Are you slow? Do you hate Helen because the kettlebell swings are easy but the 400s wipe you out? Then boy do I have the thing for you! It’s our running program every Thursday over the summer.
As you all know by now, we’re working on bringing our mile times down over the summer. We tested 1 week ago, and if you missed it, you’re in luck! You can run a timed mile anywhere and at any time! You’ll likely run it slower without friends though, so try to make it to class when we retest. You’ll almost always record a faster time if you can race a little bit!
The repeats we’re running on Thursdays are planned based on your mile time. We’re running at what Dr. Jack Daniels, Ph. D (the D is for Doctor, not distiller… sorry) calls Repeat or Interval paces. The slower your mile time, the more likely you’re going to be running Interval paces.
The times given are going to keep your heart rate around a pace that should be ideal for improving your V02 max, which is a measure of how much oxygen your body can use to make fuel. If you see the running chart on Thursday, it lists a VDOT which is short for VDOT O2 max. That is the measure of oxygen your body can use for energy production over the course of 1 minute. VDOT improvements will almost always result in faster running times.
If you’re faster/fitter as a runner with a VDOT in the 40s and up, you’re going to be running repeats. The pace on these distances is going to get you to max heart rate on every run. We’re training you to be able to sustain that pace more effectively which translates into a faster mile when all 12 weeks of training are completed.
In short, lace up your running shoes and bring a stopwatch to class on Thursdays and let’s see what kind of improvements we can make over the next 10 weeks!