Dashing Whippets Training Plan, May 18 – 24, 2015

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

Great work to everyone who raced so well in Saturday’s less-than-ideal conditions at the Brooklyn Half! Racers should rest for at least the first half of this week, and return gradually to running — no hard stuff until at least the end of May.

For everyone else, this is a light-to-moderate week, but it is the start of a new six-week plan to help you maintain your fitness, or develop aerobic capacity for harder fall marathon training in July.

Dashing Whippets Training Plan for the Week

This is week 1 of a training plan for summer races and base-building for fall marathon training. Brooklyn Half competitors should make this an easy recovery week.

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 5/18: Easy day

• Brooklyn Half competitors should rest
• Everyone else should rest or run 30-40 minutes easy
• Monday Morning Mileage (Central Park) option: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/222265168/

Tuesday 5/19: Long speedwork day: Warm up 1-1.5 easy mile, then…

• Brooklyn Half competitors should rest (if you must exercise, keep it easy and limit yourself to 30 minutes)
• Short distance (5K-15K) specialists (with a solid base of speedwork) and Runners who are building a base: 45 minutes of running. Go easy for most of the workout, but every tenth minute should surge to 10K pace. Finish with a five-minute cooldown jog.
• If preparing for the Dashing Whippets track meet on May 30 (if you didn’t race this past weekend): Run 2 miles at half marathon pace, then jog 3 minutes easy. Then do 4-8 repeats of 100m uphill at faster than one-mile race pace. Walk/jog back downhill to recover, and finish with a ten-minute cooldown jog.
• Manhattan group workout in Central Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/222195017/
• Brooklyn group workout in Prospect Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/221407695/

Wednesday 5/20: Recovery day

• Brooklyn Half runners should rest
• Everyone else (including recent marathoners) should do 20-35 minutes of easy running or aerobic system cross training
• Morning group run, Central Park: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/222204734/

Thursday, 5/21: Short speedwork day: 15-minute warmup, including jogging/drills/strides, then…

• Brooklyn Half competitors should do rest, or do 30-40 minutes of easy running.
• If sharpening up for the May 30 Dashing Whippets track meet: 3 repeats of 400m at one-mile race pace; walk/jog 200m between them to recover, and jog 400m easy after the last repeat. Then do 4-6 repeats of 200m at faster than one-mile race pace; walk/jog 200m after each to recover. Finish with 15 minutes of jogging and stretching to cooldown.
• Short distance (5K-15K) specialists and Runners who are building a base: 3-5 repeats of 800m, with 400m recovery after each. Start the first 800 at marathon pace, then speed up 8-12 seconds per mile in each subsequent repeat. Finish with a 15-minute cooldown.
• Evening Manhattan group workout in East River Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/219491477/
• Evening Brooklyn group workout in Prospect Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/221407690/

Friday 5/22: Very easy day

• Everyone should rest

Saturday and Sunday, 5/23-24:

• Brooklyn Half competitors: One one day, do 40-50 minutes of easy running. On the other day, rest — or take the entire weekend off if you’re sore.
• Short distance (5K-15K) specialists (with a solid base), and Runners who are building a base: On one day, do 35-50 minutes of easy running. On the other day, do 55-75 minutes 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.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/

Training Calendars

• Training plan for short summer races and a base-building period for fall marathoners (6 weeks): http://files.meetup.com/1454408/DWRT_TrainingPlan_Spring2015_PostBKHalf.pdf