Sunday, November 22, 2020

5k training - Keeping up with George


While there may be no official races these days, every Wednesday my track interval sessions with training partner, George.
  Staying with George each week has become an end in itself. 


George and I are largely focusing on 5k training and our make-it-up-as-we-go program has evolved into 3 workouts: 


  1. Tempo (threshold) session — 30-40 minutes at 3:45 pace —  eventual goal is to run 30-40 consecutive minutes at “threshold pace”.  I started at 3 x 6 minutes and have worked up to 4 x   2200
  2. Speed work -  12 x 300/400 meters with 60-second rest - currently George is running 400 meters and I run 300 meters.  This is supposed to be at mile race pace, though I have been enjoying 300s at 57 seconds - blistering fast for me these days. 
  3. 5k race pace session -  We started at 3 x 1000 at 3:36 pace and have been trying to shorten rest and add more volume.  


George and I strive to faithfully adhere to the guidance of “our coach” — our coach being this anonymous guy we don’t know in a random youtube video.    Our coach’s suggestions in the video dovetailed perfectly with the sessions we were starting to do anyway.     


The workouts have enabled me to achieve some “progression” in training times - something I have not been able to do in years.  


So while it has been all about Wednesday training for the past few months, I am hoping to actually do a 5k race and see some improvement.