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

For those many Whippets who will be racing in the Brooklyn Half on Saturday, best of luck and have a great time. Cheerers, we will meet at Mile 12 to support all competitors. And everyone is invited to a post-race beach party. Details on all of these events are at the Dashing Whippets calendar.

Next week, we’ll begin a six-week training plan to help runners recover from Brooklyn and prepare for summer races or fall marathon training.

Dashing Whippets Training Plan for the Week

This is the final week of a training plan for the Brooklyn Half. If you ran a marathon in the second half of April, we are nearing the end of your recovery period. If you are training for shorter races like 5K-15K, or are looking ahead to a fall marathon, we start a new training plan next week to get you ready for your targeted event.

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 5/11: Easy day

• Brooklyn half marathoners should run 40-55 minutes easy, optionally followed by 4 strides of 100m each
• Everyone else should rest or run 30 minutes easy
• Monday Morning Mileage (Central Park): http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/221992251/

Tuesday 5/12: Long speedwork day: Warm up 1-1.5 easy mile, then…

• Brooklyn Half competitors and Short distance (5K-15K) specialists (with a solid base of speedwork): 1.5 miles at half marathon pace, then 2:00 jog recovery. Then 1000m at 10K pace, then 2:00 jog recovery. Then 4 repeats of 200m at 5K pace with 1:00 recovery after each. Finish with 1-1.5 miles of jogging to cool down.
• Runners who are building a base and Recent marathoners (NJ, Boston): Do 5 miles total — 3 miles at marathon pace, then 1 mile at half marathon pace, then 1 mile very easy to cool down.
• Manhattan group workout in Central Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/222105039/
• Brooklyn group workout in Prospect Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/221407668/

Wednesday 5/13: Recovery day

• Brooklyn half marathoners should rest — or 40 minutes of easy running or aerobic system cross training
• Everyone else (including recent marathoners) should do 25-35 minutes of easy running or aerobic system cross training
• Morning group run, Central Park: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/wpqbdlythbrb/

Thursday, 5/14: Short speedwork day: 15-minute warmup, including jogging/drills/strides, then…

• Brooklyn Half competitors and Recent marathoners (NJ, Boston): 40-50 minutes of easy running, followed by 6 x 100m strides. No cooldown is required.
• Short distance (5K-15K) specialists (with solid base of speedwork) and Runners who are building a base (not much recent speedwork): 3-4 repeats of 1200m at 15K pace, with 400m of jogging after each to recover. Finish with 15 minutes of easy jogging to cool down.
• Evening Manhattan group workout in East River Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/dwmjqgythbsb/
• Evening Brooklyn group workout in Prospect Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/221407673/

Friday 5/15: Very easy day

• Everyone should rest

Saturday and Sunday, 5/16-17:

• Brooklyn Half competitors: Have a great race! Rest on Sunday and Monday.
• Everyone else: On one day, do 40-50 minutes of easy running. On the other day, do a long run…
• Short distance (5K-15K) specialists and Boston marathoners: 1:30-1:45 of running long run pace
• Runners who are building a base and NJ marathoners: 1:00-1:15 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

• Training plan for Brooklyn Half (7-8 weeks): http://files.meetup.com/1454408/Brooklyn_Half_Training_2015.pdf
• Starting NEXT WEEK: training plan for short summer races and a base-building period for fall marathoners