Please continue to post your results, questions and comments to the Endurance Athlete Facebook group.
This is it! You’ve been training hard for the past 11 weeks leading up to this. My suggestion for this week is to run on Monday and Thursday if you are racing over the weekend. You want to dial back the intensity on the running workouts. Save that energy for your race/event this weekend.
I would say, as for CrossFit, its fine to do it early in the week up until wednesday and then let your body rest and be ready for an all out effort on the 1/2 marathon.
I’d suggest some heavy back squats early on in the week, Monday if possible, with something like 5 x 5 to elicit an endocrine response by the time the race comes on the weekend.
We are going to roll right into a 5k Cycle that will be 6 weeks from Thanksgiving to just past New Years … a perfect way to keep those extra pounds off during the holiday season …
Warm-Up
5 Minute jog
Followed by…
Running Mechanics Drills
Two sets of:
Hands Behind Back Drill
Jump Rope Drill with Forward Movement
Followed by…
Three sets of:
150 Meter Sprint (50%, 60% 70%)
Walk 50 Meters
Cool Down
5 Minute Jog
15 Minutes Static Stretching
Focus on SMR for your feet
Session One
VO2 Max
Beginner
Four Sets of:
400 Meter Repeats
2 Minutes Rest
Intermediate
Five Sets of:
400 Meter Repeats
2 Minutes Rest
Advanced
Six Sets of:
400 Meter Repeats
2 Minutes Rest
I want you to dial back the intensity on this workout and shoot for consistency, even if that means running a slower pace. If you are racing this weekend then you don’t need any more high intensity training. The best thing you can do now is to make sure that you are mentally ready for your race – all the actual training is done. You can look at Week 2 and Week 7 when we’ve done similar workouts with more rest to have an idea of what your goal for pacing for the 400’s should be.
Session Two
Endurance Capacity
Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced
13.1 Mile Run
This is what we’ve been training for the past 12 weeks. Go out and execute your race strategy and implement your vision statement. If you created it awhile ago and have reviewed it daily leading up to this then everything will fall into place.
Know that everything may not turn out exactly how you think it will and be ok with it. Have fun with your race, enjoy the process, thank the volunteers and consider the blessing that you have to get out and run a 1/2 marathon and share it with as many people as possible.
Session Three
Lactate Threshold
Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced
Three sets of:
1600 Meter Run
Rest 3 Minutes
This is a similar approach to the VO2Max workout. Practice your race pace here if you’d like, which is hopefully slower than a mile all out effort. This should be a pace you are familiar with by now and should be easy to maintain with 3 minutes of rest in between sets.