Always Stay Close to Speed
Tips to keep up with your speed work
It pays to look back at old training logs - they tell a very vivid picture of what you can accomplish.
In 2016, I ran a 4:33 full mile.
Sure, I was about to turn 32 and I didn’t have kids yet, but I was shocked that I had forgotten I ran that fast. The kicker was that I ran it on an indoor not-banked track.
In February.
After doing a little reading and looking at various workouts I had done in the lead-up to that race, I realized that early in the week, during most weeks, I was doing a mini-speed workout.
They were never a lot of reps - maybe 4 x 200 or 6 x 150 - just a bit of speed - but when it came time for me to do threshold work or tempo runs, I had a little pop in my legs.
As we move into 2023, I’m going to be incorporating a touch or fast work into my training. This is more than likely going to happen on Monday or Tuesday, depending on when I take a day off each week.
And since it’ll be a very small amount of volume, I’ll still be fine to do my bigger workout on Thursday, followed by a weekend long run.
In doing this, I won’t have to worry about doing speed work during my big workout and instead can primarily focus on building a stronger engine (through threshold and tempo work).
I’m really excited about rediscovering this - as it has been almost 7 years without consistent doses of speed work. Since I’m closing in on turning 40 - hello Master’s running - I want to make sure that I keep up on my speed work as I know it’s going to be the first part of my running that falls by the way side.
And while I’m happy that I can run a 4:57 mile (which I did just a few weeks ago), I’ll be really excited if I can get back into the 4:30s for a mile.
Week at a glance:
M - off
T - 2 up, 4 x 200, 2 down
W - 4-5 easy
R - 2 up, workout, 1-2 down
F - 3-4 easy
S - 3-6 easy
S - 7-10 miles
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Friday’s Action Plan
Always stay in touch with speed work, even if it’s just as simple as striders a few times a week.
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