Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Ratcheting Up the Intensity

I had a call w/ JT (coach) yesterday to discuss the plan for the next week.  She had a 200m repeat session scheduled for early in the week and a very tough interval session scheduled for later in the week.  

We also discussed what my target pace should be for my first race, and she mentioned she had a 300m session that was a pretty good predictor of 800m race pace and we were to do that session the following week.  As we discussed race strategy (i.e. going out hard on the first quarter and holding on vs running a more even split) I told her that I wanted to do one very fast 600m session (which might only be 1 or 2 repeats) before the first race.  The idea being I wanted to run a very solid first quarter in practice, and then see what it felt like to have to try and hold that pace for another 200m.  I figured this would give me great information for how to run the race as I'd know how much I really had in the tank, and hopefully it would also give me some confidence heading into that first one.  

She agreed that it would be a good idea, but in order to fit in a very difficult workout like that, we would likely need to move that 300m session up to separate workouts properly over the next month.  Which means we're going to scrap the 200m session, and instead I'm going to be running that 300m session tomorrow! 

Here's the workout:

Two sets of 300m repeats w/ 95-110 second breaks (jog 100m back to start and then rest 1-minute) First set is meant to build up a high level of fatigue for the second set:

Set-1:  6 x 300m @ 48-49 seconds.  Then rest for 5-minutes.

Second set is either 3 or 4 reps, but she wants them between 46 and about 47.8.  I believe the average of set #2 is the estimate for 800m race pace.  

The pace of the second set seems more than a bit scary considering I'm going to be pretty gassed from that first set.  JT told me that the first one after the 5-min break might be OK, but the next two are going to make me feel absolutely horrible.

And then I've got a session that will probably be as tough or tougher than that on Saturday because it's long intervals.  

Mile (5:16) - 4:30 rest - 1200m (3:55) - 3:30 rest - 800m (2:30-2:32) - 2:30 rest - 400m (68)

I guess we're starting that final push towards the winter season.  As of right now it's looking like my first race will probably be on Jan 31 - exactly one month to go.

Training:

Mon, 12/29:  lifting (upper-A, abs) stretching, rolling

Tues, 12/30:  5-miles in 33:50 (6:46 pace)  ** Maybe too fast heading into tomorrow - not a good idea.

No comments: