Dashing Whippets Training Plan, December 21 – 27, 2015

The Running Dog

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

Schedule change: There are no group workouts on Thursday, December 24. That’s also true of our December 31 workouts, but we’ll be back to our regular Thursday schedule on January 7.

Dashing Whippets Training Plan for the Week

This is a short get-in-shape/stay-in-shape period for runners. Our next training plans begin in late December/early January.

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 12/21: Easy day

Tuesday 12/22: Long speedwork day: Warm up 1-1.5 miles. Then…

  • Runners with a solid base (have done speedwork regularly): 2 repeats of 2 miles at half marathon pace, with a 4-minute jog between them. Finish with 1 easy mile to cool down.
  • Runners who are building a base (not much recent speedwork): 2 miles at estimated marathon pace, immediately followed by 1 mile at half marathon pace, with no rest between pace changes. Finish with a 1-mile cooldown.
  • Manhattan group workout in Central Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/226419999/
  • Brooklyn group workout in Prospect Park at 7pm: http://www.meetup.com/dashing-whippets/events/227401116/

Wednesday 12/23: Recovery day

Thursday, 12/24: Short speedwork day: 15-minute warmup, including jogging/drills/strides, then…

  • Runners with a solid base (have done speedwork regularly): 2 repeats of 1.5 miles (2400m) at 15K pace, with a 3-minute jog between them. Finish with 10-15 minutes of easy jogging to cool down.
  • Alternative for indoor track specialists (have done speedwork regularly): After warming up, add another 20 minutes of jogging and drills (high knees, butt kicks, A-skip, carioca, in-place hopping, short bounding, etc). Then do 4 repetitions of 200m at estimated two-mile race pace, with a 200m slow-jog after each. Finish with a 10-minute cooldown.
  • Runners who are building a base (not much recent speedwork): After warming up, run 3 miles at marathon pace, followed by 1 easy cooldown mile.
  • Thursday group workouts are CANCELLED this week

Friday 12/25: Very easy day

  • Everyone should rest, or do Thursday’s workout today if you missed it yesterday

Saturday and Sunday, 12/26-27: On one day, do 30-50 minutes of easy running followed by 4 repeats of 100m strides. On the other day, do a long run…

  • If you are looking forward to a spring marathon or half marathon: Do 1:25-1:40 of running at long run pace
  • Runners with a solid base: 1:10-1:20 of running at long run pace
  • Runners who are building a base: 1:00 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

More about Matt

Matt is one of the co-founders of the Dashing Whippets with Rich.

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