The 40-50 Workout

The University of Oregon does a well know workout called the "30-40" workout. "The 30-40 consists of this: Run the first half of a 400-meter lap in 40 seconds, the second half in 30 seconds. And repeat, as often as you can stand to do it. It requires repeatedly pushing into anaerobic territory, recovering slightly and doing it again." (from http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/sports/1224550533173210.xml&coll=7). There is also a message board thread about the workout and paces and conversions at http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2724380&page=0

I converted the workout to paces that I thought would be appropriate for my current condition, 40 seconds for the quick 200 meters (5:20 pace for 1600 meters) and 50 seconds for the slow 200 meters (6:40 pace for 1600 meters). The quick pace of 5:20 is halfway between my current mile pace (5:06.5 on 6/8/08, the only all out mile I have ran recently) and 5k pace (5:34 pace, 17:17 chip time on 6/28/09). The recovery pace of 6:40 is approximately my current marathon pace (6:38 pace, 2:53:48 on 5/17/09, downhill so it does not really count) or (6:48 pace, 2:58:22 on 11/2/08, NYC). Also one other change I decided to do 6400 meters total (16 * 200 meters fast, slow) instead of stopping the workout after I did not hit a split.

Anyway I averaged 40.6 for the fast 200 meters and 50.4 for the recovery 200 meters. The range was 37.3 to 42.8 for the fast 200 meters and 44.3 to 53.5 for the recovery 200 meters. I completed the 6400 meters in 24:17 (6:00, 6:07, 6:14, 5:56) 1600 meter splits. All in all the workout was not as bad as I thought it would be. The recovery 200 meters felt relatively easy for the first mile or two, however, during the third and forth miles the workout started to catch up to me and even the recovery 200 meters were not much of a recovery. If I do the workout again anytime soon I would like to try to be stricter about keeping the splits under 40 and 50 seconds. My complete splits were 39.4, 48.2, 40.3, 50.0, 40.2, 49.8, 40.8, 51.2, 40.7, 49.6, 41.3, 50.7, 41.2, 51.4, 40.7, 51.5, 41.0, 52.3, 40.9, 51.9, 41.0, 50.8, 42.8, 53.5, 40.4, 51.6, 41.7, 49.0, 40.5, 51.1, 37.3, 44.3

The main reason I did this workout is because I am running a 10k on 9/19/09 (10 days from now) so I figured this would be a good workout to get my legs moving at a slightly quicker pace then most of my workouts have been. Since I am aiming to run mostly longer races this fall for my 'hard' workouts I have been concentrating on marathon pace runs of 10 to 12 miles, tempos runs of 5 miles at half-marathon pace and hill repeats.

24 Miles - Part 2

Things have been very busy lately so I have not had the time to write much. I ran my second 24 miler on Saturday and I am glad to report that it went much better then the first one in this training cycle. My time was 3:00:33 (1:31:22 for the first 12, 1:29:11 for the second 12), which comes out to an average pace of 7:31.3. Also no WALL this time, the last mile was 7:05, which was probably the quickest of the whole run. Boston is a month away; hopefully all goes well between now and then. I plan to do one race before Boston, the USATF NJ 10 Mile Championship in Freehold next Sunday.

24 Miles and THE WALL

"Like most first-time marathoners, I sailed through 18 miles of my first marathon feeling like a million bucks. By 21 miles I wasn’t worth five cents."-Greg McMillan
I ran 24 miles on Saturday in 3:07:05 (1:32:15 for the first 12, 1:34:50 for the second 12). I have run four marathons so far and have hit the wall in all four (all at different points). The marathon just does not seem like my event. I know that is not the correct attitude, however, I have to be realistic and honest with myself. Anyway I will write more about that in a future blog entry.

I was little tired going into Saturday's run since I had run a total of 38.2 miles for M-F (8, 8.1, 10, 8.1, 4). With Saturdays 24 and 3 on Sunday, I ended up with 65.2 miles for the week, my highest mileage week since college. On Saturday I felt good up to 18, at 19 I was still OK, at 20 I was just hanging on, at 21 I was still hanging on and thought at least it is only three to go, at 22 I hit the wall and just struggled in for the last two miles. I seriously considered walking the last mile, however I know that I would have beat myself up about it afterward. Plus after walking some in my first marathon I have a no walking rule for myself in the marathon, so I figured I can't let myself walk in a workout. BTW my last mile was 8:53 ughh! I plan to torture myself with another 24 miler four weeks before Boston, hopefully that one goes better. Here is why I am doing the two 24 milers before Boston (8 and 4 weeks out)
http://www.runningtimes.com/rt/articles/print.asp?id=11725

10 Miles at Marathon Pace

Since I start running marathons with NYC in 2006 I have been occasionally running marathon pace workouts. With each marathon I have been trying to do more of this type of workout because I believe in the reasoning of why they should be a benefit for the marathon. Originally I started with 6 miles and then progressed to 8 miles and today I did my first 10 miler at MP (during this training cycle). My goal was to run at 6:52 pace or 1:08:40 for the complete workout, my time was 1:07:37 for the 10 miles which comes out to 6:46 pace (the slowest mile was the first in 7:06, the quickest was 6:38 between 6 and 7). I have read that elite marathoners will occasionally do MP workouts of up to 18 miles and I would like to work my way up to being able to do 15 miles at 6:52 pace comfortably or a least without it feeling like a tremendous effort! Until next time best of luck with your training.

6400 Meter Tempo Run - 1.16.08

I am currently training for my first Boston Marathon (fifth marathon) and will hopefully run my first sub 3:00. I have not done anything much faster than marathon pace for the last couple of months. Since I am also signed up for the Manhattan half marathon (1/27) and Bronx half marathon (2/10) I did my first tempo run yesterday. I did my standard 2 mile warm-up, 2 minute rest, followed by 6400 Meters on the track in 24:21, (splits 6:08 at 1600, 12:15 at 3200 (6:07), 18:20 at 4800 (6:05), 19:05 at 5000, 6:01 last 1600), followed by a 2 mile cool-down. My legs felt fine, however, aerobically the run felt harder than I would have liked it to be. The books say to do your tempo runs between 15K and 1/2 marathon pace, this one definitely felt more like 15K pace. All in all I am satisfied with the result. Last year I ran a 1:21:43 (6:14 pace) at the Manhattan half, if all goes well I will try to run about the same time. I plan to try to go out around 6:15 pace and adjust accordingly, however I have a tradition of almost always going out too fast (I should really know by now that blazing out does not work). For example my last half (Liberty in Jersey City, NJ) I went out in 5:50, for some reason it did not feel fast, however, it ended up catching up to me latter in the race. I ran a 1:22:11, not bad, but I think I could have run quicker if my pacing was more even.

SPALT! -Slip, sliding my way into 2008

I round the corner, roughly 8 miles into my run and both my legs slide out from under me and splat I am on the ground. Fortunately the only thing hurt was my ego. See it was raining this morning and in spots it was freezing on the road making it very slippery for the last mile and a half of my run. 9 miles, 1:11:11 (odd coincidence with 1/1), 7:55 avg. pace, (note: head, chest cold, sore throat). Best wishes to all with your running in 2008!