Speed

I haven't posted any training for a while, so here's some...

I have a 1500m on Monday night and felt the need to get my legs turning over quickly in preparation - neuromuscular training rather than cardiovascular - there's no way I could make any CV improvements in just 3 days. So on Mike G's recommendation I tried the following session:

10 x 50m builds, 100m timed sprint, 50 m walk recovery:
22s
21s
20s
19s
19s
19s
18s
18s
17s
17s
Max for the session was only 150bpm.

I finished with a 300m pace rehearsal for Monday, 100m splits 22,21,21.

I was right up on my toes running tall with good knee lift. This was as much a session for training form (in spikes) as it was for developing speed.

I jogged down to the same track used for the D-day 10k, carrying my spikes, and jogged back again. I might make a habit of doing low key lunchtime track sessions as little 'extras'.

Now here's a thing...
I've seen a formula (oh how we love formulae!) which says that you add 4s per 400m for every doubling of the distance. Now this probably breaks down when you get anaerobic, but...

Taking 17s as my 100m time, which will err on the slow side as I could easily run faster than that when fresh, then that is 68s/400, so my paces might be:
200m 72s/400 36s/200
400m 76s(/400)
800m 80s/400
1600m 84s/400

which makes the 87/88s per lap I was aiming for in the 1500m seem a little cautious. Maybe I should go for it! 5:15-5:20 seems a possibility.

I know it's a tad extreme extrapolating 1500m from 100m rep times, but the 100s were very controlled. The McMillan calculator seems to agree with me, which incidentally predicts a marathon time of 3:14:51, the magic mark, from a 100m time of 17s.

Predicting marathon times from 100m times? - you're 'aving a laaarrf!