Author: TJ Murphy

Good, solid training for the week: The Q (Quality) sessions include: A classic interval workout and a challenging anaerobic threshold workout. A note about the striders before your speedwork sessions: Not only are the important for your warmup, but properly done they active your fast-twitch muscle fibers and your overall ability to run fast. When you run those last two […]

The temps look great for the Tuesday night track workout but the air quality might be a thing. “The air quality in Boston is currently very unhealthy due to smoke from Canadian wildfires, with an AQI (Air Quality Index) of 213 today, and is forecast to be very unhealthy tomorrow as well. Air quality alerts are in effect for all […]

Unfortunately it IS going to be blazing hot Tuesday. So a longer threshold workout is suggested for later in the week (when it cools down). Q1 Track Workout Tuesday Night Woburn HS Meet at 5:45. Expected to be above 90 even at 6pm so bring fluids. R-pace workout (see description, purpose and details at the end of this post) Warmup: […]

The next race on the Grand Prix schedule is the Lone Gull 10k on September 21. Two months away — and a lot can be accomplished in two months. Consistency is the ticket! This week we’re working on both aerobic power and lactate-threshold stamina — foundational to racing well in a 10K. There’s also a dose of R training (see […]

Looks like another warm night Tuesday night for the track workout. There is value in training in hot temperatures. Probably the most obvious is that it prepares you (mentally and physically) for hot race days. A great American marathoner in the early 1960s was Buddy Edelen (he once held the world record in the marathon). Edelen won the 1964 U.S. […]

We are obviously getting into the thick of the summer racing season (heat in tow). Coming off of last Friday’s 5k — which functions as powerful training effort, pushing you to your maximum aerobic capacity — this Tuesday’s track workout will focus on anaerobic power, speed, and running ecomony. I’m in Iowa this week and next, but Tom Walker will […]

Bill Feeney 5k Race day is Friday. If you’re racing Friday: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday should be easy days — Tuesday and Wednesday 30-60 minutes easy. If racing and you want to come to the track Tuesday night, the suggested workout would look like this: 1.5-2 mile easy warmup. 6 x 100 light sprints 1 mile warmdown. Q1: Tuesday Track […]

Training: Key Workout Suggestions for the Week Obviously it’s going to be toasty for the track workout tomorrow night (Woburn HS 5:45pm). Probably still around 90-95 (so my phone tells me). Lots of reasons to do your track workout at 5am when it’s still in the 70s. That said, I’ll be at the track tomorrow night for anyone game for […]

With the Bill Feeney 5k less than 3 weeks away, time bump the Tuesday track workout into some solid interval training with a focus on boosting maximum aerobic power — aka VO2max. The primary purpose of Interval Training is to improve a runner’s VO2 max, which is the maximum amount of oxygen the body can utilize during intense exercise. For […]

In preparing for the July 4 5k, we are going to continue short-interval speedwork but lengthening it to 400-meter repeats. The purpose of “R-pace” high-speed intervals: To improve speed and maintain good mechanics while running fast. These intervals are fast and demanding. Here’s a quote from Dr. Jack Daniels on how you need to take the jogs seriously to be […]