Speed workouts
In preparation for the fall races, Andy will be leading speed workouts at the Immaculata High School track every Thursday at 6:30 pm this summer. We will meet at City Hall, 111 Lisgar Street, do a warm-up run to the track, and then do speed drills for about an hour. Visit the OFR page on Facebook for updates.
We alternate doing 800's one week, and then some bit of variety (e.g., ladders, longer intervals, pacing exercises) on alternate weeks. We can also modify the workout to suit the weather, so don't use that as an excuse not to show up.
The 800's we do are based on Yasso 800's. The idea is to do an increasing number of 800s (twice around the track) doing each 800 in your marathon goal time in minutes and seconds. So if you were targetting a 3:30 marathon, you would do each 800 in 3 minutes and thirty seconds. Between each interval, you do a very easy jog for the same amount of time. We start with 4 repeats, and build up to 10.
The track is not actually 800 meters, so this chart will help you figure out your pace:
| Marathon Goal | Half-Marathon Goal | 750 |
|---|---|---|
| 3:00 | 1:25 | 2:49 |
| 3:15 | 1:33 | 3:03 |
| 3:30 | 1:40 | 3:17 |
| 3:45 | 1:48 | 3:31 |
| 4:00 | 1:55 | 3:45 |
| 4:15 | 2:03 | 3:59 |
| 4:30 | 2:10 | 4:13 |
| 4:45 | 2:18 | 4:27 |
| 5:00 | 2:25 | 4:41 |
| 5:15 | 2:33 | 4:55 |
| 5:30 | 2:40 | 5:09 |
| 5:45 | 2:48 | 5:23 |
Remember that you don't want to go too fast and injure yourself. Having a watch with a chrono feature is useful.
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