The Running Thread - 2018

[apdebord]

ATTQOTD: I’ve been doing speed work mixed with some HIIT training. I’ll do barre or yoga the day before or after.

In other news, my husband is doing another Tailwind and SPI belt giveaway on Instagram. His name is asdebord.

 

[KSellers88]

ATTQOTD: Another @DopeyBadger plan follower. My speed work is on Tuesdays and Thursdays with a rest day on Wednesday and easy day on Friday though. This is how my schedule has been since I started using his plans last June. Even my coworkers know when rest day is now. LOL.

 

[KaitlynJ]

ATTQOTD: I've never consistently incorporated speed work into my training. I'd like to start once I get back to running agin, but I'm honestly a little scared to at this point. My doctor said that playing softball (i.e. sprinting with very little training/experience beforehand) was likely a big contributor to my injury.

 

[Disney at Heart]

"Speed"? What's that?

 

[Chaitali]

My usual plan has me doing speed work on Thursday with cross training on Friday.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

QOTD: How do you determine which day you will do your speed work run of the week? Do you plan a activity recovery run the day after or a complete rest day? What other factors do you consider?

When I was younger I did speed work anytime that I felt like it - even the day before my long run. My ability to recover very quickly was something that I took for granted. I am now in my 50s, so my speed work has to be spaced out so that my legs will be adequately recovered from my long run, but it must also be at least 48 hours before my long run. Since I run long on Sundays, that means that I do speed work on Tuesday-Thursday. To avoid injuries during my speed workout, I try to put in a tempo run the day before to really get things loose after my long run.

My example from this week, a reduced mileage week: Ran long on Sunday, cross train yesterday, 4M tempo run today, 5M run with 8 x 440m intervals tomorrow, 3M easy on Friday, cross train Saturday, run long again on Sunday.

 

[Sanchez]

Speed workouts are usually on Thursday evenings. Friday is usually an off day or a spin class/weight workout - so no running.

I have two basic speed workouts. The first is a track workout. 10-12x400 (5k minus 30 seconds pace) though sometimes I mix in some 200s.

The other is a treadmill workout for mile repeats. It consists of five running miles (with walking in between) at negative 30 second splits. Each mile is a 10 minute block. For example:

Run 8:00 minute mile/Walk 2 minutes
Run 7:30 minute mile/walk 2:30
Run 7:00 minute mile/walk 3
Run 6:30 minute mile/walk 3:30
Run 6:00 minute mile/walk 4

The last mile is an all-out effort. You can start at whatever pace suits and increase the 10 minute blocks as needed.

 

[Miranda]

ATTQOTD: Welp... right now I'm just kind of faffing about without a plan. It had been my intentions to try and PR my half this fall, and maybe PR my 10K last week on the way there, but it was really clear to me after I finished up my spring HM training and did my 15K that I was just Not Into It ("it" being training) right now. I have been training with my running group for a 10K that they are going to be doing next week... I'm still a little undecided if maybe I will run it with them. It's on a Thursday, and I have a dog agility trial that starts on Friday. I guess I need to decide if I care about having dead legs when running on Friday.

Anyway, so, the 10K training plan I was doing with them had us doing track work every Wednesday night, so Wednesday is/was my new speed day, which was also my old speed day. Before that, I was doing a DB plan for the spring, and it didn't really have a speed day per se, like in the track workout sense, although Wednesday was my harder weekday run of either 10K or HM pace.

But with all the heat and humidity this summer, I have also been doing a lot more OTF running than I had planned, rather than road running, because when I joined OTF, I canceled my regular gym membership at the fancy health club, so I have no access to indoor running either of the treadmill or small indoor track variety. I think I'll probably pick up a $10 Planet Fitness membership once I am back into training again, just so I have access to a treadmill to do easier runs of my own distance choosing. I usually end up covering 2-2.5 miles at paces that would all be considered faster than my easy pace during an OTF class, and I do that on Monday/Tuesday/Thursday, so I guess right now, thanks to summer, I am doing a LOT of speed workouts and not much easy stuff.

Side note @LSUlakes related to "not into it", please remove Wineglass HM for me from the schedule on 9/30... I decided to not do it for various reasons a couple weeks ago. In addition to just being not that into training right now, I had always known that my parents were going to be up visiting on that weekend. They usually come up in July, but that weekend of Wineglass is also my dad's 50th HS reunion, so they are coming up later than usual for that. Originally I had asked them if they minded if I went out to NY while they were here because they'd be busy with reunion stuff that weekend anyway, and they were perfectly fine with that, but I had thought that they were coming up just before that weekend and staying into October, so I'd have plenty of time to visit after the race. But it turns out they are coming up the 15th and they are leaving the day after the race, so I wouldn't be here when they leave... or I'd have to hop in my car and drive from NY to NH right after the race finished to spend their last evening together. I luckily got the race insurance, so I need to figure out how to make a claim for that.

