This weekly message keeps active members informed of the Dashing Whippets training activities for the next seven days.

A note on our hill sprints and other hill work we have been doing on recent Tuesdays: Uphill running has benefits for both marathoners and people who specialize in shorter distances, regardless of whether you plan on running a race on a hilly course or a flat one. Hill training develops your muscular strength from calves to core, and it naturally teaches the body to run more efficiently. In fact, injuries running up hills are less prevalent than injuries on flat surfaces because you can get away with poor running form on the flats, making overuse injuries more likely. In addition, the body impact pressure on an uphill is lower than on a flat or downhill.

As a team, we typically do a variety hill workouts — short sprints early in a training cycle, moderate repeats (200-400m and longer at 10K pace or faster), and sustained runs at marathon to half marathon pace on hilly courses. In all cases, you remain in control while exerting extra effort running uphill and allow yourself plenty of recovery time between each intense segment (if there are rest breaks). That is, it would not be a good idea to run quickly downhill between repeats; that is not the purpose of hill work, and downhill running at speed is inherently more risky than uphill running.

When going uphill in a hill workout, think in terms of a fast run that you do in a relaxed way. Don’t muscle up and try to bull your way uphill — instead, lope up the incline as if you are a cat, confident that you will reach the top quickly. Lean your entire body gently forward (some use the image of “leaning at the ankle, not the waist”), so that your center of gravity is balanced. And swing your arms and lift your knees in a way that is a little more exaggerated than when running on flat ground, to smoothly power yourself up the slope.

Running partners help keep you motivated. Join us on Tuesdays, or at any of our practices, to make the most of your workouts.

Dashing Whippets Training Plan for the Week

This is week 3 of NYC Marathon training program and summer short race training plan.

Please click on the links below to RSVP if you are planning to come out to one of these training events!

Note: Almost all training paces, such as 5K, 10K, half marathon, should be your estimated pace if you ran the race today — not your goal or PR pace. (Exception: Marathon pace is your goal pace or best guess of your well-trained marathon speed.) You can use the Daniels VDOT calculator to estimate your pace from a recent result.

Monday 7/13: Easy day

• Fall marathoners should run 40-55 minutes easy, followed by 5 repeats of 100m strides
• Everyone else should run 30-40 minutes easy
• Monday Morning Mileage (Central Park) option: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/223563715/

Tuesday 7/14: Long speedwork day:

• ALL runners: Warm up 1-1.5 easy miles, then do controlled uphill sprints: 3 sprints of 75 meters, then 1-2 sprints of 100 meters. Walk back. Stay relaxed, coordinated and in control while displaying good running form. Then…
• Fall marathoners: 2 miles at half marathon pace, followed by 2:00 of rest. Then do 4 repeats of 400m uphill at 5K pace — jog back downhill to recover. Finish with 2 easy miles to cool down.
• Short distance (5K-15K) specialists (with a solid base of speedwork), and Runners who are building a base (not much recent speedwork): 4-8 repeats of 400m uphill at 5K pace (jog back to recover). Aim for 4 if you are new to speedwork, or 8 if you have done speedwork regularly for two+ months. Finish with a 1-1.5-mile cooldown jog.
• Manhattan group workout in Central Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/223481962/
• Brooklyn group workout in Prospect Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/223481918/

Wednesday 7/15: Recovery day

• Marathoners should do 30 minutes of easy running, followed by 4 repeats of 100m strides, or rest
• Everyone else should do 25-40 minutes of easy running or aerobic system cross training
• Morning group run, Central Park: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/223488946/

Thursday, 7/16: Short speedwork day: 15-minute warmup, including jogging/drills/strides, then…

• Short distance (5K-15K) specialists (with solid base of speedwork) and Fall marathoners: 12-16 repeats of 400m at 5K pace, with 1:00 of jogging recovery after each. Finish with 15 minutes of jogging and stretching to cool down.
• Runners who are building a base (not much recent speedwork): 6-8 repeats of 400m at 5K pace, with 400m of jogging after each. Finish with a 15-minute cooldown.
• Morning Manhattan group workout in Central Park: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/bnqfdlytkbvb/
• Evening Manhattan group workout in East River Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/223592981/
• Evening Brooklyn group workout in Prospect Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/222199312/

Friday 7/17: Very easy day

• Optionally, advanced marathoners may do 40 minutes of easy running followed by 4 repeats of 100m strides
• Everyone else should rest, or do the Monday or Wednesday workout today if you missed it

Saturday and Sunday, 7/18-19: On one day, do 40-55 minutes of easy running followed by 4 repeats of 100m strides. On the other day, do a long run…

• NYC Marathoners: 2:00 of running at long run pace
• Short distance (5K-15K) specialists and Runners who are building a base: 1:15–1:45 of running at easy or long run pace
• Long run pace is 45-60 seconds per mile slower than marathon pace — a little faster than easy pace, but still not challenging.
• There are weekly team long runs around the city. To see all options for weekend training runs with the Whippets, please view the calendar: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/

Training Calendars

• Dashing Whippets NYC Marathon training plan (18 weeks): http://files.meetup.com/1454408/DWRT_NYC_Marathon_2015.pdf
• Training plan for short summer races (week 7 onward, starting on page 2 of this file): http://files.meetup.com/1454408/DWRT_TrainingPlan_Spring2015_PostBKHalf.pdf
• Starting early August: training programs for the Fifth Avenue Mile and longer late summer races