Notes
Getting in some good base workouts this week. This is my first week of serious, legitimate training and I'm starting out with some shorter, quicker workouts to get some base speed since I've been neglecting that area in my past couple months of training Also, I'm going to be incorporating a LOT more tempo and other similarly-paced workouts because I have done almost none of that ever in my training, and I think I can derive lot of benefit from those types of workouts. My goal for track season is a sub-5:00 mile, and sub-2:20 800m.
The plan: I'm going to start very easily, with some short-duration workouts with short tempo workouts (10-20 minutes) and short intervals with only a few reps (i.e. = or < 600m x 4, for example) to build some leg speed and medium-paced aerobic endurance. This will benefit my running twofold (at least): it will enhance all the necessary physiological components necessary to running fast times, as well as enhancing my ability to psychologically cope with medium-medium/fast-paced workouts. All my continuous runs will be less than 60 minutes, except for certain weekends when I'm doing a long run to prep for the Walt Disney Half in early January (in which case the runs will be under 90 minutes). I will be incorporating a much more intense training schedule in comparison to my previous training, as I believe I thrive in this situation. For example, I think I can handle 4 hard workouts/week, given ample rest days and a rest week every so often. Mileage will remain relatively low (never peaking over 40 miles/week), as I need to focus on pure speed, and maintenance of that speed over the middle-distances (such as 800 and 1600). My training in the past has, as stated before, significantly neglected tempo-range-paced work, as well as interval-paced work, and I believe that I can derive far more benefit from these workouts than I can from just consuming easy miles every day. As this training period goes on, tempos will be extended in length, as well as being faster-paced, and intervals will become more numerous and faster-paced.