Category: Quality (Key) Workouts

My apologies: This didn’t get posted yesterday — it was “pending approval” because of a link to the VDOT calculator (I guess that was it). We are in the midst of the fall marathon season and nearing the end of the racing year. If you have a specific event you are still training for in 2025, the 6 x 800 […]

As we round the turn into October, we may be in final prep for a fall marathon (like Bay State, Chicago, NYC) or a favorite autumn event. If you raced a lot in the summer, be aware of any feelings of burnout. It might be a time to return to simple base training to allow your body a chance to […]

Shamrock Training: Key Workout Suggestions Q1 Track Workout Tuesday Night Woburn HS Meet at 5:45 Hard Intervals Warmup: 1-2 miles E pace plus 4-6 striders 4-5 x 1000-meters at I pace with one-lap jogs Warm down 1-2 miles Q2 Threshold training 1-2 mile warmup jog (E pace) plus 4 striders 15 minutes at T paceJog 8 minutes10 minutes at T […]

Shamrock Training: Key Workout Suggestions Throwing a new dimension into the workout ideas for this week. In Quality Workout 2, take a break from your GPS pace and heart rate monitor and just go by time and feel. The purpose is to take some time rechanneling your focus from all the numbers that a smart watch can generate and really […]

Tentative Date for the Fall 1-Mile Time Trial: November 4 Q1 Track Workout Tuesday Night Woburn HS 5:45pm Long Intervals Warmup: 1-2 miles E pace plus 4-6 striders 4 x 1200-meters with 1-lap jog recoveries. Warm down 1-2 miles Q2 Threshold plus Repetition Work Use your VDOT T pace (see description, purpose and details at the end of this post) […]

Shamrock Training: Key Workout Suggestions Coming later this week: I’ll announce the date of our fall one-mile time trial. For those who would like to have some fun training for the mile, I’ll be posting specific workout ideas to help you sharpen up your running form, your speed and your speed endurance. This week: 800-meter repeats are a great way […]

Looks like great weather Tuesday night! Coming soon: We’ll plan our Fall time trial soon. Late October/Early November If you’d like a specific training plan (roughly 10 weeks) to prep for a PR, let me know. R, I, T, E paces described and explained at end of post. If you’d ever like help identifying your optimal training paces, let Coach […]

Glossary of workout paces (I-pace, T-pace, R-pace) in the final section of the post. Invidivdualized schedules: The training plans I post here are generalized, in hopes of helping all who attend improve their overall fitness and race ability. They are primarily geared for the 5k/10k/Half-marathoner. That said, I’ve been working with two Shammies using an online platform to schedule specific […]

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 […]