This post is for Formerly Fat Matt on my Twitter Weightloss Team. He is currently able to run 6 miles on a treadmill and spin for an hour at time but has never really ran outdoors. He’s lost more than 65 pounds this past summer and is planning on running his first 5km in September. So, my opinion is he needs to start fine tuning his workouts to increase his SPEED. Pickups are gradual increases in speed that should be sprinkled throughout your easy run days. These are not sprints- just a gradual increase for a short amount of time.
Here is a plan I found on Runner’s World. I’ve modified the heck out of it. Didn’t like the intervals for this plan. 800′s are horrible. (We are 8 weeks into our marathon plan and just had to do our first set of 800′s this week! I’d also like to see if he could do some riding outside on your mountain bike for some good cross training. A bike trailer would be an awesome addition to your garage collection. We have two- one for each kid! Make sure to include quality stretching possibly as seen on YogaToday (they have an athletes session and it’s all free) just watch on your computer.
Some great resources on running to check out would be:
And as always, if you want a coached running plan, I highly recommend Coach Al!!
Runners and Readers, please feel free to comment, and give this guy a THUMB’s UP!! And any running advice that I forgot!
| 8/11 8/17 |
Rest / XT |
Easy Run Dist: 2mi @11:58 2 x 30 seconds PICKUPS |
Rest / XT |
Speedwork Dist: 5mi, inc Warm; 3×800@4:38 w/400 jogs; Cool 4 x 30 second hill repeats |
Rest / XT |
Rest / XT |
Long Run Dist: 6mi @11:58 |
13 miles | |
| 2 | 8/18 8/24 |
Rest / XT |
Easy Run Dist: 2mi @11:58 4 x 30 second Pickups |
Rest / XT |
Tempo Run Dist: 5mi, inc Warm; 3mi@10:19; Cool |
Rest / XT |
Rest / XT |
Long Run Dist: 6mi @11:58 |
13 miles |
| 3 | 8/25 8/31 |
Rest / XT |
Easy Run Dist: 2mi @11:58 4 x 30 second Pickups |
Rest / XT |
Speedwork Dist: 5mi, inc Warm; 2×1600@9:45 w/800 jogs; Cool 4 x 200′s |
Rest / XT |
Rest / XT |
Long Run Dist: 7mi @11:58 |
14 miles |
| 4 | 9/1 9/7 |
Rest / XT |
Easy Run Dist: 3mi @11:58 4 -6 30 second pickups |
Rest / XT |
Easy Run Dist: 3mi @11:58 |
Rest / XT |
Rest / XT |
Easy Run Dist: 4mi @11:58 |
10 miles |
| 5 | 9/8 9/14 |
Rest / XT |
Easy Run Dist: 2mi @11:51 4- 6 30 second pickups |
Rest / XT |
Speedwork Dist: 5mi, inc Warm; 4×800@4:35 w/400 jogs; Cool 8 x 200′s |
Rest / XT |
Rest / XT |
Long Run Dist: 7mi @11:51 |
14 miles |
| 6 | 9/15 9/21 |
Rest / XT |
Easy Run Dist: 2mi @11:51 4- 6 30 second pickups |
Rest / XT |
Tempo Run Dist: 6mi, inc Warm; 4mi@10:19; Cool |
Rest / XT |
Rest / XT |
Long Run Dist: 8mi @11:51 |
16 miles |
| 7 | 9/22 9/28 |
Rest / XT |
Easy Run Dist: 2mi @11:51 4- 6 30 second pickups |
Rest / XT |
Speedwork Dist: 7mi, inc Warm; 3×1600@9:39 w/800 jogs; Cool 4 x 400′s |
Easy Run Dist: 2mi @11:51 |
Rest / XT |
Long Run Dist: 8mi @11:51 |
19 miles |
| 8 | 9/29 10/5 |
Rest / XT |
Easy Run Dist: 2mi @11:58 4- 6 30 second pickups |
Rest / XT |
Speedwork Dist: 5mi, inc Warm; 3×800@4:38 w/400 jogs; Cool 2 x 800′s |
Rest / XT |
Rest / XT |
Race Day Dist: 5 K Good Luck! |
10 miles |
4 responses so far ↓
1 AndrewE // Aug 15, 2008 at 7:32 am
It looks pretty good!
The best way to increase speed is to just run longer.
AndrewEs last blog post..Focus on the positive
2 Mark Salinas // Aug 15, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Awesome!
Mark Salinass last blog post..The Linkster….
3 Yuri | myTreadmillTrainer.com // Aug 15, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Nice program.
However if you want something that will blow your mind and make you faster and farther than ever before check out the 5k training plan at http://www.myTreadmillTrainer.com
4 Emily // Aug 16, 2008 at 3:47 am
This is a great program! I’ll definitely look into Brain training for runners too. Thanks for the tip.
Emilys last blog post..Weekend Giveaway: Esenté
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