Speed work and meters and treadmills-oh my!

[IMGONNABE40!]

I have not followed any plan on speed work since I do most of my training on my treadmill and speed work always seems to in sets of 4 x 400, 4 x 800, etc.

How do you do this effectively on a TM? I think I am finally ready to do speed work and am thinking to just round the meters up to 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile, etc. does this sound right? What kind of break should I be taking between sets?

Thanks!

 

[SAHDad]

Yeah, switching to quarter or half miles is fine. When I am doing 800s, I typically warm up (much more important when doing speed work), then basically run 800 hard, followed by 400 easy, repeated however many times the workout calls for. I sometimes do a cool-down; you are supposed to always do one, but I'm kind of bad about that.

 

[FireDancer]

Why do you do most of your training on a treadmill? I think doing speed work on a track is much better than a treadmill. In fact I think the treadmill shouldn't account for more than 25% of your training. You just don't use the muscles in your legs the same on a treadmill as you do on the road and I think you should train for what you are racing.

 

[Figment1990]

Just my two cents regarding the treadmill. I'm of the belief that running on a treadmill is better than not running at all. So if that's what you can do, then keep at it. I put a lot of pressure on myself for a long time because people say "run on a road!" but for me with my family's schedule if I didn't have a treadmill i wouldn't get nearly as many workouts in.

I do both speed work and steady runs on the treadmill tho I do prefer to runspeedwork on a track. I've done all kinds of intervals on the mill. Random ones, every .25 mile w .125 breaks, sometimes I build speed, sometimes I go by song. It's all up to you really! I just wanted to say don't get hung up on the don't run on a treadmill mentality. It's better than not running at all! Once I let go of that stress, I started to enjoy my training more. It's true that you do get a different experience when running roads and you want to get some road runs in every once In a while to understand why people say that (for me the biggest different is ankle movement on uneven surfaces) but enjoy your running- wherever that is!

 

[jmasgat]

I've done all my speedwork on a TM--one advantage being that I know I am doing the right tempo. And my plan has different speedwork drills for each week of the plan. It uses intervals of 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200,1600 in varying combinations over the weeks.The intervals are run at specific tempos, which are based off my current base time (5k) There is always a 10 minute or so warm up, so I just run a mile easy. In between intervals, I have rest periods of 400 or sometimes 90 sec. I always have a cooldown of another mile.

My intervals are from my plan, found in "Run Les, Run Faster". I'm sure if you look at other running plans there will be suggestions for how to handle. If you want more detail on mine, PM me and I will write it down for you.

Maura

 

[IMGONNABE40!]

Thank you all for your responses. After the Wine and Dine half I will add in the speed work in preparation for the Princess.

 

[fashionista311]

I used the treadmill as a crutch for speedwork in the past, but I must say getting outside to do my speedwork this training cycle has made such a difference for me personally. It's teaching me mental toughness, how to run hard in less than ideal weather conditions, and really learning what my max is.

I don't think speedwork needs to be super formal, either. It can be as simple as run hard for 2 mins, recover 1 min, hard again for 2 mins, etc, or either speed up until the next street lamp, cool down, etc.

Good luck!

 

[FireDancer]

I don't think speedwork needs to be super formal, either. It can be as simple as run hard for 2 mins, recover 1 min, hard again for 2 mins, etc, or either speed up until the next street lamp, cool down, etc.
Good luck!

Ah, the fartlek.

 

[FFigawi]

Ah, the fartlek.

Lots of fartleks in my training plan. We do a ladder workout every two weeks and lots of other interval work in the middle of training runs no matter if they're long runs or short runs. Great way to build speed and stamina.

 

[IMGONNABE40!]

John, would you elaborate a bit on what you mean by ladders? Can you give an example of your intervals? Thanks!

 

[SAHDad]

John, would you elaborate a bit on what you mean by ladders? Can you give an example of your intervals? Thanks!

I'm going to bet that John is talking about Culpepper's ladders. It's an interval workout, where the length of the fast run varies. For example, you could run 100m, 200m, 400m, 600m, 800m, 800m, 600m, 400m, 200m, 100m - short recovery in between each, and with a decent warm-up and cool down. For a marathon, you want to make those distances longer (say, 400m, 800m, 1600m, 2400m, 2400m, 1600m, 800m, 400m).

 

[IMGONNABE40!]

Thank you for that explanation, SAHDad. It makes a lot of sense and I am excited to try it.