Pre's 30/40 workout details

more less, from what I know

he would run for example 10 laps of the track, or 2.5 miles, alternating 30s & 40s each 200m

it would get quite exhausting as one could imagine

200 - 30 seconds

200 - 40 seconds

for 3 miles. Not just Pre but lots of Oregon folks did this w/o.

check out the book running tough. lot of good stuff including that workout.

dellinger said that the oregon record for that workout was held by pre with 18 laps. salazar did 16. not bad.

They did 30-30s weekly. I don't know if they ever did 30-40s or whether or not it's urban legend.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=1006406&thread=1004466

They were done until you couldn't sustain the 30/40 pace. As soon as you went over the pace, the workout was OVER. I know they did lots of variations like this, 65/75, etc.

This workout (or variations of it) was very popular among runners in the 1970s. The original version was supposedly 12 laps of alternating 220y in 30 with 220y in 40 for a 3M time of 14:00 (the fastest runners would continue beyond 3M). I saw an elite roadie do this session and run 13:53 for the 12 laps. A world class miler I often ran with did 8 laps in 8:57 by alternating 27s with 40s.

Twists on these variable speed things pop up in running lore from time to time. John Walker reportedly ran 2M in 8:45 by "floating" the curves and sprinting the straights. Alberto Cova was said to run 12 x 400m (with rest periods) averaging 58 while alternating fast and slow 100m segments. Then there is the DeCastella version, which uses a moderately fast 400m followed by a "float" 200m (12 laps total). Deek used this one year-round, running fairly strongly but within himself when not readying for a race, and focusing more on speed as a goal race neared.

It is my understanding that this was the record for the 30/30 workout which is much different than the 40/30 workout and word was in the 80s that Pre did 20 laps of the 30/30, not the 40/30. The 30/30 drill was a 200 in 30 seconds followed by a stationary rest of the same amount. Repeat. This was done every Monday and usually 8-12 of them. This usually started to get pretty difficult for everybody after about 10 of them.The 40/30 drill was a continuous run of 70 second laps alternating 200s in 40 then 30, 40 then 30, etc.Dellinger went through phases with this one but in the late 80s he (the Brad Hudson years) he had them do this every two weeks on a Thursday morning at 7:00am. The most anyone ever did in that era was 8 laps however there were other times in the preceding years where I saw a few people go 10-12 laps. I'm not doubting that someone at some time went farther than that but 20 laps of that workout is insane.

college runner wrote:

dellinger said that the oregon record for that workout was held by pre with 18 laps. salazar did 16. not bad.

They're fun workouts to do. When preparing for a marathon at about 5:50 pace, I did 4-5 miles worth of alternating laps of 70 and 90. Sure made race pace feel easy.

[The 30/30 drill was a 200 in 30 seconds followed by a stationary rest of the same amount. Repeat. This was done every Monday and usually 8-12 of them. This usually started to get pretty difficult for everybody after about 10 of them.

What this actually amounts to is 200m repeats in 30s with 30s standing rest...not a difficult workout by any means.

yes, I think that is what he meant, 30 second 200's with 30 seconds rest - I know 4 minute 1500 guys who can do 20 reps of this. 8-12 reps would be a joke for anyone on the UO team.

vincet wrote:

What this actually amounts to is 200m repeats in 30s with 30s standing rest...not a difficult workout by any means.

One of the funniest posts ever.

exduk wrote:

It is my understanding that this was the record for the 30/30 workout which is much different than the 40/30 workout and word was in the 80s that Pre did 20 laps of the 30/30, not the 40/30.

The 30/30 drill was a 200 in 30 seconds followed by a stationary rest of the same amount. Repeat. This was done every Monday and usually 8-12 of them. This usually started to get pretty difficult for everybody after about 10 of them.

Dellinger thought that when an athlete go up to 16 of them he was ready for 4:00. I seem to recall him saying that pre did 24 30/30s. During marathon training, I got up to 20 (29.2/30 to be exact) and thought that if I really concentrated I could do 24, but once you get to that point it would have no longer been a 'workout'.

Brendan Foster used to run 2 miles of 150 on 50 off and run pretty decent 2 mile times, I think he took this from something Viren did. In the Viren video 'Running is you Life' it shows him doinga workout on the infield of the track where he would sprint the diagnonal and recover by running the width of the end, criss crossing the infield... I have done several sessions of jogging the bends and striding the straights and running 15 mins for 3 miles, a good workout fora 14.20 5k guy.

ON STAMFORD HILL wrote:

Brendan Foster used to run 2 miles of 150 on 50 off and run pretty decent 2 mile times,

Yes. I think that in the day everyone was copying and modifying Ron Clarke's similar workout, which was 2 miles of in-and-out 50s. It goes without saying, that Clarke probably got his workout from somewhere else.

exduck,

interesting stuff here. heard about the dellinger thu morning workouts. seems stanford took this one ( lanana

tempo run am followed by short track session pm).

back to the pre drills... how about all of those progressive

race simulations as well? for example dellinger use to have his miler types do: 200M goal pace, 600M 80-90 secs, 200M goal pace, 400M 80-90 secs and finish with goal race pace. Of course each week this would progress to almost an entire mile at goal pace ( tough).

Between the 30/30, 30/40, 65/75, all of the race simulations and then straight vo2 max work & repetitions the Oregon program has to be one of the most diverse in terms of quality sessions.Throw in holmer fartlek, fartlek between intervals, date pace ...goalpace.... you get the picture.

Does anybody know what a good conversion for this workout would be for a high schooler that is in about 2:05/4:45 shape right now and shooting for a 1:58/4:29 at the end of May

In college our coach use to have us do a certain track workout a few times very early in the season before we got down to serious speed sessions. It went like this:

On a 400m track:

12 x 400m in lane 4 with the stagger walk as the recovery done at 5k race pace.

The short walk only last 15-20 seconds even if you drag it.

One session I did it with Brian Pope and we extended it to 16, hitting them in 68 to 69 each. Knew I was rounding into good shape then.

I guess this really was a VO2 Max development type workout but different from what Dr. Daniels normally advises.

something to keep in mind: there is a big difference between 30second 200 with 30 seconds rest and 30second 200 with 38 seconds rest.

most of the elites doing these workouts have someone timing the rest so that the rest starts the second you cross the line and when it hits 30, you're crossing the line again. it makes a huge difference