Rubber Side Down

Run Faster

We all want to, so how do we? From personal observation, I would just copy Sissie. Consistent track workouts once a week (did you miss even one?) and she was well ahead of me at the marathon finish line.

A simple way to add the track back into your workout is to follow Tom's guidelines

http://www.sanjosefit.com/docs/resources/sup_track.xls


Or if you want something more custom to your current pace, bring a stopwatch with you to the track and do the following:

• Warm up with an easy 25 minutes around track (Tom's warning, it is easier to injure yourself with track, so always, always warm up!)
• Run hard but not all out for 6 minutes, keeping lap count to the nearest 1/8 lap (50m.) The idea is to reach your VO2 max level, so you should be tired at the end.
• Measure how far you ran in 6 minutes, e.g. 3 3/8 laps = 1350m = .84 miles, equivalent to running a mile in 7:08.
  
• Your repeat distances will be run at this pace, 100m @ 7:08 pace will take you ~27 seconds, 400m @ 7:08 pace in 1 minute 47 sec., etc
• Finish your intervals with a 10 minute easy jog around the track to cooldown. (As a reference, Tom checked to see if I was still sweating and made me do more cooldown time.)
  

Refer to Tom's guide for suggestions on amount and length of your interval distances.

Plyometrics

I mentioned this during one of our runs, and here is a simple set of exercises to increase leg power and speed.

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,5033,s6-78-0-0-7173,00.html

I claim that hiphop class is a form of plyometrics, but I probably have to work harder at it to count. ;)

posted by Patrick el Coyote @ 9:55 AM