Workout of the Day: 2 x (3 x 1,000m) + 2 x (400m, 300m, 200m)
2 x (3 x 1,000m) + 2 x (400m, 300m, 200m)
Intensity — 1Ks at 5,000m pace, 400m @ 1500m speed, 300m @ 800m speed, 200m @ 400m speed
Recovery — 200m jog in 90” - 120” after 1K reps, 600m jog between sets | 60” after cutdown reps, 400m jog in 3’ between sets
Exertion — 8/10
Context & Details
I designed this workout for Tara Welling when I was coaching her in 2016. It was one of the final sessions she did in her build up to the 2016 US Olympic Trials, where she competed in both the 10,000m and 5,000m.
Workouts are only as useful as the context in which they are performed. So for context, I’ve included 21 days of her training plan, so you can see how the workout is positioned in relation to races and other workouts during that period.
Tara Welling’s 2016 Olympic Trials Training Block plan. Designed by Jonathan Marcus.
This workout was designed to solidify stabilization of her hard earned 5,000m specific fitness (3:05/1K speed) as well practice 5,000m context specific production of competitive power (1500m and faster speed). These paces and corresponding recovery intervals were, for Tara at that time, not too stressful. Really this workout should be a 7/10 on exertion, but what makes it a 8/10 was that it was performed only 2 days after competing in the Portland Track Festival 5,000m.
This quick turnaround was by design as the workout (and the PTF 5K and Brooks PR 1500m) constituted a final “concentrated block” of work before going into the Olympic Trials. You’ll notice after June 18th, there are no more workouts, only races. At that point as Bowerman said, “the hay is in the barn” and the focus was on recovery — or adaptation — to that final series of frequent semi-stressful workouts.
This is a context specific example of Canova’s “modulation” or Jerry Schumacher’s “medium dig cycle.” By undergoing a concentrated period of strategic moderate or high stress, the runner will undergo super-compensation and elevation in fitness — provided the corresponding recuperation period is adequate.
What separates expert from novice coaches and runners is the experts understand this relationship exists both on a micro and macro scale. Novices tend to think primarily in the day-to-day. But supercompensation is not just a day-to-day phenomenon, it is a week-to-week or month-to-month phenomenon as well.
The figure below shows the general relationship of work — recovery — supercompensation.
With Tara’s final training block, you’ll notice I created a work/stress situation that lasted for one week (2 races and 1 workout). The goal was to provide a final potent stimulus that created a manageable level of fatigue which she could recover and adapt fully from in 1-2 weeks. The result being a final “bump” in fitness as demonstrated by competitive ability.
And that is exactly what happened.
After this block, Tara ran a 1500m PR of 4:18 at the Brooks PR meet. Then a big 5K PR of 15:26 at the Stumptown Twilight, and finally placed 9th at the 2016 US Olympic Trials in the 5,000m in hot conditions in, again,15:26.