Building an Endurance Base

http://www.yourrunning.com/blog-first_secret_time_trial

No Drills with Bobby this morning because most people are recovering from Bolder Boulder. I needed a substitute. Right on cue, Dr Owen Anderson announced the latest issue of Running Research News was available. I downloaded it and found two great articles to get me going.

First - "Building an endurance base with sprint training". Apparently there's yet more new research showing how much more effective mixed pace and/or faster running is compared to longer, moderate-paced runs -- even and especially when doing "base" training.

Second, "The 30-30 workout - involving 30-second surges at faster than one-mile race pace alternating with 30-second recoveries - is an important tool in every endurance-runner's workout 'bag'. Conducting the workout properly ensures that a runner will soar above 90% of VO2max during a significant fraction of the session." Speed, speed endurance and running economy can all improve significantly.

What I did was run one mile steady out to the Wonderland Lake trail to warm up, then set my Garmin to beep at me every 30 seconds. I then alternated jogging 30 and "surging" 30 until I had covered two miles, then jogged one mile to finish. The 30-seconds "on" bursts are supposed to be FAST. I took it a litle steadier, but even so on one of the bursts hit 4:54 pace (probably for all of 20 metres!)... it was hard, but also refreshing, and six hours later I was still fresh, reporting for duty at Pilates.