This weekend, once again, we shift gears a little to focus more on speed instead of endurance. Those training for the marathon will do (8) one mile repeats while the mini marathon people will do (10) half mile repeats. The general “rule of thumb” for distance training is to do mile repeats while training for a marathon and half mile repeats when training for a mini marathon.
Here are the details of our speed program. As with anything else, we always advocate doing a 5-10 minute warm-up at the beginning and at the end as a cool-down. After the warm-up, perform the mile repeat at a pace 30 seconds to 1 minute faster than your marathon pace (15-30 seconds faster than mini marathon pace). Don’t forget that you will also do your walk breaks during the repeat. This is essentially a marathon day rehearsal (just slightly faster). Then spend 2-3 minutes walking for recovery after every repeat. We will, per your recommendations also have water at both the start and finish of the mile repeats. (mini marathoners will have persevere for another half mile to get more water)
We have a great flat stretch right out on St. Matthews avenue that we plan to utilize for these repeats. My recommendation would be to jog down Staebler Avenue to Heine Brothers and back for the warm-up, then come back to the railroad tracks out front to start your repeats.
Here is another reminder about what you should be doing during the week. Mini marathon people are running two days during the week (with one being at predicted mini marathon pace and the other one minute per mile slower). Each run should be 30-45 minutes long. On the other hand, marathoners should be running three times per week (two runs at predicted marathon pace and one run one minute per mile slower) Try to schedule the runs with the slower pace on Monday (40-55 minutes) and the other race pace runs on Tuesday (25-35 minutes) and Thursday (40-55 minutes). Always try to take Friday off to prepare for our Saturday training.
Check out the links below to brush up on the entire Galloway run/walk concept and why it is important.
Walk Breaks, be sure to pay special attention to this one. He has changed the ratios drastically. This will be the single hardest thing for people to mentally comprehend.
Magic Mile Prediction Formulas, this is where you will punch in your mile time to get your predictions
Hope to see everyone at The Training Studio this Saturday!
Dale