Sunday, November 2, 2014

Weekly Workout: One Minute Speedwork & One Day Diet Challenge

I'm ready for some speed work, how about you?! I love this workout because it hides its quality in a seemingly innocent 1 minute that is nestled in each mile you run. It will sound easy but you'll be cursing my name after about 30 seconds. As an added challenge, do all 3 weekly workout challenges as your quality workouts during the week. Be sure to take an easy day as needed. I'm also adding a food challenge for this week for the overachievers in the group, the One Day Diet Challenge (scroll down for details)

One Minute Speedwork Tempo

Miles: 6-10 miles(for most people), or 40mins-2 hours. Choose a distance that fits your weekly mileage. This workout should not be more than 15% of your weekly mileage.

Elevation Gain/Loss: Not particularly important for this workout. If you choose a route that is hillier your speed will be slower, which is fine for target events that are longer and hiller. If you are targeting a race that is flatter and faster, choose a flatter/faster route for this workout so you can push the pace.

The Workout: You will begin by warming up for a mile. At the end of 1 mile, you will begin your 1 minute of hard running. The 1 minute should make you feel like you want to be done, it will be uncomfortable but not an all out sprint. You should feel like (or literally) cursing me as your legs burn and you count down the mili seconds until you can run at a moderate pace again. For each mile you run do this 1 minute of high intensity running. It shouldn't be so fast that you cannot complete the entire workout. Pace yourself.

Don't have a GPS or way to track your mileage? Then do the workout by time. You can run moderately for 6-8 minutes and run hard for 1 minute.

Another way to pace the faster run time is to do it at a certain race pace. For 100 mile runners, the pace need not be faster than your 5k pace, for example. For shorter distances you can quicken that pace.


OVERACHIEVERS: (You rock!) 1-Day Diet Challenge
For those of you wanting to up your game, try this Diet Challenge for this week. Pick one day to practice healthy eating. For one day cut out all added sugar, sweets, processed foods, alcohol and grains. Eat foods that are whole, meaning unprocessed. Include plenty of vegetables. For ideas visit my blog post about healthy eating here: Clean Eating and Running 100 Milers

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1 comment:

  1. Ugh. I hate speedwork. I'm cursing your name already. lol. I need to do some though and this might be a way to sneak it in.

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