by Larry Eder
Tuesdays are tough days.
This is your daily training for Tuesday, May 14, 2024.
Week 10, Day 2.
Your workout,
Warm-up,
20-minute run, moderate pace
8 x 400m, mile pace, 400m jog or walk in between,
20-minute run, a moderate pace
8 x 200m, mile page, 200m jog or walk in between,
20 minute run, moderate pace,
6 x 150m stride outs,
Slow cooldown
hydrate,
recover, get wet clothes off, change into dry clothes,
Larry’s Deep Thoughts:
One of the things I learned in training and racing for fifteen years, then coaching for twelve years, and then observing for twenty-five more years is the following;
Too many athletes leave their best races on the workout track.
I stand somewhere between keeping the workouts really easy and keeping the workouts really, really hard.
I plan to start easy, build strength, and then add 2 hard workouts a week, focused on speed, with longer rests early on.
As we build speed and begin to see that in our racing, we realize that we keep the easy days relaxed, even as we get fitter. What I mean by that is that, early in the season, a 7-minute pace can be trying, but later in the season, a crisp pace for a warmup could be at 6.30 and going down to a 5.30 pace.
In high school, I found that I was over-trained in my junior and senior years. Each season, I ended with an injury, though short-lived, interrupted my seasons just as I was really starting to improve.
In my college seasons, I found that, during my junior year, I ran PBs. from two miles to 10,000m in one season, twice, racing every other week. My secret? Most workouts were moderate pace, based on my fitness. I had three to four easy days a week. I counted a race and a long run as hard days, and most days were two runs a day (M,T, TH,F) of moderate pace.
I always did a long warm-up before my big Tuesday session (20x400m, 6xmile, 6 x 1320, 800, 400, or 40 x 200m). My Thursday session and Saturday non-race were 5k drills or 10k drills (200 at race pace, 200 a 6:00 pace, or 400m at race pace, 400m at 6:00 pace).
In the last month of the season, I ran long on Sunday, 30 minutes on Monday, 8x400m on Tuesday, 12 miles on Wednesday, two 30-minute runs on Thursday, easy Friday, and then a race on Saturday.
My 12-week winter build-up was building up to 120 miles a week (in college), with two days of 12-16 x 800m hill, long run Sunday, long easy Wednesday, and 2 mile /5k races on weekends.
Finding a system that works for you is key. One season, all my quality days were fartlek on a soccer pitch. I raced really well and enjoyed the racing. Variety also helps, as well as running all workouts by your coach.