 

[Dis5150]

ATTQOTD: When I am actually following a @DopeyBadger plan my faster runs are on Monday and Wednesday, with Tuesday in between being an Easy/Long run day. Right now I am kind of floundering along, just randomly trying to get 3 runs in a week. I talked to Billy about it and he suggested doing one of the days at a faster pace so Saturday I did 5 miles, 1 LR, 3 MT pace, 1 LR and I must say it felt good to run faster again. Now, to stick with it! Planning an after work run today, supposed to be 91, feels like 101, with T+D of 164 so we will see if I actually get out the door.

 

[rteetz]

QOTD: How do you determine which day you will do your speed work run of the week? Do you plan a activity recovery run the day after or a complete rest day? What other factors do you consider?

I don’t do a lot of speed work. I do it when I feel up to it.

 

[GreatLakes]

QOTD: How do you determine which day you will do your speed work run of the week? Do you plan a activity recovery run the day after or a complete rest day? What other factors do you consider?

My training plans have a date set aside for it which usually have a short run the following day. When I'm just doing it on my own I plan it before a rest day. I go pretty hard on speed days and run each interval as fast as I possibly can which requires more recovery than trying to hit a specific pace based on expected race pace.

 

[Bree]

ATTQOTD: I too have a @DopeyBadger plan. I've been doing speed work on Tuesday & Thursday with an easy run on Wednesday & Friday. Saturday has me doing strides in addition to that day's mileage. I also have a couple of Sunday long runs with marathon tempo paces mixed in. It's been a hard plan, but so much fun!!!

 

[roxymama]

QOTD: How do you determine which day you will do your speed work run of the week? Do you plan a activity recovery run the day after or a complete rest day? What other factors do you consider?

ATTQOTD: I normally attempt speed work with a easy recovery run the following day. I am not sure if this is the correct way, but it seems like a good idea.

My hard days tend to be on Thursdays. So even if not a "speed" workout per se, my fastest paced day is a Thursday. That's how they've always been on my @DopeyBadger plans. I think it works out well because I like having Friday off. And that gives me time to recover for whatever easy or long run (usually both) I have on Sat & Sun. It's nice also to follow my long weekend miles with easy runs early in the week as a breather too. Which is why my plan probably is the way it is.

 

[roxymama]

"Speed"? What's that?

It's that thing where you have to cross a busy street in between your leisurely miles so you move your feet faster for approximately 10 seconds to avoid getting squished.

From time to time during a race you can employ this strategy to get around someone going .01 miles per hour slower than you.

(I kid, I kid)

 

[Waiting2goback]

QOTD: How do you determine which day you will do your speed work run of the week? Do you plan a activity recovery run the day after or a complete rest day? What other factors do you consider?

ATTQOTD: I normally attempt speed work with a easy recovery run the following day. I am not sure if this is the correct way, but it seems like a good idea.

I have never really done speedwork. Before my injury I still managed to get down into the high 7 min/mile pace without it but I often wondered how much faster I would have gotten if I did add it. I would simply do most of my runs in ZONE 2 for HR, did some hill work once a week, and then one day a week I would just run my regular routes faster than normal. I guess that could be considered my speedwork but I never did anything structured around a track or anything. I'm probably not making and sense but hopefully you all get my point.

 

[kbenson13]

ATTQOTD: I'm the odd duck @DopeyBadger disciple. My speed workouts are Wednesday (after two easy buildup days on Monday-Tuesday), followed by a rest day on Thursday, an easy day on Friday and then my long run day on Saturday. Maybe I'm odd in that I also take my Sundays off? I might change that for when my marathon training plan begins in September, but on the other hand I like having two days off and Sundays for time with my family...

 

[jennamfeo]

ATTQOTD: My speed workouts are mid-week, either Wednesday or Thursday, and flanked by easy runs or a rest day. They are easily my favorite workouts of the week, followed by my long runs which I have skipped for the past few weeks.

 

[FFigawi]

It's that thing where you have to cross a busy street in between your leisurely miles so you move your feet faster for approximately 10 seconds to avoid getting squished.

From time to time during a race you can employ this strategy to get around someone going .01 miles per hour slower than you.

(I kid, I kid)

But it's true!

 

[Miranda]

ATTQOTD: I'm the odd duck @DopeyBadger disciple. My speed workouts are Wednesday (after two easy buildup days on Monday-Tuesday), followed by a rest day on Thursday, an easy day on Friday and then my long run day on Saturday. Maybe I'm odd in that I also take my Sundays off? I might change that for when my marathon training plan begins in September, but on the other hand I like having two days off and Sundays for time with my family...

That was my schedule, too, minus the Tuesday run Easy Monday, hard/speed Wednesday, easy Friday, long Saturday. Sunday off, cross train or nothing Tues/Thurs.

 

[LSUlakes]

ATTQOTD: I'm the odd duck @DopeyBadger disciple. My speed workouts are Wednesday (after two easy buildup days on Monday-Tuesday), followed by a rest day on Thursday, an easy day on Friday and then my long run day on Saturday. Maybe I'm odd in that I also take my Sundays off? I might change that for when my marathon training plan begins in September, but on the other hand I like having two days off and Sundays for time with my family...

Sundays are days off for me as well for the same reason. If a long run can not get done on a Saturday or Friday then a Sunday will be my last option. I would not worry about changing your long runs to Sunday for training reasons. Maybe the last two weeks if you want things to line up, but its not that big of a deal IMO.