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

Welcome to 2015 — we hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday season.

In the past few weeks, we have launched new training plans for runners aiming to do well in the Boston Marathon, New Jersey Marathon, or New York City Half. If one of those is your goal race for the spring, we hope you find our programs useful, and please come run with us even if you’re following a different plan — training partners are always helpful.

In addition, this week marks the start of an eight-week plan to help runners maximize their speed in theWashington Heights 5K in early March. Follow these workouts if you are not already focused on a longer spring race — they’ll get you ready to go even faster later in the year.

Dashing Whippets Training Plan for the Week

This is week 4 of a training plan for Boston marathoners, week 2 of a training plan for NYC Half and New Jersey Marathon competitors, and week 1 of a training plan for 5K/10K racers.

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 1/05: Easy day

• Spring marathoners and NYC Half competitors should run 30-55 minutes easy (closer to 30-40 if training for the half, closer to 45-55 if training for the full), optionally followed by 4-6 strides of 150m each.
• Everyone else should rest or run 30 minutes easy
• Monday Morning Mileage (Central Park) option: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/219273753/

Tuesday 1/06: Long speedwork day: Warm up 1 easy mile, then…

• Spring marathoners (especially Boston and NJ competitors): Hill sets: 3-5 segments of 10 minutes of running at a steady pace somewhere between marathon and half marathon pace. Jog 4 minutes between each set, and finish with a 1-to-2-mile cooldown jog.
• Short distance (5K-15K) specialists (with a solid base of speedwork), as well as Runners who are building a base (not much recent speedwork): 3 miles at marathon pace, followed by 8 repeats of 200m uphill at 5K pace (jog back down to recover). Finish with a 1-mile cooldown jog.
• NYC Half competitors: 5 miles at marathon pace, followed by 1-1.5 miles of jogging to cool down.
• Manhattan group workout in Central Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/219303216/
• Brooklyn group workout in Prospect Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/219303506/

Wednesday 1/07: Recovery day

• Spring marathoners and NYC half competitors should do 30-40 minutes of easy running followed by 4 x 100m strides, or rest
• Other runners should do 20-30 minutes of easy running or aerobic system cross training
• Morning group run, Central Park: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/219311618/

Thursday, 1/08: Short speedwork day: 15-minute warmup, including jogging/drills/strides, then…

• Short distance (5K-half marathon) specialists and Marathon specialists: 6-10 x 800m at 15K pace with 0:50-1:00 of jogging recovery after each. Finish with a 15-minute cooldown.
• NYC Half competitors: 6-8 x 800m at 5K pace with 2:00 of jogging recovery after each. Finish with a 15-minute cooldown.
• Runners who are building a base (not much recent speedwork): 3-4 x 800m at 15K pace with 400m jogging recovery after each. Finish with a 15-minute cooldown.
• Morning group workout in Central Park: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/219340611/
• Evening Manhattan group workout in Central Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/218966176/
• Evening Brooklyn group workout in Prospect Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/219338869/

Friday 1/09: Very easy day

• Optionally, advanced marathoners and half marathoners may do 30-50 minutes of easy running, followed by 6 x 150m strides
• Everyone else should rest, or do the Monday or Wednesday workout today if you missed it

Saturday and Sunday, 1/10-11: On one day, do 40-60 minutes of easy running plus 4 x 100m strides. On the other day, do a long run…

• Boston and NJ marathoners: 2:00 at long run pace
• NYC Half competitors: 1:40-1:50 at long run pace
• Everyone else (including short distance specialists with a solid base, and runners building a base):1:00-1:30 at 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.dashingwhippets.org/events/calendar/

Training Calendars

• Training plan for the Boston Marathon (18 weeks): http://files.meetup.com/1454408/DWRT%202015%20Boston%20Marathon%20Plan.pdf
• Training plan for New Jersey Marathon (17 weeks): http://files.meetup.com/1454408/DWRT%202015%20NJ%20Marathon%20Plan.pdf
• Training plan for NYC Half (11 weeks): http://files.meetup.com/1454408/NYC%20Half%20Training%20Plan.pdf
• Training plan for March Washington Heights 5K race (8 weeks): http://files.meetup.com/1454408/DWRT_TrainingPlan_Winter2015_5K10K.pdf