When we did dual meets in high school, we had them twice a week, from the end of February, to the middle of March. Our coach during my junior year was Steve Pensinger, who had been coached by the late Jim Linthicum from De Anza College. Steve inspired me to run, and I ran six races that season in under five minutes for the mile, which was a lot for a guy who could not break six minutes for the mile as a sophomore.
Early track spike cobbled by Adi Dassler, circa 1924-1928, co-founder of adidas, photo by adidas Communications
My tactics were terrible. I would charge out into the lead about the 200m and then, for the next two laps, battle whoever was upfront. In the first race like that, I led until the final 50 meters, being caught and finishing third in 4:56.8, my PB. A weekend later, I dueled with a 4:13 miler, lap after lap, and with 200m to go, he walked off the track. I finished second there, in 4:53.0. I had no idea what to do in the lead!
I learned that I liked racing, but I needed to get some racing skills. And that took time. More on that later…
Your workout today is: April 1, 2022, Friday: warm-up, 40-50 minutes of moderate running, 6 x100m stride outs, cooldown
2022 RunBlogRun Spring Middle Distance Daily Track Training (800m-5000m), Week 12, Day 5
Monday: warm-up, 40-50 minutes moderate running, 6 x 100m stride outs, cooldown
Tuesday: Warm-up, 12 x 300 meters hard, 200-meter jog, the pace is 1500m, 30-minute run, cooldown,
Wednesday: warm-up, 40-50 minutes, moderate running, 6 x 100m stride outs, cooldown
Thursday: Warm-up, 20 x 200m, at 3000m pace, 200m jog in between, cooldown
Friday: warm-up, 40-50 minutes moderate running, 6 x100m stride outs, cooldown
Saturday: warm-up, 800m, 1,500m, 3000m, or 5000m, cool down
Sunday: 70-75 minutes moderate pace, on trails
