Race a legit mile at least once during training. You need other competitors. A solo time trial is not going to cut it. If it were me, I would try to race 10 days out and 20 days out - because the mile hurts, and you need to feel that pain to learn to run through it.
Something longer than 400s is essential if you want to survive that last quarter.
2 weeks of 200s 3x week .... 1 week of 400s 2x peak workout 3-4x800 w long long rest 7 days out
I was in a similar spot a few years back. Drunkenly bet a buddy that I could still crack 5:00 in the mile, and agreed to go for it in a time trial about 6 weeks later. At the time I was in my late 20s, running maybe 3-4 times a week (~15-20mpw total), and my most recent race was a 1:28 half marathon. My best guess is that at the time of the bet I could have run in the 5:3x range. Cracking 5 would also put me pretty close to my PR (I never said I was fast), so this was a tall order.
I agree with the others who have said that you need to prioritize foot speed over endurance given the limited ramp time, but disagree with how best to do this. Unless your friend has been regularly running hard workouts, trying to hit the track and go hard 3x/week is a recipe for disaster. I'd take 2 easy days after every hard workout. Something like this:
M: Track workout (e.g. 10x300m, 2-4-6-8-6-4-200m pyramid, etc.). Shoot for 2-2.5 miles of hard work, avoid intervals longer than 800m
T: Easy
W: Easy + strides
Th: Moneghetti fartlek (great bang for your buck, good practice for running fast when tired)
F: Easy
Sat: "Long" (1 hour at most, very easy) + strides
Sun: Rest / crosstrain
A week out, run a 1000m time trial at goal pace. That will give you familiarity with the discomfort to expect, and hopefully also the confidence that you can push through that last lap and a half on game day.
For the record, I ran 73-75-78-72 and came through the line in 4:59.7. Best of luck!
citius5000 wrote:
The big question first is were they running before this or going off the couch!?
Yea, thats what I thought, someone just getting off couch has to run all out mile in a month. Kind of a more interesting question?
STRONK wrote:
If you had one month to train for an all out mile what would your workout schedule be? Asking for a friend. Inspired by Kyle Merber's tweet.
Whatever Coach Shammy tells me to do
I was just post college and was ending my competitive running and had been injured all fall with a knee issue. I wanted last hurrah before I hung up the spikes for good and there was a downhill mile about a month out. I just repeated Monday 4x800m intervals at race pace Tuesday mile jog Wednesday 6x400m just faster race pace Thursday mile jog Friday 6x200m 3 seconds faster race pace Saturday mile jog and Sunday start cycle over. Did it 4 weeks and full rested last 3 days with stretching and strides. Ran 3:59. Lasted for 15 years until they stopped running race. Wouldn’t recommend this but I was young and dumb and like I said I was headed to hobby jogging land.
If I am in shape? Run a mile time trial, then guess what I think I could run in a month, and try to do pace work.
If I was out of shape? I would probably not do any intervals and just wing it a month later (I am injury prone)
Thanks all. Little cold air coming in this weekend, friend might rip a mile and then go from there.
Why would the mods try to erase black history? Despicable...
400s, 2-4-6-8-6-4-2 ladder, cycling workout, cycling volume, long run, 2 easy days
2x cycling workouts, stride or hills, tempo or strength workout, long run or long xtrain
fartlek of 200m-400m; pacing workout, strides, shortened long run, cycling on easy days
easy, taper 'workout', 2 days off or easy xtraining, shortened strides one of the other easy days
RACE
HRE wrote:
Nothing gets you ready for racing like racing does
^This. I would be racing maybe four 800s, and then a mile or two (not including peak race). Do a bunch of short "tempos". Since it's only a month I would say 40 seconds above mile pace for 2-3 miles. On the other days sprinkle in some jogs and some 200s/400s workouts. No long runs and probably nothing over 5 or 6 miles. I did a similar training plan for about two months and it got me in great shape.
Jon Arne Glomsrud wrote:
4x4 (and shorter hard interval like 30/30) have shown to be really good at giving a fast improvement for untrained.
I agree with this. There is huge similarity between 4x4 (Norway) and (1000 faster / 800 jog) * 4-6 (Easy Interval Method, Netherlands). Brits used to do 3 x 1 mile.
STRONK wrote:
Thanks again everyone. He has been running 20-25 mpw for about six weeks.
Continuing the running related thread & question for others, how do the workouts change if running 70-80 mpw+
A mile as fast as you can everyday