June 2:

We had a perfect night out at the track and used it to inject some speedwork into everyone's training. Throughout the summer, we'll be building up club members' strength and speed in preparation for races of various distances by working in two training zones: the aerobic (with oxygen) and the anaerobic (without oxygen). Running intervals and repeats in and on the thresholds of each of these zones will allow a runner's body to adjust and withstand faster speeds for longer periods of time.

This week we focused on the anaerobic side, and did one of my favorite type of workouts.  After warming up and stretching, we ran 5 sets of 300 meters hard (roughly 85-90%), 100 jog, 100 hard, 300 jog.  It sounds complicated, but everyone got the hang of it and looked both pleased and tired (the desired combination) by the end. By not allowing a full recovery between the fast intervals, we are training to cope with the lactic acid build-up that we will face in a race situation. As the club members recover from this workout, their bodies will adjust to be able to better handle that kind of situation in the future. We are actually building up a tolerance to lactic acid. Which means next week we can go even faster! See you at the track!

- Pete