Purpose and Introduction
The purpose of these weekly key workouts is to prepare the athlete for the Shamrock Club Series races and spring/fall marathons. These workouts are compatible with any runner as long as each runner follows the instructions.
The most important key workout of the week is Q1 (Q stands for Quality), followed by Q2, and then Q3. If you can only do one key workout this week, do Q1. If you can only do two this week, do Q1 and Q2. Fill the rest of the week in with easy pace running, cross training, and rest. At least two strength training workouts per week on non-consecutive days are recommended.
If you have a race or a time trial, remove a Q workout from the week. You should have 2-3 days before a race of no faster than Easy (E) pace, which includes the option of not running at all.
If you’re not feeling up to a Q (or even an E) run that day, skip it, better to rest up and be ready for the next day. Rest is just as important as work, but every day, resting or not, be sure to stand up and walk around every so often to avoid being completely sedentary for hours on end.
For more details on weekly training mileage, training paces, training around races, using your running watch, and more, please refer to the Coach Guidance page.
Shamrock Club Series race Training
Next on the schedule for the Lucky Shamrock race series is the Samantha’s Harvest 5k on June 7, and the next race in the Grand Prix race series is the Feeney 5k on July 4. If you’re training for one of these races, here are the Key Workouts for this week:
- Q1: Consider doing some or all of these miles as part of a Shamrock Saturday morning group run (the Lexington group or the group that varies location) or the Sunday morning group run.
- Long run at E pace for X* miles.
- Q2: Consider doing this workout with the Tuesday evening track workout group.
- 10+ minutes warmup jog
- 2 sets of:
- X* x 200 meters at R pace with 200 meter jog recoveries
- 800 meter jog between sets
- 10+ minutes cooldown jog
- Q3:
- 10+ minutes warmup jog
- X* x 200 meters at R pace with 200 meter jog recoveries
- X* x 1 mile at T pace with 1 minute jog or walk recoveries
- X* x 200 meters at R pace with 200 meter jog recoveries
- 10+ minutes cooldown jog
*see table below
Your Weekly Mileage Q1 miles at E pace Q2 200s per set Q3 200s per set Q3 miles at T 10 3 2 1 0.5 20 6 4 2 1 30 9 6 3 1.5 40 10 8 4 2 50 12.5 10 5 2.5 Other runs this week: All other runs this week should be Easy pace, with 8 to 10 strides added in to the middle or end of 1 to 4 of the Easy runs. These strides should not be all out sprints, but rather light, quick runs of about 15 to 20 seconds each, with about 45-60 seconds of rest after each stride.
Pace guidelines: Use the VDOT calculator and participate in the June time trials to find your precise numerical training paces that are optimal for you.
Pace Imprecise Description Purpose E (Easy) conversational pace strengthen your heart, improve the blood supply to your muscles, and enhance the oxygen and fuel to energy conversions in your muscle cells R (Repetition) roughly mile race pace (so fast you can’t really speak) improve anaerobic power, speed, and economy (take it easy on the recoveries) T (Threshold) roughly 10K to half marathon race pace (comfortably hard, so you can only speak a few words or in short sentences) improve endurance and lactate threshold strides short, 15-20 second, light and quick runs (not sprints), with 45-60 seconds recovery in between improve running economy without accruing fatigue, help with warming up if done pre-workout, break up monotonous easy runs if done in the middle of a workout, and aid the recovery process if done post-workout
Fall Marathon Training
There are of course a variety of marathons in the fall, but a popular one that Shamrocks often run is the Baystate Marathon, taking place this year on October 18, which is 20 weeks from May 31. Starting next week I’ll begin providing key workouts here for a 20 week marathon training program.
Questions?
If you have any questions on these workouts or on training, please feel welcome to ask the Coach.