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4 to 6 x 1000m in 5k, 400m jogs

Fellow Endorphin Junkies

The weather tomorrow will be familiar, with temps in the low 70s and very high humidity at 97% - so, Swamp City. We will meet at Yorktown HS track. Around the corner from the school on Greenbriar street (the track is technically in Greenbriar Park) around 5:40 and before the 6 AM start time for warm up laps, instructions, and a Selfie.

August 19, 2021 – 4 to 6 x 1000m at 5K ("Interval") Pace, w/400m easy jogs in between

Water breaks are important ALL year round, especially when it will be Swampy like tomorrow, so remember to hydrate before, during and after your runs – after each interval if possible, but at least every other interval!

NOTE: I expect to see your heart rates in the mid to high 80% of Maximum range, but if your rates are higher, you need to slow down!

Stallions: 5:15 to 6:15 Pace, 5 to 6 x 1000m Intervals

Wolf Pack: 6:15 to 7:00 Pace, 5 x 1000m Intervals

Gazelles: 6:45 to 7:30 Pace, 4 to 5 x 1000m Intervals

Coyotes/MTP Trainees: 7:30 to 9:30 Pace, 4 to 5 x 1000m Intervals

This week's workout is a strong speed workout, but given the distance, also an endurance workout. Focus on form, eyes front, knees higher, arms at side lifting the knees, hands relaxed, on toes. This is about a 5k race for most of you, so take it easy on the recovery jog/walk/water legs of 400m, and if you are feeling frisky, put it into the last 1000m interval, perhaps in 3k pace.

In Coach Rich Club News –

Greetings Thursday morning faithful. One marathon and one club race to report on this week.

Eunja Rau ran a marathon in her 16th state. This time Washington state and the Tunnel Vision Marathon. Her time was 4:08:02. She reported to me that her quads were shot. I guess you expect that when you run a downhill course with a 2000 foot drop! Way to go Eunja and big congrats.

It was a swampy night for yesterday's Paul Thurston 4.5M race around Burke Lake. Congrats to all for just showing and completing the race.

32:12 - Alex Cooke, 1st 25-29
33:17 - Chris Walsh, 2nd 30-34
36:12 - Paul Ryan. 1st 70-74
47:40 - Anne Coia, 2nd 55-59
50:06 - Eunja Rau

The next Bunion Derby race is a 3M Cross Country race held in conjunction with the club picnic on Saturday August 28. The picnic is always a great time and with a great meal provided! The race and food are free to club members. Please register in advance at dcroadrunners.org. We also need volunteers for the race. You can sign up at the same link above. The WDF and the RATW 5K's are next up on Saturday September 18 and then the National Capital 20M and the Janet Braunstein Memorial 5M races are on Sunday September 26.

See you all in the morning. Happy running!

Coach Big Guy cancelled his trip to Covid Hot Spot Texas, so he and Coach Rich will be at Yorktown tomorrow morning

Late Summer/Early Fall TMBC Workouts

Late Summer/Early Fall Track Workouts

We received some more requests for some advance notice of the TMBC track workouts, so the next two months are planned below.

Before we get to that, I wanted to make a couple of comments about training in the late Summer and early Fall weather. There are two principal approaches to coaching runners: (1) Time-based and (2) Efforts-based. As you know, we generally give guidance based upon times, particularly when running track intervals. Even if you coach times-based, however, you need to keep efforts-based impact – good days, bad days, wet days, hot days, cold days, etc., - in mind, and all should factor into any analysis of your times. This epiphany hit Coach Big Guy this morning as he ran and then analyzed his two Tempo Runs.

I was not too pleased with my times, which, even for me, where middling, as several of you noticed as you continuously lapped me, at around 9:15 per mile overall – when I was doing 1600s just a few weeks ago in the low 8 minutes and under. Dejected, I looked at my stats and noticed that on my last lap of the second tempo run my pulse was 174. My resting pulse is 44 to 46, and my average long run pulse (at about ten-minute pace) is about 135. The highest heart rate I have ever recorded before under any circumstance – and that being a 12 x 400 in 3k to 5k pace workout, along with a 5k race I ran in hot weather - was only 164 BPM before today. In other words, this morning's workout was 6% harder than the hardest workout I've recorded in almost 15 years of Garmin/Strava results.

The bottom line is the tough weather conditions, plus – for me – long speed interval runs – 4.4 miles total – shows that my effort today was strong, even if my time results did not reflect it. The moral of the story is that when evaluating your results on Garmin or Strava or whatever measure you use, don't use solely time-based results. If you look at effort, as evidenced by heart rate, breathing, distance, and time, you may find that a "bad' workout was actually an average or even "good" workout, based upon the "effort" that you put in. While we are our own worst critics, we need all the data before we can make a final judgment.

With that in mind, read em and weep ;-) :

August 12 - 2 x 20:00 Tempo runs, 5 Minute walk to start and hydrate rest interval

August 19 - 4 to 6 x 1000m in 5k Pace, 400m jog intervals

August 26 - 2 to 3 x 2000m in 10k Pace, 400m jog intervals

September 2 - 14 to 18 x 400m in 10k Pace, 100m jog intervals

September 9 - Sprint Medley Ladders – 200m/400m/600m/800m/1200m all in 10k Pace, then down at 5k Pace 800m/600m/400m/200m, all with 400m easy jogs except 200m easy jogs after the first 200m and between the last 400 and the final 200m

September 16 - 10 to 12 x 500m in 5k Pace, 300m jog

September 23 - 3 to 4 x 1600m in 10k Pace, 400m jogs, then 2 x 400m in 5k Pace, 200m jog

September 30 - 6 to 8 x Yasso 800s, 400 jog in same time as 800 intervals

Best,
Coach Big Guy