Best Mile Workouts

Perhaps it is just because I live at altitude, but I tend to agree with this. But attempting a workout like this, even if it means falling well off pace in that last one sounds like a great way to build strength

PhD in Popular History wrote:

Zat0pek wrote:

Try 3 x 1000 @ mile race pace instead sometime. Excellent speed-endurance workout for a miler

Calling BS on these two workouts. If you can do 3 x 1000m or 4 x 800m at mile pace, then you're underperforming in races. Either that or you are taking 30 minutes rest or so between reps.

Try a single rep at 1000m or 1200m at mile pace, followed by 6 x 200m at your 800m pace. That'll sharpen you up.

60x400 seems to work

All these workouts are great, but I have two requests:

1. Does anyone have a complete year or season's schedule of workouts? To me, this would make it easy to view the progress of the workouts. If you could post it here or post a link that would be awesome.

2. I think that posting a workout without including the time of recovery between intervals is pointless. The recovery time is key to any workout IMO.

Thanks

some of these workouts I have seen by are absurd for anybody that is a genetic anomaly. 3x1000m at mile pace?!?! That would 3x1000m at 2:48 for a 4:30 miler. I cannot comprehend such a session. Maybe if you were coming from an incredibly strong 5k background and had poor footspeed this is a plausible workout. A good mid-distance workout, to be used about month out from peaking is something like 4x600, 4x400, 4x200 at mile pace with 2-3 min recovery between reps. Of course, you could always try the infamous 3x"20 quarters in sets of five, 110 jog between the quarters, 440 jog between the sets, 62-63 second effort but no watch as usual"

845372 wrote:

400s are too short and mentally too easy.

FWIW, they were a staple of Jumbo Elliot's guys at Villanova.

1) 10x400 in 59, 200 brisk jog

or

2) 5x600 in 1:29-31 brisk 200 jog

or

3) 800 in sub 2:00, 4 minute rest

800 in sub 2:00, 4 minute rest

400 in 57, 200 brisk jog

300 in 43, 200 brisk jog

200 all out

Wow, that last one sounds like a killer. I'm going to pencil it into my schedule.

How about 1000m, 800m, 600m, 400m all at mile pace with 3-4 minutes rest in-between everything? Does that sound do-able? There's a fine line between setting out a challenge and attempting an idiotically impossible workout.

Thanks for all of your replies by the way. These sound like some really useful workouts.

Have done 3x800 in 2:01, 2:00, 2:01 with 4 minutes recovery. Could only manage a 4:10 mile though, maybe I left that session on the track instead of for the race? I think a 4:05 should have been plausible with that.

I have always found long reps at race pace to be the key prior to my best performances at 1500m.

Examples - 2x1000@ 2.30 (9) prior to a 3.48

- 2x(1000+600)@ 2.32 + 91 (3+10)prior to a 3.46 (this was tough)

Last two sessions before my 3.44 pb were:

-(2x800)+(4x400)+(4x200)@1.59 + 57 + 27 (5mins after 800's & 400's, and 200 jog between 2's.

- 1000+800+600+400+200 @ 2.30, 1.59, 86, 56, 25 (5)

Of course, on their own these sessions are not enough - in these years I had a really good winter of 60-70 mpw behind me. This year, with no base at all I ran a session of 1000@ 2.32 + 3x500@ 73 + 3x300@ 42 with equal jog after each and still struggled to break 4 minutes.

honestly that workout (2:01, 2:00, 2:01) sounds like a 4:10 workout.

How many miles do you guys/girls do as base work when hoping for a good mile season? How many weeks do you devote to this base? And finally, how many miles do you carry during the racing season?

Thanks.

I am a graduate student coaching myself right now so all of this workout feedback has been very helpful.

The whole idea that you can predict race times based off of workouts is flawed. Some people push workouts harder than others, some people have more leg speed and less endurance so can naturally go faster in intervals, and some people are simply better at racing.

Some of these workouts look very similar to the type of sessions that Jim Spivey prescribes. Here are some examples that I have done in the past:

4x200m in 30-31secs [50m jog recovery - approx. 20secs]

straight into 400m jog recovery after 4th 200m

2x500m in 1:13:5 [400m jog recovery]

1x400m in 58.4 [400m jog recovery]

4x250m in 35-36secs [150m jog recovery]

2x400m in 58.4, 57.8 [200m jog recovery]

or

3x200m in 31secs [100m jog recovery]

straight into 400m jog recovery after 3rd 200m

2x800m in 2:00:1, 2:00:8 [800m jog recovery]

3x200m in 31.5 [100m jog recovery]

straight into 500m jog recovery after 3rd 200m

1x800m in 1:57:9 [400m jog recovery]

3x150m fast! [100m jog recovery]

6x100m with 30secs jog recovery

Jog recovery immediately following each "sub-set" of the workout so that at no time are you static. I think the sub-sets enable you to run for longer periods at or around race pace (some sets slightly slower, some sets slightly faster). These types of workouts, mixed in with the traditional 8-10 x 400m with 60secs recovery or 8x800m, worked pretty well for 1500m/mile preparation.

3:40 1500m and 3:58 mile within a few weeks of these workouts.

One of my favorites in the fall as both an athlete and coach for spring mile is:

3-4 X 1200 @ 3K-5K pace off track on grass, finishing at the track

Rest = :30

600 @ mile goal pace

Rest = full recovery (6-7 minutes)

Check out this thread:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=841930&page=0

Thanks, it's a helpful thread.

what are some good 1500/mile workouts for the week of the 1st race??

milers left out wrote:

What are some of the best workouts for the mile?

One of my favorites is 8 by 400m in 58-9 (just faster than goal pace) with 60 seconds rest.

Broken 800's ( 600m at 95% speed, 1 minute break, then 200m at 100% speed ) x 4 at goal mile pace per 800m x .95 then when done with each rep rest 3 minutes ( Example goal mile is 4:00 per mile so per 800m would be 2 minute so then you convert the 2 minutes into seconds equalling 120 seconds, so then we multiply 120 x .95 which equals 114 seconds or 1:54. So you would run the 600m in 1:27 then a 1 minute rest then run the 200m in 27 seconds flat)