Fundamentals of Workout Planning for Runners

First things first…pick your race! Ideally, you'll want to choose a 5K or 10K the last weekend in April or the first weekend in May. Remember this is the first race of the season. You'll use this event as a springboard to the spring, summer and fall racing season. Don't expect a PR the first race of the season. Your goal is re-acquainting yourself with speed and competition.

• Find a hill that will take you about one-minute to run up. Warm-up at least ten minutes, then run from the base of the hill to the top at the same pace you run on flat ground. Concentrate on form: lift your knees, keep your head up and pump your arms more than usual. Continue running for ten to twenty seconds beyond the crest. Then very slowly jog, or even walk, back down.
• Run the hill four times in week 7. Weeks 8 and 9 run it six times.
• Run the hill on Tuesday, your longest mileage day during the week. Warming-up, running the hill and cooling-down should total five miles.

OR:

• Find a one-mile stretch of road with two or three rolling hills. Run the course out and back after warming-up for at least ten minutes. Run slightly slower on the flat portions of road between hills, then pick your pace up a bit on the hills.
• Run the hilly course on Tuesday. Your warm-up and cool-down should total three miles.
• Run the course in weeks 7, 8 and 9.

OR:

• Warm-up at least ten minutes on a treadmill set at a 1% grade. After you’ve warmed-up, raise the grade to 2% for one minute. Lower it to 1%. Then raise it to 3% for one minute and lower it again to 1%. Raise it to 4% for one minute, lower it to 1%, then raise it to 4% again. Cool-down. Do this workout on Tuesday in week 7.
• In weeks 8 and 9, run a total of four minutes at a 4% grade, with a one-minute rest (at 1% grade) in between each.

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Hill workouts are great for making you stronger. Now all you need to do to get ready for that first 5K or 10K of the season is to throw in some speed. Here's how you'll do it.

Run harder than your regular training pace for a total of ten to fifteen minutes during either your Saturday or Sunday workouts in weeks 7, 8 and 9. Don't run the ten or fifteen minutes all at one time. Break it up into short segments, two to three minutes max. For instance, if your Saturday run is scheduled for six miles, warm up at least a mile, then run hard to a certain point such as a fence or maybe a tree. Run easy for a few minutes, then run hard again to another spot, perhaps a stop sign. Continue with hard/easy running until you've run a total of ten to fifteen minutes. Your warm-up, speed play and cool-down should total near the six miles scheduled for the day.

Have fun with these workouts! This type of training is known as speed-play for good reason. Enjoy yourself; don't worry about trying to run a specific distance in a certain amount of time. Pretend you're running your race. Make believe that the tree half a block down the road is another runner you're trying to beat. Run hard to that point, then back off.

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It's a good idea to monitor your heart rate when you're training. If your resting (morning) heart rate varies more than a beat or two per minute, you're working too hard and not getting enough rest. Here's how you determine your resting heart rate.

• First thing in the morning, measure your pulse at your wrist (or better yet, use your heart rate monitor and see the visual readout.) CAUTION: take your pulse after you've relieved your bladder. Once you've used the bathroom, lie back down and rest for a minute or two so your heart rate can go back down. Place your index finger and middle finger (DON’T USE YOUR THUMB!) against the inside of your wrist, count the beats for ten seconds and multiply by six. Voila! You now know your resting heart rate.
• Measure your heart rate three mornings in a row to get an average. If you notice an increase in beats per minute, back off on your training. You may be running too hard on your easy days.

You’ll know how hard your heart is working, if you wear a heart rate monitor while training. To determine how hard you should (or shouldn’t) be training, use this simple formula.

• Subtract your age from 220
• Multiply that number by .6 and .9.

These figures are your training ranges. For example, if you’re 32 years old, your theoretical maximum heart rate is 188. Your training ranges, therefore, should be between 113 beats per minute and 169 beats per minute.

On your easy days, try to keep your heart rate from going higher than 120 beats per minute. On the harder days, when you’re running hills or running fast, your heart rate could go as high as 168 or even 170 beats per minute. When you’re running hills, your heart rate may creep up even higher, but it will quickly fall once you have crested the hill and start jogging back down.

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Drop your mileage down a bit during race week. Run no more than fifteen miles in the five days prior to race day. Don't do the hill workout, but do some quick pick-ups the day before your event. Pick-ups are fast bursts of speed lasting no more than ten to fifteen seconds. Do six to eight pick-ups after you've warmed-up at least two miles.

Once you've run the first spring race, focus on races later in the season. Use 5K's as speed-work to prepare for a future 10K. Replace your regular speed-play workout on Saturday or Sunday with a 5K. As long as you don't run too hard during the week, you can safely run a 5K two or even three times a month. Happy running!

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