Workout of the Day: 3 x 1M + 18 x 300m
3 x 1M + 18 x 300m
Intensity — Oregon System Cutdown Style
Recovery — 4 minute jog after 1 Mile reps, 100m jog after 300m reps
Exertion — 8/10
Context & Details
This workout comes from a fall cross-country training log of University of Oregon legend Steve Prefontaine.
For context, here is the entire training week which includes this workout:
Monday
AM | 4 - 6 mile run @ 5:30-6:00 pace
PM | 4 - 8 mile run @ 5:30-6:00 pace
Tuesday
AM | 4 - 6 mile run @ 5:30-6:00 pace
PM | 10 mile run in 50 minutes + 12 x 300m in 52” w/ 100m jog
Wednesday
AM | 4 - 6 mile run @ 5:30-6:00 pace
PM | 5 - 8 mile run @ 5:30-6:30 pace
Thursday
AM | 4 - 6 mile run @ 5:30-6:00 pace
PM | 24 x 300m w/ 100m jog (6 in 50”, 6 in 48”, 6 in 46”, 6 in 44”) + 4 - 5 mile run + 2 x (6 x 300m cutdown in 52'“-50”-46”-48”-44”-All You Got), 100m jog between 300s, 800m jog between sets
Friday
AM | 4 - 6 mile run @ 5:30-6:00 pace
PM | 4 - 6 mile run @ 5:30-6:00 pace
Saturday
AM | 3 x 1 Mile in 4:24, 4:22, 4:20 w/ 800m jog in 4 minutes + 18 x 300m w/ 100m jog (6 in 52”, 6 in 48”, 6 in 46”)
PM | 4 mile run @ 6:00-7:00 pace
Sunday
15 miles at 6:30 pace
There’s a couple of things I’d like to note:
Bowerman’s Hard/Easy philosophy is clearly on display here.
Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays were hard days.
Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Sundays were easy days.
Pre runs almost 20,000m (12+ miles) of 300s this week at 70” - 60+”/400m pace. Plus the blocks of 300m repeats are dense, with only 100m jog recovery (which I would guess would be between 20” - 30” for Pre). If you add the 3 x 1 Mile and the 10 miles @ 5:00, that’s 25 miles of quality running for the week, with 2/3 of it at sub 70”/400m pace. You may be thinking that is A LOT of quality. Not really. If you’ve studied Bowerman and Dellinger’s Oregon System of training, these are pretty standard workloads for their varsity XC/distance runners.
The 3 x 1M + 18 x 300m is a mixture workout combining “general strength” work (the 1 Miles) and “specific speed” work (the 300s). Remember, this happened in the fall. It’s still early training for the track season, so it’s useful to note specific speed work with short recovery intervals was a key focal point, so much so that Pre’s coaches dedicated 20,000m worth of focus to it.
Most of Pre’s easy runs were between 22” - 36” minutes. Don’t be overly concerned with Pre’s reported pace or mileage, instead focus on the time of the easy runs. Bowerman regularly had his runners do 20” - 40” easy runs on their recovery days. He understood doing light workloads after heavy workloads was the best way to progress sustained adaptation. Pre may have run faster than others on easy days, but for him, 6:00-5:30/mile paced runs over 22” - 36” clearly allowed him to recover.
And finally, this could easily be a Renato Canova training week. There are several similarities between Bowerman/Dellinger and Canova to note: 2 running sessions per day. 3 workouts every other day. 1 easy longer run on Sundays. There is a focus on the density of workloads in workouts with short recoveries, a lot of workouts dedicated to specific speeds, and the importance of modulation or alternation of days of hard effort and easy effort.