Workout of the Day: 20 x 500m
20 x 500m
Intensity — Alternating between 500m @ 15K pace, 500m @ 97% Marathon race pace
Recovery — none, continuous run
Exertion — 8/10
Context & Details
This workout is another Canova design. It takes place in his Specific Period of training, which is the final 8 - 10 weeks of training before a target marathon.
The focus of the Specific Period is to intensify the quality of workloads which were previously developed to bring what Canova calls a marathoner’s “specific endurance” at marathon pace to the highest possible level.
Essentially what Canova tries to accomplish with workouts in the Specific Period is to extend the marathoner’s capacity to withstand a fast race pace for 26.2 miles.
Canova uses a blend of Intensive and Extensive “'specific endurance” workouts to accomplish this objective.
Extensive Specific Endurance workouts are usually medium to long length repetitions (2K - 8K) performed at 100%-102% of Goal Marathon Race Pace (GMRP), punctuated by 1K “moderate” at 90%-95% of GMRP. Total workout volume is generally between 20K - 30K.
By contrast, Intensive Specific Endurance workouts look like today’s workout. They feature shorter rep lengths (500m - 1,000m) at 103% - 108% of GMRP speeds with the alternating interval distance typically equal to the rep length (as is the case here, with 500m) and run at 95% - 97% GMRP. These sessions only last for 15K - 23K total.
If you do the math, the average speed on Intensive Specific Endurance workouts comes out to roughly 100% of GMRP, but accomplished in a modulating or alternating fashion.
As Steve Magness has pointed out, this style of workout is great at enhancing Lactate Clearance Rates in a runner.
In Canova’s Specific Period, there are two additional types of workouts: the Specific Endurance Long Run performed at 100% of GMRP and the Specific Marathon Block, a day which features 2 workouts (one in the morning, the other in the afternoon) at 100% - 103% of GMRP.
Canova writes training on 2-week cycles and the typical pattern of workouts is:
Specific Endurance Long Run — Intensive Specific Endurance — Extensive Specific Endurance — Specific Marathon Block — repeat
Canova’s runners repeat this cycle of workouts about 4-5 times in the 8-10 weeks leading into the target marathon and then usually run “crazy fast” on race day.
But as you can see, “crazy fast” is really nothing special to them, it was the pace practiced and rehearsed, specifically, over 2+ months.