Since the February 23rd track meet has an 800m instead of a mile for a change, we’re going to do a workout that will focus on some speed after the last few endurance-based workouts. Next week, before the race, we’ll do something short and fast to build confidence without tiring out your legs. But for now:
2 by 600m at R pace plus 3 seconds (ie, a little slower than R pace). 600m recoveries.
3 by 400m at R pace. 400m recoveries.
6 by 200m at R pace minus 2 seconds (ie, a little faster than R pace). 200m recoveries.
If your weekly mileage is under 20 miles per week, drop one of the 400s and two of the 200s. Any questions, just ask.
I am not planning on racing the 800 next meet, I was actually thinking about the 5000. Any suggestions for workout modifications for those of us who are training for longer races now?
Good question, Julie. Happily, you don’t need to do too much to change this to a more 5000m-focused workout while still keeping it within what you can do with the group. What I’d recommend is that you run everything at R pace (don’t worry about the plus or minus bits), and add an 800m on the end. That’s pretty similar to another Jack Daniels workout for the 5K.
This is a surprisingly subtle question, so there’s a short answer and a longer answer, but I think they’ll come out to be the same for this scenario.
The short answer is that R pace is R pace, so it doesn’t matter.
The longer answer is that Jack Daniels does suggest that R pace can vary by the target distance, but he seems to be talking mostly about the difference between training for the mile versus the marathon.
He talks about R pace being about 6 seconds faster than your I pace per 400m, but when you use the calculator linked above, that’s what it gives you for R pace anyway.
The issue with R pace is that you should never be running it for more than about 2:30 (so @julie19, let me modify my suggestion for your final 800m to put it at I pace).
The utility of running at R pace is anaerobic conditioning and running economy. The reason we take full rest after each rep is that it’s important to maintain good running form for each rep; if you find your form starting to fall apart, take more rest or back off the pace a little.
Thanks, Adam! If I use the Jack Daniels calculator from the perspective of a recent mile race vs.3k or 5k then the results do differ for me. But, it’s only by 3 seconds for the 600s - for the longer efforts I do get a bigger difference (e.g. 1200’s, I get a 12 second spread if I use my 5k vs 1m time). See you tonight!
Ah! I see the confusion. You will likely come up with somewhat different VDOT numbers (that’s what the Jack Daniels calculator is really calculating, and then the paces come from the VDOT numbers) if you put in race times from different distances.
According to Jack, however, you should go with your highest number, assuming that the different race times are all recent. If you last raced a 5K in October, it’s no longer necessarily an accurate number, and you’re better off going with a track race in January.
