.

Disclaimer: Drink water.

Run Fast,

m

Week 4

Hey Everyone,

Nice to see so many people coming out. It's a lot more fun with a big group.

Tip of the week: Your legs can only go as fast as your arms can go. Don't leave out the pushups, pullups, and other upper body exercises. If your arms get tired in a race you'll slow down even if your legs feel great.

The Workout: This week we are mixing in some longer intervals with some shorter ones.

400
1200
400 - come back after the 1200 with a fast 400
800
800
1200 - This is the key interval. Keep your pace up as long as you can.
400 - bounce back fast on this one
800

Note on rest: Full recovery. Begin the next interval whenever you feel ready.

Drink water. It will be very hot out there.

Run fast,

m

Week 3

Form tip of the week- when you are running, imagine that someone is pulling on the hair on the top of your head. Stretch your back and neck to run as tall as possible. It will open up your lung capacity and keep your form efficient.

Here's the workout:
400
600
800
1000 - don't hold back on this one. It's important that you keep your speed up for these 1000's.
1000
800
600
400

Weather is nice, but stay hydrated today.

Run fast,

Mike

Week 2 - Run like a champion

Jumbo Elliott coached at Villanova and was one of the greatest track coaches America has ever had. Just so happens my dad was at Villanova when he was coaching Ron Delany who went on to win the 1500 at the 1956 Olympics. My dad tells a story where Coach Elliott saw Ron across the track starting to fatigue during a workout. Ron hunched his shoulders, put his head down, and his pace slowed. When Jumbo Elliott saw this he put his cupped hands to his mouth and shouted angrily through his heavy stutter "ga ga ga god da da da dammit Delany! Run like a champion!"

When you are running this workout think about maintaining good form even if you are tired. Run like a champion- keep your head up, chest out, and keep driving those arms.

Here's the workout:

8 x 400's
800
200
3 x 400

Full recovery. The intervals are short so keep your speed way up.

See you at 6:30. Drink water.

Run fast,

m

Week 1

Hey Everyone,

The first workout is here and I'm glad to hear so much enthusiasm out there. Let's jump right in:

400- take it easy on this one. It's just to get your blood moving and get the jitters out.
2x800
3x600
3x400

Full rest after each interval. This means that you should rest about as much time as you ran your previous interval and you have your breathe back fully. Later in the summer we'll move towards starting your next interval before you recover, but for now the idea is to be rested enough that you get as much good quality fast running in as you can.

Afterwards we're going to do some barefoot striders on the grass to work on form and buildup some foot strength.

It's going to be hot. Listen to your body and drink lots of water before during and after the run.

I'm going to be grilling up some food at my place for all the runners afterwards. Come on by to grab a bite and a beer if you want.

Run fast,

m

How fast is fast?

We're all set to start up Tracky Tuesday and I am fired up. I snuck in a workout earlier this week and it's just not the same without everyone there pushing eachother and laughing through the discomfort. Can't wait for the first session.

If you are wondering what pace you should be running there are a few things to think about. The idea is to run faster than you would in a race so that your body is shocked into adapting. For track workouts, you want to run as fast and hard as you can so that when the workout is done you can't run any more.

The way I do it is that I run faster than I think I should so that by the time I'm half way I'm pretty sure I can't finish the workout. If you do this you'll be surprised that most of the time you'll be able to get through it and even if you don't, you've still got a heck of a workout in.

You can also check this out: www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm It can give you an idea of the paces you should run for speed workouts. There's also some interesting thoughts on training if you are into the science behind it.

First workout will be posted soon.

Run Fast,

m

Tracky Tuesday Returns for 2011

Hey everyone,

Hope you all had a good winter. It's time to start up tracky tuesday for another season. Our first workout will by Tuesday May 31st.

Much of the same from last year where the focus is on getting in a high intensity workout, but this year we hope to have some more things organized after runs like heading to someone's house, hitting dive bar, or having some beers in the parking lot.

Looking forward to seeing you at the track.

Run Fast,

m