I need to write another post before I receive more comments than CJ or Susan.
There's a 400 metre grass track down at Calwell which I've been using since the early 1990s. Mike Sainsbury coaches a group of runners there numbering about 15 and ranging in age from 12 to 49 (although most are under 20). I've been assisting him since the mid-1990s. The track is only about 2 kilometres from home but I usually drive the car or ride the bike there before doing a 2.5k warm-up run with the kids. Am I becoming lazy, or is it that I just can't face dragging my tired, fat, wombat ass, 2km uphill after training?
Last Thursday I decided to run a very basic track session... 'hundreds'. I haven't been doing serious fast training for six months or more. 'Hundreds' is running 100 metre repeats. There's nothing more basic. I mean, everyone has run 100 metres, right? All the kids know what 100 metre speed means. Mike might say to a runner "do 700 metres at 21 seconds per 100 for the first 400 then 18 seconds per 100 for the last 300". They know exactly what he means!
I tried to run my 100s with good 'middle-distance' runner's form, not resorting to the frenetic leg-speed of a sprinter. Good 'middle-distance' form means 'running tall', having 'good arms', good knee-lift and driving strongly and quickly off the ground. I avoided the uphill first 100 metres and used the back straight, bend and home straight. For recovery I just walked around until I felt ready to run again (about 45-55 seconds). I ended up running 23 x 100 metres averaging 20.7 seconds. This is not very fast! It's the same pace as 5:10 for 1500 metres or 34:30 for 10km. Obviously I'm not running fast enough to attempt 5:14 for 1500 metres! I need to practise more for speed and do 'fast drills'.
At the other end of the scale, on Saturday morning, I attempted my first 'really long' run in training for the Six Foot Track Marathon. It didn't go well! I felt really tired after just 17 kilometres and walked all of the last 10k of the 29.5k 'run'. I don't rate it as a total failure though as the Six Foot Track requires 'good walking'. Perhaps I should stick to running 'hundreds'?
There's a 400 metre grass track down at Calwell which I've been using since the early 1990s. Mike Sainsbury coaches a group of runners there numbering about 15 and ranging in age from 12 to 49 (although most are under 20). I've been assisting him since the mid-1990s. The track is only about 2 kilometres from home but I usually drive the car or ride the bike there before doing a 2.5k warm-up run with the kids. Am I becoming lazy, or is it that I just can't face dragging my tired, fat, wombat ass, 2km uphill after training?
Last Thursday I decided to run a very basic track session... 'hundreds'. I haven't been doing serious fast training for six months or more. 'Hundreds' is running 100 metre repeats. There's nothing more basic. I mean, everyone has run 100 metres, right? All the kids know what 100 metre speed means. Mike might say to a runner "do 700 metres at 21 seconds per 100 for the first 400 then 18 seconds per 100 for the last 300". They know exactly what he means!
I tried to run my 100s with good 'middle-distance' runner's form, not resorting to the frenetic leg-speed of a sprinter. Good 'middle-distance' form means 'running tall', having 'good arms', good knee-lift and driving strongly and quickly off the ground. I avoided the uphill first 100 metres and used the back straight, bend and home straight. For recovery I just walked around until I felt ready to run again (about 45-55 seconds). I ended up running 23 x 100 metres averaging 20.7 seconds. This is not very fast! It's the same pace as 5:10 for 1500 metres or 34:30 for 10km. Obviously I'm not running fast enough to attempt 5:14 for 1500 metres! I need to practise more for speed and do 'fast drills'.
At the other end of the scale, on Saturday morning, I attempted my first 'really long' run in training for the Six Foot Track Marathon. It didn't go well! I felt really tired after just 17 kilometres and walked all of the last 10k of the 29.5k 'run'. I don't rate it as a total failure though as the Six Foot Track requires 'good walking'. Perhaps I should stick to running 'hundreds'?
7 comments:
Ewen, I'm sure deep down you know that you have a few more months of training before you can worry about 6Ft and you know that not every training session goes to plan. Consistency is the key!!!
Note: I'm surprised to hear you doing 100 repeats, it doesn't seem to fit the 6Ft plan or a 1500m plan.
Regards
Stu
A session of 460 "hundreds" might fit in with your 6 foot under training.
Your blog is just getting too popular!!!!
Consistency is the key - I've noticed that some weeks my long runs go really well and i feel great and then I'll have a real shocker and wonder where I went wrong.
Stu mac, Ewen is doing 100s because I snuck under 12 mins for three k last attempt, and he wants to go a few seconds better.
Susan, do you comment on millions of blogs around the world? That's my theory why you would receive so many comments of your own.
Hey, maybe that's CJ's secret too!
It's great to meet so many keen bloggers.
We run 100s too, we did twenty of them on Tuesday night. Come back Ewen!
20.7 seconds for 100 meters sounds fast to me - and even faster when you are doing 23 of them!!!
Stu, it's the start of a 1500m plan. The reason for doing 'hundreds' is that I want to practise the rhythm of 20-second 100 metre pace.
At the moment I can only sustain this pace for around 100 metres. With many repetitions the body/nervous system will 'learn' this pace. In the future I'd like to run 300s and 400s at this pace.
My 6ft plan is to do the shortest 'long run' possible and practise switching back to running after a long walk in the middle.
Tesso, it's not fast when in a bygone era they were run in 17 seconds!
Susan, speedwork will especially help your 1:50 goal - even once per week will help.
Hi Ewen,
You sure have a busy schedule doing track races & training for the 6ft track. It is difficult to cover all bases. With the hills it might be best not to necessarily time all of them & concentrate on running form as you get closer to the 6ft track it would be good to concentrate on doing longer hill reps.
Thanks very much for your response on the Cool Running Message Board but the Running Sock Product looks more like a product for Plantar Facitis (which I've had before ) but this time it is Achilles Tendonitis.
Keep up the consistent training & good luck in upcoming races.
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