Speedwork Clarification

[Longboard]

Never thought I'd get to this point.....Saturday night at the tail end of the racing season, yet I'm ignoring keeping up with PWI in an attempt to gain speed advantage tips from the group.

Yesterday I hit the local high school track (synthetic) to clock myself for the mile. Not a sprint, just a faster pace than I would average for a 5K. After that I ran a few miles much slower along a blacktop residential road ringing a local lake.

Is the purpose of speedwork when training for the shorter distances like the 5K to enable you to hit those speeds in the race or not? Should I also sprint 100 meters just to be able to do that at the finish? Is there as much difference of opinion regarding training for the 5K as there is for the longer distances?

I don't want to end up in the achilles tear threads if there's no real advantage to pushing it that close, but with the bad weather coming I'd like to maximize my training efforts. I'm thinking that when the roads are snow covered, if the track is clear, I might be able to jump out of the heated car for a quick 1/4 mile before frostbite has a chance to set in.

Worth the effort?

 

[Blind Boy]

I'd say there is even more

I'd say there is even more controversy and different opinions when it comes to shorter distances, at least that's my impression.

How close are you to your race? IMO, speed is easy to build and a short, sharp session can give you the last push you need to go a little faster in a race. My favourite is 800 meter repeats and I usually do somewhere between five and ten depending on where I am in my training. In your case that will most likely be too much though so I'd try a different approach. I'd do sharpeners, as Lydiard called them, where you sprint for 50 meters and then float for the next 50, repeat until tired. It's a fairly tough workout though so make sure you have a few days to recover before the race.

 

[Longboard]

Blind Boy wrote:How close are

How close are you to your race?

Let me think, today's Saturday....so Sunday,.... Monday.......oh, around six months I guess....

Seriously, I don't want to race in the dark or sub-freezing temps, and will just try to stay trained for spring.

There will be plenty of days where the sun has warmed the pavement by noon or so for me to train despite the cold air, but not so likely at racetime.

I'll stick with training rather than racing til probably April.

Want to make the best of it though!

 

[Barefoot Gentile]

I like to do fartleks and

I like to do fartleks and hillwork for my speed training. Farklecks are great because you don't have to deal with monotony of a track.

 

[Mike]

I still have not figured out

I still have not figured out how to do speed work/sprints barefoot. I always stride out when I go faster, which seems to make my shins very unhappy. uzzled: