Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Lactate Threshold Work Outs - The Keys To Success

We're 7 weeks out from Silverman Triathlon www.slivermannv.com.  I've been doing significantly more running this season than I have in past seasons.  The reason being, my run sucks I have a squatty body with tree stump legs better suited to rugby than distance running.  Triathlon is a swim, bike, run race not a swim bike race.  That said, I want to improve my PR's (and run splits) therefore I need to attack my weaknesses.
To that end I start a 6 week series of lactate threshold track workouts this week.  I learned this from my coach Frank Lowery www.lowerymultisports.com.  These are painful (brutal really) sprint work outs that - moaning and groaning aside - are the key to success in terms of improving run times, efficiency & strength.
If your in Henderson NV on Thursday mornings between now and October 22nd - drop by the track at Green Valley HS and join me.
Here's what the work outs look like.
Each session begins and ends with 1.5mi warm up / 1.5mi cool down + stretching
3 x 50 yd strides + 2 x 100 yd strides - these start slow and build to sprint pace and help transition the body into fast run mode
Main set. - these are run at 90% to 95% of max effort.  The key is constancy - 1st lap as fast as last lap, focus is on form and pace - creating muscle memory and mental toughness. Rest interval is half the distance run (run 200 cool down 100 and so on)
Week 1. 2 x 100 6 x 200, 1 x 400 (1800)
Week 2. 2 x 200, 3 x 400  2 x 200 (2000)
Week 3. 1 x 200, 1 x 400, 1 x 600, 1 x 600, 1 x 400, 1 x 200 (2400)
Week 4.  1 x 400, 2 x 800,  2 x 400 (2800)
Week 5.   1 x 400, 1 x 800, 1 x 1200,  1 x 800, 1 x 400 (3600)
Week 6   3 x 1600 (4800)  
These are my work outs - yours may vary of course.
Last spring I used this series to set PR's in my 5k, 10K & 1/2 marathon races.
For the last two years I've taken 3rd place in my division at Silverman  (last year I shaved 44 min of my overall time and still I took 3rd).  In 2009 I'm looking for redemption.

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