What place do mile repeats have in run training?

Triathlon Forum
1

At what distance race should they be incorporated?How many weeks out?What would be goal pace? (obviously very personal but say 5k effort etc)Do you think they are not needed and you prefer _________ WO.

I am training for NYC 1/2 in March and want to step up the speedwork when I am about 4 weeks out. I am curious of the ST opinion.

Steve

2

“Mile repeats” covers a lot of territory. How fast are these run compared to your threshold pace? How much rest. How many? Depending on those factors, you could be talking about two completely different workouts.

3

1 mile repeats are generally for the marathon. For the half 200 by 1200 ladders are more reasonable. (200, 400, 600, 800,1000,1200, 1000, 800, 600, 400, 200)

They should be run about 3 to 5 seconds per 200 faster than goal pace.

1 set per week for 8 weeks ending a week or 2 before the race.

4

Thank You Jack!

5

Thank You Jack!

Huh???

Everyone from 800m runners up will do mile repeats. I hesitate to say they are more important for one distance over another, but at the root of it, you should be doing them for 5k races through maybe 1/2 marathon. And if you’re not an elite marathoner there’s no need to do them for anything longer; concentrate on tempo runs, fartleks and longer intervals at a more threshold pace (i.e. 4-5 x 2 mile intervals at 1/2 marathon pace).

For mile repeats, there are 2 schools of thought on them:

  1. Do them hard (5k pace) and take about equal rest in between, or
  2. Do them at 5k pace less about 0:15 (so for 5 min pace, run them at 5:15) and take a jog recovery in between (about 800 meters os so). This essentially turns them into a fartlek, but a rather quick one.

I prefer to do the first, as it trains you to run faster than a tempo pace and builds upper aerobic into anaerobic threshold. The latter is somewhat more aerobic, and is the preferred workout for your normal, sub elite recreational runner/racer.

For 10k training (and what I would do for half marathon if I were to race), I like to do mile repeats with equal rest, 5-6 mile fartleks with alternating half miles at 2:30 and 3:00, 16-20 x 400 in 65-70 with 2 min rest, and tempo runs (6-8 miles) at 5:30 or so pace. 2-3 speed sessions per week with a long run of 13-15 and other days recovery jogs of anywhere from 4 to 8 miles. Those paces are for a 15:00 5k / 31 min 10k. You can scale your paces and distances according to your needs.

Start this about 10 weeks out and don’t overdo it at the beginning. If you haven’t been hitting the track, do one session each week for the first 3 weeks, then 2 sessions for the next 6 with the final week hitting one easy speed session (shorter intervals, fewer intervals, but faster than usual).