2 x 5 Miles + 5 x 200m
2 x 5 Miles + 5 x 200m
DESIGNED FOR 13.1 RUNNERS
INTENSITY
1st 5 Mile rep — @ 13.1 pace
2nd 5 Mile rep — starting @ 13.1 pace and progressing to 10K pace
200s — @ 3K pace or faster
RECOVERY | 2 minutes after every rep
EXTERTION | 8/10
PERIODIZATION | Performance Period
Context & Details
When training runners, training loads can be classified into roughly three categories:
Stimulating
Retaining
Detraining
Simulating training loads are where the magnitude of load is beyond a runner’s current ability. The work done difficult, produces intermediate fatigue and stress which can result in a positive adaption if the corresponding recovery period is appropriate. Retaining loads are where the magnitude of load is within the the current athlete’s level of fitness. The work may mildly challenging, but only produces acute fatigue (fatigue that presents itself only within a workout, without any lingering residuals). Detraining loads lead to a sharp decrease in perfomance ability because the magnitude of load is either far too little or far too great for the athlete’s ability — they’re either not stressed enough, or stressed way too much.
It’s been my personal experience and observation that many runners have disappointed race day performances because they suffer from being undertrained and over-recovered rather than being overtrained and under-recovered, as is commonly thought.
Translation: You’re not working hard enough — when it’s time to work hard.
I once asked NCAA coach Vin Lananna what was the turning point in his coaching career. During his tenure at Dartmouth and early days a Stanford, his runners and team were good, but not great. And then in the mid-1990s his Stanford teams and runners transformed, becoming the best in the American college ranks.
His answer: “I realized we weren’t working hard enough.”
This epiphany was spurred by him witnessing a group of Kenyan runners performing a 2K, 1M, 1200m, 800m, 400m workout his Stanford men had just completed (much to Vin’s satisfaction) the day before. The Kenyan’s ran sub-60”/400m pace throughout their entire session. His Stanford men had only managed to run sub-60 pace on the final 400m rep.
Vin had the humility and insight to realize the magnitude of load of his workout was not stimulating enough. He started asking his runners to run with more intensity on workout days — and he got it. They got better. And starting winning NCAA titles (both individually and as a team) left and right.
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However, there is a time and a place for hard training — that’s in the Foundation and Specific Periods of preparation. In the Performance Period, workouts are designed to be retaining activities, like today’s WOTD.
For the half marathon, who has worked hard in the proceeding periods of preparation, 2 x 5 miles progressive and a handful of quick 200s are meant to retain motor and physiological qualities earned in hard training.
In the classic book on Kenyan training, More Fire, Kenyan athletes call preparation periods “hard training” and Performance/Peaking Periods “reduced training.”
That’s a great way to think about it.
Nothing can replace a long, focused period of hard training. But when it’s time to focus on racing, training doesn’t stop, it’s only reduced (usually as a reduction in volume — not intensity).
This ensures the runner is working hard enough to not only to retain their fitness, but express it fully on race day.
Any questions? Direct Message me on twitter.
Thx. | jm
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3 Good Books on Half Marathon training
The Science of Running by Steve Magness
Running Science by Owen Anderson
Block Periodization by Vladimir Issurin