Welcome to the DCRRC Wednesday Night Track Workouts. In conjunction with our year-round distance-specific training programs, and our regular Saturday Long Runs, these workouts aim to give runners of all abilities the fitness to reach their goals. For the novice or casual runner, these workouts will challenge you to a higher level of running fitness. For the competitive runner, track workouts are an essential means to reaching personal bests and to succeed at whatever level you are competing.
Unless otherwise noted, workouts are held on the track at Washington-Liberty (formerly Washington-Lee) High School in Arlington. We meet near the concession stand (northwest corner) at 6:45pm and start the workout at 7:00pm. Warmups, drills, etc. are on your own.
Our workouts focus on two of the three forms of speed work used by distance runners from the 5K to the Marathon: Stamina Training (10K race pace or slower) and Interval Training (around 5K race pace). We also do a limited amount of Speed Training (faster than 5K race pace) especially during the summer.
Do not worry if this is new to you, and especially if you feel that track workouts are for "fast" runners. Our posted workouts are suggested "maximums," and can be individually tailored to your current level of fitness and specific running goals. Our coach, Ed Grant, has been leading these workouts for 20 years, and is happy to customize a workout plan to meet your needs.
To get a sense of how fast you should run during these workouts, we encourage you use the McMillan Running Calculator. You can plug in a recent race time and a goal race time, and the Calculator will churn out Training Paces (click on that term) for everything from long runs to speed paces. We recommend applying Mark Hadley's temperature + dew point adjustments in warm and humid weather. Temperature and dew point forecasts are available from the National Weather Service.
The Washington-Lee Track is scheduled to be open on May 22 and May 29! So we are back on the track.
Workout for May 22: 6-8 x 600M. Recovery alternating between 400M and 200M. 5K pace.
See you at the track!
Coach Ed
Members & Guests:
May, as we know, is high school tournament time, so our access to the track will be known on a week-to-week basis. (Although it seems certain we WILL have the track on May 15). So, I will post here workouts for the first three weeks, and update later.
May 1: No track. We will do 1000M "around the block" repeats. Pace: 10K or Tempo. Recovery: return to start line. Suggestion for Thursday morning: 1000M repeats @ 10K-10M pace. 200M recovery. Aim for 5-6 repeats each workout.
May 8: Track availability not clear. Workout: Mile repeats on Trail or Track. 10K pace. 400M recovery (or timed equivalent). Aim for 3-4 repeats.
May 15: 4 x 5:00 at 5K pace, 5:00 recovery. A repeat from April for those who missed out!
Thanks for your continued commitment to the workouts despite the limited track availabilty. June looks entirely clear!
Coach Ed