Dashing Whippets Training Plan, August 31 – September 6, 2015

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

We are just now moving into the second half of our training programs for both the NYC Marathon (18 weeks) and late summer shorter races (9 weeks). This is the point at which a solid grounding of aerobic conditioning and physical strength has been established. Now we are steadily elongating some workouts at or around the speed you’ll be going on race day, to develop efficiency and confidence at that level of effort.

For Fifth Avenue Mile specialists, we’re just two weeks away from your race — our remaining workouts are intended to carefully lock in the fitness gains, rather than push too hard and risk injury. No matter what your event is, join us at our group workouts to find running partners and build up your capacity to run fast.

Dashing Whippets Training Plan for the Week

This is week 10 of NYC Marathon training program, and week 5 of a late summer short race training plan for Fifth Avenue Milers (6 weeks) or 5K-half marathoners (9 weeks).

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 8/31: Easy day

• Fall marathoners should run 55-70 minutes easy, followed by 5 repeats of 100m strides
• Everyone else should run 35-60 minutes easy
• Monday Morning Mileage (Central Park) option: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/224342437/

Tuesday 9/01: Long speedwork day: Warm up 1-1.5 miles. Then…

• Fall marathoners: 7 miles at marathon pace, followed by 2 miles easy to cool down.
• Short distance (5K-half marathon) specialists (with a solid base of speedwork), and Runners who are building a base (not much recent speedwork): 40-60 minutes of running at marathon pace, followed by a 1.5-2-mile cooldown jog. Aim for 55-60 minutes if you are well-trained; stop at 40-45 minutes if you are new to speedwork.
• Fifth Avenue milers: Add an extra mile easy jogging to continue the warmup. Then do 2 repeats of 1200m at 1 mile pace, separated by 5:00 of easy jogging. Finish with 2 miles easy to cool down.
• Manhattan group workout in Central Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/224595440/
• Brooklyn group workout in Prospect Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/224514985/

Wednesday 9/02: Recovery day

• Marathoners should do 50-65 minutes of easy running, followed by 4 repeats of 100m strides, or rest
• Everyone else should do 30-60 minutes of easy running or aerobic system cross training
• Morning group run, Central Park: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/224632387/

Thursday, 9/03: Short speedwork day: 20-minute warmup, including jogging/drills/strides, then…

• Short distance (5K-half marathon) specialists (with solid base of speedwork): 5-7 repeats of 1200m at 10K pace, with a 400m recovery jog after each. Finish with 15 minutes of easy jogging to cool down.
• Fifth Avenue milers: 3-4 supersets of 400(200)400(200)400 each, where the 400s are at mile pace, and the 200s are marathon pace. Jog 800m easy after each, and finish with a 15-minute cooldown jog.
• Fall marathoners: 10-14K worth of Canova Ks, which is a continuous run, alternating pace every 1000m between half marathon pace and marathon pace, with no rest between pace changes. Finish with a 15-minute cooldown jog.
• Runners who are building a base (not much recent speedwork): 6-8K of Canova Ks, as described above. Finish with a 15-minute cooldown.
• Morning Manhattan group workout in Central Park: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/bnqfdlytmbfb/
• Evening Manhattan group workout in East River Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/224644997/
• Evening Brooklyn group workout in Prospect Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/224514988/

Friday 9/04: Very easy day

• Optionally, advanced marathoners may do 50-55 minutes of easy running followed by 5 repeats of 100m strides
• Everyone else should rest, or do the Monday or Wednesday workout today if you missed it

Saturday and Sunday, 9/05-06: 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: 2:00-2:15 of running at progression run pace
• Short distance (5K-half marathon) specialists (with a solid base): 1:30-1:45 of running at progression run pace
• Fifth Avenue Mile specialists: 1:45 of running at long run pace
• Runners who are building a base: 1:10-1:20 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. Progression run pace starts at long run pace for the first half — but the second half gradually accelerates to half marathon pace (or marathon pace for marathoners) — and do the last 10 minutes at an easy pace.
• 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
• 9 week training program for longer late summer races (5K-half marathon): http://files.meetup.com/1454408/DWRT_Summer2015_ShortRacePlan.pdf
• 6 week training program for the Fifth Avenue Mile: http://files.meetup.com/1454408/2015%20Fifth%20Avenue%20Mile%20Plan.pdf