Easy days are about giving your body some time to recover from your long runs, tempo runs and hill runs. They are also days to focus on an area of your running where you may be lacking, say in flexibility, form, core strength.
Simple exercises like bent leg sit ups, pull ups and push ups are a good start. Butt Kicks, where you go slow, day 100 meters, and try and kick your butt with your heels can be a challenge at first, but, after six to eight weeks, the flexibility returns. High Knees are a great form drills. Do all on either soft grass or a good all weather track. Either way, stretch well after wards and take a nap! Hey, it’s summer1
Wednesday, June 25, 2014’s workout is a five mile run, easy pace, for the 500 mile challenge group and a 4 mile or 3 mile run for the 400 or 300 mile group.
Here is the point: if you think you need three miles of easy running today, and you are the 500 mile challenge group, just do it. You are better to give your body some more relax time than to get hurt or ill.
This week, you’ll start on the road to a good summer of training with run a long
run, a tempo run and some moderately-paced runs. Don’t worry too much
about pace for the first two weeks; just get out there, have some fun, and get
into the habit of daily running. Workouts always begin with a warmup, some
gentle stretching of major muscle groups, and light jogging. Repeat for your
cool down.
Monday: Warm up; 5 miles easy running (400 Mile: 4 miles/300 Mile:
3 miles); cool down.
Tuesday: 1-mile warm up; 20-min. tempo run; 1-mile cool down. To
determine your tempo run pace, add a half-minute to your present mile
pace for a 5K. For example: if you currently run 19 minutes for a 5K, that’s
6:10 pace. Add 30 seconds and your tempo run pace is 6:40-per-mile.
Recalculate your pace as your fitness improves, perhaps once a month.
Wednesday: Warm up; 5 miles easy running (400 Mile: 4 miles/300
Mile: 3 miles); cool down.]
Thursday: 1-mile warm up; 2 hill repeats (run 200 yds uphill, turn, jog
downhill to start. Repeat one more time, no rest); 1-mile easy cool down.
Friday: Warm up; 5 miles easy running (400 Mile: 4 miles/300 Mile: 3
miles); cool down.
Saturday: Off. Walk, bike, see a movie, watch Game of Thrones.
Sunday: Easy 6-mile run (400 Mile: 5 miles/300 Mile: 5 miles), on
grass or dirt.
Week 1&2 Totals (each wk): 500 Mile-31 (62) miles; 400 Mile-24 (48)
miles; 300 Mile-22 (44) miles
Remember to post your miles on 500MileChallenge.com
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Larry Eder has had a 50-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself."
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byLarry Eder
