Phillips Running

After building the foundation in January and February we will transition into some track specific training. Everything that we’ve done up to this point has been about getting the aerobic base built and getting our body ready to run faster!!!

So, for the month of March, which is the competitive season, but still not the championship season, we are going to focus on 3200 meter paced workouts to replace our hill sessions and sprinkling in some 1600 meter paced reps with our tempo work.

We are looking for 2 x two-week cycles here in March. These cycles will look like this:

Cycle #1:
Monday — Long run w/ last 10-20 min moderate
Tuesday — Easy run w/ strides
Wednesday — 3200 meter pace reps — 400-800 meters w/ equal time rest
Thursday — Medium long run — easy
Friday — Pre-meet routine
Saturday — Track Meet or easy run w/ speed maintenance reps
Sunday — Rest day

Monday — Long run w/ last 10-20 min moderate
Tuesday — Easy run w/ strides
Wednesday — 20 min tempo run + 4-8 x 200 meters at mile pace w/ 200 meter jog
Thursday — Medium long run — easy
Friday — Pre-meet routine
Saturday — Track Meet or easy run w/ speed maintenance reps
Sunday — Rest day

Cycle #2:
Monday — Long run w/ last 10-20 min moderate
Tuesday — Easy run w/ strides
Wednesday — 3200 meter paced reps — 400-800 meter paced reps w/ equal time rest
Thursday — Medium long run — easy
Friday — Pre-meet routine
Saturday — Track Meet or easy run w/ speed maintenance reps
Sunday — Rest day

Monday — Long run w/ last 10-20 min moderate
Tuesday — Easy run w/ strides
Wednesday — 20 min of tempo reps (3-6 min reps) + 4-8 x 200 meters at mile pace
Thursday — Medium long run — easy
Friday — Pre-meet routine
Saturday — Track Meet or easy run w/ speed maintenance reps
Sunday — Rest day

Now, you might be asking…what if there is a meet on another day of the week, such as a Thursday or Friday? Then just adjust. You could do something like this if there were a Friday meet:

Monday — Easy w/ strides
Tuesday — Workout (tempo or 3200 meter paced reps)
Wednesday — Medium long run — easy
Thursday — Pre-meet routine
Friday — Track Meet
Saturday — Medium long run — easy
Sunday — Rest day

You don’t have to do the long run each week, but I figure through March it’s worth having in there. We’ll reduce the long run to a medium long run in April, but you’ll see that in the next segment.

For now, really focus on running the 3200 meter paced workouts at your actual 3200 meter date pace…NOT goal pace. I would give the following volume for these workouts based on their age / grade:

Freshmen (or first year runners) — 2 miles of 3200 meter paced work.

Sophomores (or second year runners) — 2.5 miles of 3200 meter paced work.

Juniors (or third year runners) — 3 miles of 3200 meter paced work.

Seniors (or fourth year runners) — 3.5 miles of 3200 meter paced work.

Sample workouts could be:

8-14 x 400 meters at 3200 meter pace w/ equal time rest.

OR

4-7 x 800 meters at 3200 meter pace w/ equal time rest.

The tempo sessions would be very similar to what you were doing in January and February, but there is no need to go past 20 minutes for these sessions, especially since we are now running some faster paced reps following the tempo session.

Sample workouts could be:

4 x 5 min tempo w/ 1 min rest; 5 min rest after tempo work; 8 x 200 meters at mile pace / effort w/ an easy 200 meter jog rest.

OR

20 min tempo run w/ 5 min rest after run; 8 x 200 meters at mile pace / effort w/ an easy 200 meter jog rest.

As far as early season racing, I would not FOCUS yet on their goal races…if an athlete was going to race four times in March, I would look at running this progression of races (for a guy/girl who is looking to run the 1600 and 3200 meters at the Championship Meet):

Meet #1 — 3200 meters + 1600 meters

Meet #2 — 1600 meters

Meet #3 — 3200 meters + 1600 meters

Meet #4 — 3200 meters OR 1600 meters

Be consistent. Don’t rush the fitness with over-doing the 3200 meter paced work in March. Be patient with racing.