4xMile @ 5k pace w/ 1 min rest: too hard

workout, what other kinds of workouts are you doing besides this? I've done this workout albeit at a much slower pace, and I was pretty tired on the last two reps. Used every once in a while I don't think it's a bad idea since you get no rest during a race.

Well not to sound like the old geezer that said they walked to school through 6 ft snow drifts etc. etc... but the 1 min rest was the backbone of nearly every interval workout I had with nearly every coach I had... should be plenty of time to get your heart rate down, so you can get the heart rate back up during the interval.... the rest time shouldn't be a full blown recovery.... your coach is trying to get you into oxygen debt, to work your debt system, the last two intervals are not meant to be easy, hell I bet your coach don't care really how fast your running the miles but what your effort is during the workout. Your coach is thinking this is going to be a high mileage day, middle of the week, which tells me you don't have a race scheduled for Saturday, your probably doing a 2 to 3 mile warmup(or should) 5x1 mile of interval and a 2 to 3 mile cool down(highly recommended) so there is 9 to 11 miles there and you should have had an easy morning run like say 3 to 5 miles so your looking at a 12 to 15 mile day....My money says your coach will let you slide with the morning workout or optional and have you do a slower longer run thursday afternoon 6 to 8 miles, probably same on friday but with an a.m. run and your doing something faster on Saturday.....

workout wrote:

Is the workout of 4 repeat miles at 5k pace with a minute recovery too hard.

That is what Smith did with the OSU runners last fall, except they had longer rests in between and ran even faster (4:16) on the reps. Sure enough they got worse through the season.

You're okay with the 1 minute rests but run the reps at 10k pace and don't hammer them. You're better off to hammer in your races.

Damnnnnn those mile repeats!!!! That work out has been a staple at OSU since I was there in the mid eighties.... so you have narrowed their last season down to one workout as the cause and effect of their placing at Nationals??!!?? Nationals was their only bad race(i know wrong place to run bad, but it happened, no excuses) they won everything else but Nationals... Thats like saying the years Adams State didn't win their Nationals was because of that damn 20 x 800 workout at the park they hammer religiously each fall... The Cowboys as a whole did not run to their potential at Nationals last year and Mr. Fernandez their #1 was (injured) DNF, nothing more nothing less... this year will be a whole new story, with a happy ending, ummm uhhh, so to say :)

speaking of happy endings, my wife is calling night, night!!

The sounds similar to a predictive session for the 5km

Even there the recovery is 90 seconds 4 x 1 mile 90 secs rest. The mile average being you race pace

This session is not done as a training session but to test fitness before a big race and to bring the final touch to training recovery. A 4th placer in the 1984 Olympics did this session before the Games. He would not have been doing it at the start of the season + he was having 90 seconds recovery and was aged 26 at the peak of his career

If you were to do a session like this you should have been building up to it for months. All training should be progressive otherwise you have nowhere to go

Either have a word with your coach or just run the session at slower than race pace

Good luck with the race

yeah i did the workout this morning and it was pretty hard. we started out at a little faster than 8k pace and progressed down to hit 5k pace for the last 2. overall it wasnt as bad as i thought it was gonna be. I just took the advice and ran it smart but still it was a race like effort

If you are going to do 5x1000 at 5k race pace you would be better off taking 2-3 min rest. This would be a classic VO2 max workout....and yes this is a dumb workout for early september no matter who you are. You should be doing 10x1000 at or slower than 8-10k race pace on the grass with 1 minute rest, or even shorter rest and slower reps would be fine as well.

Your coach can't possibly expect your TRUE 5k on the track pace for 4 reps with only 1 min rest. That workout will leave you seeing stars and puking at the end if you run your track 5k race pace.

A workout like that which you describe is meant to be done at Lactate Threshold pace, or "T" pace according to Daniels Running Formula. So for a 16-17 min 5k guy, probably 5:45-5:55/mile is good. You're only getting a minute rest.

This would be a dificult to impossible workout. If you are a 14:30 guy that would mean running 4:38 page with only 1min rest. VO2 pace workouts are typically run with equal run to rest time (3-4min of running, 3-4 min of rest).

If you can do that workout at your 5k race pace, then your 5k race pace is faster than what you think it is. Get it? Let's say your 5k race pace is 5:30. You do 4X1mile in 5:30 with 60 second recoveries. Your actual 5k race pace is probably more like 5:25 or perhaps faster.

mikegravel100mpw wrote:

Your coach can't possibly expect your TRUE 5k on the track pace for 4 reps with only 1 min rest. That workout will leave you seeing stars and puking at the end if you run your track 5k race pace.

A workout like that which you describe is meant to be done at Lactate Threshold pace, or "T" pace according to Daniels Running Formula. So for a 16-17 min 5k guy, probably 5:45-5:55/mile is good. You're only getting a minute rest.

Yup. We did that exact workout in HS right around those paces-it's basically a tempo run when the rests are that short.

Its really not a practical workout at all. First off all you almost cant do it in reality.

At your fitness level a Mile would be a nice VO2 Max Interval. But the rest is crazy. You need a little more time at that pace to get time in near VO2M. Otherwise its just a REALLY hard day that probably isnt as productive as one with a 3 Minute jog inbetween.

Was your coach a pretty solid runner in the 70's or 80's?

Always did 5 x mile on the track a few days before heading to college pre-season and goal was sub-5:00s, with a 400 jog recovery. Good fitness test.

And I was not very good: 15:22 5K pr.

It was a hard, but not a killer, workout.

sparky lyle wrote:

Always did 5 x mile on the track a few days before heading to college pre-season and goal was sub-5:00s, with a 400 jog recovery. Good fitness test.

And I was not very good: 15:22 5K pr.

It was a hard, but not a killer, workout.

As I said to a previous poster, one minute rest is much different than the two minutes rest you are describing. Two completely different workouts, so what was the point of your post.

sparky lyle wrote:

Always did 5 x mile on the track a few days before heading to college pre-season and goal was sub-5:00s, with a 400 jog recovery. Good fitness test.

And I was not very good: 15:22 5K pr.

It was a hard, but not a killer, workout.

That is completely different because it is 10 kilometers of continuous running with no stops.

That is entirely different than running 4:16 pace mile repeats with 3 minute rests, and then not being able to hold 4:50 pace in the championship race.

That's not stupid training at all. You were training very well and racing poorly. The important question is: why was your training fitness not translated, I would suggest that you were not warming up properly.

workout wrote:

mid 14's track pr

This statement renders 90% of the personal anecdotes given so far irrelevant. A mid-14's guy and a mid-16's guy are worlds apart in what they can handle for training. You can't just assign them the same workout based on percentage of race pace.

I would ask your coach to either make the reps 8K pace or else give 90s rest and it will still be a very difficult workout. As other posters have said, you would basically need to be tapered and mentally jacked up to complete the workout you described in the first post.

1 minute rest is ambitious. If you have a mid-14s PR, you should be embarrassed for not already knowing that.