FLRC workouts for the week of May 18th

Group Runs & Workouts
1

We’re getting into warmer weather, finally! Make sure you’re drinking to quench your thirst—it can be easy to forget about hydration when it has been cool and suddenly gets warm. (At the same time, don’t overdo the water—too much is dangerous!)

Middle Distance Workouts (5K to 15K)

This will be a tough week, and next week we’ll pull back a bit.

  • Workout 1: Ladder of 1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1 minutes, all at I pace, with a 1-minute jog after each repetition. If you’re on the lower end of the weekly mileage, drop a 4-minute rep in the middle. Don’t run these too fast—this is I pace, not R pace.

  • Workout 2: 2 by 2 miles at T pace with 5 minutes of E pace recovery after each 2-mile rep. I’m specifying E pace for recovery because it can be tempting to jog super slowly between the sets, and the goal here is to maintain a normal running motion. When you’re done and rested, do 6 by 30-second strides (30 seconds at R pace, followed by 30 seconds of jogging).

  • Long Run: 25-30% of your weekly mileage at E pace

Long Distance Workouts (Half Marathon to Marathon)

As with the middle distance workouts, this one is going to be tough, but next week will be on the easier side to give your body a break.

  • Workout 1: After your 10-minute warmup, run 30 minutes at M pace, then 5 minutes of E pace, and then another 30 minutes of M pace, followed by another 10 minutes of E pace for your cooldown.

  • Long Run: 25-30% of your weekly mileage at E pace

Resources

2

Is there a quick snapshot or cheat sheet of what all of the letters stand for? I have not done a speed workout in years, and I have no idea what is meant by T pace, R pace, E pace, I pace, or M pace. I would like to try the workout suggestion, but I want to understand it first. I apologize if this has already been asked or covered in a previous post.

3

Absolutely!

E = Easy (your normal easy pace, at which you can maintain a conversation)
M = Marathon (your marathon race pace)
T = Threshold or Tempo (think of it as your 10K race pace)
I = Interval (think of it as your 5K race pace)
R = Repetition (think of it as your 1 mile race pace)

For more details, look at the bottom of the message in the Resources section. I’d encourage you to read the first and last items:

And of course, feel free to ask here if you still have questions. My experience from the MITHACAL MILERS workouts is that if one person has a question, other people actually have it too, but are being too shy to ask.

4

Chiming in a little late, but I loved the distance workout this week (which I ran on Friday). The second 30 minutes was a nice challenge. The whole thing reminded me how important mental focus can be to stay on pace.

5

Excellent! It’s often a lot easier to just run the same pace for a long time, but sometimes conditions force you to stop or slow down, and it’s useful to train such that you can regain the pace and focus afterward.