Tuesday, July 8, 2008

New Training Plan - Fast 5K

I think I have settled in on my next running "adventure"...a faster 5K.

I don't have a particular time in mind yet - although with my PR at 26:21, I'm assuming it will start with a 25 (or smaller).  That means I'll have to average an 8:00 to 8:30 per mile pace over the 3.1 miles.  For me, that will not be easy - but I'm up to the challenge!

The race I have my sights on is my neighborhood 5K - the Kentlands/Lakelands 5K - on August 30.  The training plan that I'm going is use is from July's Runner's World.  It is not posted on-line, so I posted my copy here.  The plan has four main runs per week - along with other days that say "easy run, cross-train or rest" - guess which I'll be doing ;-)

It's an 8 week plan, which makes this week the start.  Since I gave blood yesterday, I will miss one of the runs - most likely the run that was going to be today - a 2 x 10min tempo run.  However, I did run 5.5 miles on Monday, so I'll take that as an exchange.

The cool thing about this program is that there are many different types of runs:  Hill Sprints (I'm going to have to find a 100m hill close to me...before Thursday), Tempo Runs, Short Strides (50m bursts at max speed), Long Strides (150m runs at "mile pace"), 1 and 2 mile Time Trials, along with the Intervals and Endurance runs that I am used to.  Another interesting twist - the Interval runs are done at different length intervals - 600m, 1200m, 1600m, 400m, 1000m.

One thing is for sure...it is going to be interesting following this plan.

2 comments:

tootie said...

Sounds like a good plan! I'll be interested to hear how it goes for you.

I'm in week 7 (!!) of my marathon training. So far, so good!

Rick said...

Any of your goals would have been good. I like the idea of this one though, Mike, as a change of pace for you.