Good morning! After work yesterday, I brought Bryan along with me to the mall for an important shopping trip. We didn’t get home until around 8 pm, and I was showered and in bed by 9:30. Exhaustion at its finest!
Today I have to get 3 miles completed after work, because I took Monday and Tuesday off this week. I’m actually starting to crave running after taking a few days off. I’m just itching to put back on my sneakers and get moving! It’s definitely not a bad thing!
Fewer Miles, More Speed
I’ve fallen into a rut with my training. As much as I absolutely love doing my runs, I’ve found that more runs than less have been just “eh.” I’m actually really glad that I read this article this morning…
You all know by now about my obsession with Kara Goucher, and as I was reading RunnersWorld.com, I came across an article about her new plan for speed.
(source)
As quoted in the article,
She’ll be cutting back on mileage “to find a little pop in my marathon legs,” she explains. “The next few months will be focused on more turnover and less volume,” with a weekly workload closer to 90 miles, including just two days per week of double sessions instead of six.” Goucher believes “getting some speed back this fall will carry over and make my marathon better when I start up heavy mileage again after the new year.”
I’m not going to be cutting back miles, because I’m not running that much at the moment. Here’s how I’ll be using this advice:
- Start each treadmill run at 6.4 pace, instead of 6.2
- After the first mile, up the pace by .3 for each mile
- Do my 2 mi HIIT workout during my shorter runs
- Smile and hope I don’t fall
Talk to Me
- How do you switch things up in your training?
- What does your speed work plan look like? (I need some ideas)
- How do you balance working and running?
![\"Intuit](\"https://digitalasset.intuit.com/render/content/dam/intuit/mc-fe/en_us/images/intuit-mc-rewards-text-dark.svg\")
I’m a big believer in speed work but try to make it only 1-2 sessions (speed & tempo are both in that category for me) per week. Also, I suggest using a training pace calculator. I do that to make sure I’m not pushing the speed work too much. I did that earlier this year…bam. Injured.
I’m going to try and do my HIIT 2 mile workout tomorrow and then do an easy 1 mile afterwards for my 3 miles.
I couldn’t agree more with Kristen’s comment above mine. That is almost identical to what I’ll do when working on speed!
Have a wonderful day hunnie <3
The only speed work advice I have from an avid veteran runner is to start with 5 minute warmup run at comfortable pace, and the crank it up to a fast pace (whatever works for you) for half a mile.. Then WALK for a quarter mile. Alternate these FAST half miles and WALK quarter miles for however long you are looking to go that day. I have been doing it so that I finish 3 miles worth of RUNNING at the higher speed.
This advice was not for marathon training.. but more for speed training… hope it helps!
Thanks Kristin! Love your tips! I’m gonna have to try that tomorrow!
the easiest way for me to get faster is to do intervals. Also I feel like the only way for me to get faster is if I do it on the treadmill and make myself. I find it hard to motivate myself to run faster out on the sidwalks.
Same here! when I’m outside I tend to slow down a lot. But when I’m on the treadmill, I just force myself to keep going, otherwise I know I’ll fall!
I found that by simply starting at a slightly faster pace and aiming to run negative splits (like you’re planning to do) helped boost my speed more than I expected. At first I thought that it would just tire me out too much, but then I realized that my body was adjusting and getting stronger and that even though I gave myself permission to slow down, I didn’t need it.
That was my concern, if I started out super fast I would burn out. I’m just going to have to try it I guess.
Speedwork is either intervals at the high school track, which is my favorite, or tempo runs. This is the first year I’ve added speed work to my training consistently and have noticed a big difference in pace and stamina.
The balance is hard. When you figure it out let me know 🙂