Nice work to the athletes who raced Friday / Sunday this weekend. It was fun to watch and cheer you on. And we have more accurate baselines to use for training. For a few who I’m adding in here, all are welcome to join Finger Lakes Runners Club workout sessions Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday nights 7:30 - 9:00. It’s been a mix of ages and abilities from team athletes to masters.
Cornell starts setting up Barton for finals on Wednesday so the Club will only have access Monday and Tuesday nights. We’re also going to push back to a 7:30 start. We can begin assembling at 7:15 via the Statler Drive (west / opposite side of the building) on the lower level near the bathrooms. Enter via the lower west end of Barton. Sessions, as well as Cornell Intramurals and Clubs are still arriving ahead of Cornell Track officially being wrapped up (they technically have it until 7:30 even though they’re almost always done by 7) and that is a stress to their team and threatens us having access. So, let’s meet at 7:15 on the Statler lower side. We can review the night’s plan, maybe go over some drill sets, and head upstairs to get on the track at 7:30.
Monday this week we’ll continue progressing in aerobic base and intensity. First two weeks were Tempo, this week we’ll start working in Threshold. Tuesday night will most likely be a combo of intervals / reps for those wanting to double back. Here’s Monday:
Warmup 10 - 15 minutes easy
4 - 6 by 1200 alternating between Tempo (with 60 seconds rest) and Threshold (with 2 minutes rest)
3 - 5 strides
Cooldown 10 - 15 minutes
It’s good to continue to learn what zone targets feel like. There’s not always sound agreement on term definitions and equivalents, and thinking may evolve over time, but here’s where I’m coming from at the moment so that you can assign some measured association to a zone name. While there’s benefit to providing varied paces and stimuli in workouts, at the moment for aerobic development we’re progressing through a hierarchy of aerobic zones. I’ll start mixing it up a bit in January as we have more aerobic room to play with. To conceptualize the zones, they may loosely correlate to:
- Tempo / Marathon Race Pace (, some equate tempo with x minutes of threshold pace…I’m using it as closer to Marathon and roughly 15 to 25 seconds slower than threshold pace)
- Threshold (1/2 marathon race pace for top end elites, maybe raced 10 mile race effort for most, roughly minute slower than mile race pace)
- Critical Velocity (up to 30 minute race effort, for many equating to roughly 8k to 10k race effort,or roughly 15 seconds / mile slower than 5k race pace)
- Interval (~ 3k / 2 Mile race pace)
- Repetition (mile race pace)
- Fast Rep (a bit faster than Mile pace)
I’ll use the Vdot calculator, based on the tables of Coach Daniels, to pull rough targets. One criticism of the model is that it assumes a consistent degradation of paces per increased distance. In reality we all have slightly different wiring. So, someone with a 6 minute mile time may have a slower 5k time than a 6:30 miler, and certain duration workouts may come easier or harder based on that wiring. But the table can nonetheless be used as a guide.
For those not doubling back on workouts Tuesday night, and given we won’t have access to Barton after Tuesday, it would still be ideal to get a second speed development session in. Max velocity is tricky if left to outdoors in winter. Because it requires full recovery, the risk is that you’ll get cold and tight standing around in recovery, and sprinting risks pulling a cold muscle. So mix it up and be creative with working a bit of intensity somewhere else this week.
At least for M/W, Barton will be out until the start of January secondary to exams, Xmas / Hanukkah week, followed by NY’s Eve. I’ll also be in Costa Rica from the 19th to the 1st. We should then have consistent access from January 6 through to April as needed. For those interested I can keep sending workouts. If you’d rather not receive these emails for sure just lemme know and I’ll pull you off.
See some of you tomorrow night.
Ian