Phillips Running

Wednesday, Jan. 31st, 2018 — Dallas Baptist University, Women’s Track (distance squad)

3 miles warm up — including 4 x 30 seconds fast, 1:30 easy within the last mile.
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3 x 6 minutes cut-down tempo w/ 2 min rest.
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4 min rest.
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4 x 400 meters at sub 3km pace w/ 90 seconds rest.
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4 min rest.
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4 x 400 meters at mile pace w/ 90 seconds rest.
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3 miles cool down — including 4 x 1:30 easy, 30 seconds fast within the first mile. 

Explanation of the workout:

On January 27th my ‘varsity’ squad opened up their 2018 Indoor Season with mixed results. Some of our athletes opened with PRs or Indoor PRs, while others were slower than they were two months before on the same track at the end of a long XC season.

One explanation on our up and down performances could be that we were peaked in December and are now building up in January…and that’s 100% true. WE SHOULD NOT BE 100% SHARP IN JANUARY. However, we do have such a short window to run fast in our Indoor Season and I want to take advantage of it, without risking our Outdoor Season.

And that is what this session is about. Originally in December when I wrote out the plan for this spring semester I had 4-5 x 1 mile cut downs planned here…a session starting at tempo pace and working down to 3k/5k feel on the last rep; something similar to what we’ve been doing, but working to much more specific than anything else we’ve done.

But, after seeing the ladies race this weekend I felt that we needed something a little more specific and a little faster for our next race, which is 10 days after this session. We’ve got some ladies with aspirations of qualifying for the NCAA National Championships and we don’t race a lot…so they need some specific work and some faster work to be able to run as fast as they need to during this Indoor Season.

So, the first half of this workout…3 x 6 minutes at cut-down tempo is basically what we had planned in December…it’s the second half of the workout where we get into the specific work with two sets of 4 x 400 meters starting at just a little faster than current 3km pace and working to around mile pace.

If the ladies are able to run this session under control, I believe we’ll be ready to race really well in 10 days.