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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