Last night I had my final speed workout of this training cycle. For my last date with the track I did 4 x 1200 meters with a 400m recovery. Despite my legs feeling very fatigued (I ran 48 miles from Thursday through last night), my workout went well. It seems that I really enjoy these longer intervals. Maybe it’s because you don’t do as many of them?
Last night’s workout equated to the same distance (interval-wise) as my first track workout of training. At my first one I did 12 x 400m, which seemed very intimidating. But it also added up to 4800m total for the speed portion, just like last night. And last night I was actually running a bit faster for an extended period of time, and with less rest. I guess that means I have gotten stronger over these past few weeks 🙂
The goal last night was 6:42. My splits came in at: 6:40 / 6:37 / 6:38 / 6:38. It was a bit warmer this week (around 78 degrees), but I still felt pretty good. I’m especially happy with that given that I’m coming off of a 47 mile week, which included a 15 mile long run this past Sunday. With last night’s workout in the books I said goodbye to the track for now.
My Tuesday workouts are not done, however. They’re just moving away from the track. For the next seven weeks, I’ll have strength workouts on Tuesdays. These are longer workouts that are at a slightly slower pace than my track workouts, but still faster than marathon pace. The Hansons describe these are more marathon-specific workouts. The five weeks of speed workouts are meant to prepare you, physiologically, for these longer workouts.
The strength sessions place an emphasis on volume in order to prepare you for the type of fatigue you’ll face while running a marathon. They’re actually double the volume of the speed sessions, with a much shorter relative recovery. I’ll start with 6 x 1 mile with 400m recovery next week (frightening) and gradually build up to 2 x 3 miles with 800m recovery (terrifying).
These workouts are too long to be done on the track. You risk injury when you are making a left turn continuously for 8-10 miles, not to mention it would be really boring. So the Hansons advise that you find a relatively flat section of trail to do the repeats. I have a spot in mind for next week, so we will see how it goes.
What type of workout is your favorite? It seems I enjoy long repeats (greater than 800m) best
Turkey Runner 
I can only imagine how boring it could get doing your long distance workout NASCAR style “they’re turning left” on the track. I also wonder were you are going to find flat in your neighborhood. Guess I will just have to wait for that report.
LUD.
It would be very monotonous!
No more track Tuesdays from you makes me sad 😦 I cannot believe how quickly your training is going! The race will be here before you know it!
I think it may make me sad, too. They’re tough, but I’ve really been enjoying my track workouts the most out of my three workouts I have each week. Hopefully the same will apply to the strength workouts.
It always feels good to complete one phase of training and move on to the next, doesn’t it? 🙂
It sure does. Progress!
That’s a tough question. I’ve been running pretty much only easy miles for the past year so I guess you could say I enjoy those best, but I also love a successful interval workout (the few times I’ve done them). I liked the longer Hanson track workouts because since there’s fewer recovery periods you don’t have to run as far!
Lately I’m enjoying those easy, “stress free” runs where I don’t have to be mentally present to make sure I’m hitting a certain pace. But I do like interval workouts, too, probably a bit more once they’re done 🙂
You are definitely making progress!! I love reading your progress through this program. Are you getting tired of the time it takes? I’m not sure I’ve have the attention span to run THAT much time.
It is starting to wear on me a bit. Especially since I usually do my weekday runs in the evening after work. So lately it has felt like I do the same thing every day – work, run, fix dinner, do dishes, go to bed.