Speed sessions, week 4, starting 18th of May

Well this week we have a special guest coach, some of you know him as Hard Worker and this is what he is proposing,

Just had a quick look at your week 3 sessions. Can I suggest that once a week, until you finish the 12 weeks, that you do a session of 400's. Bear in mind that everyone is different and it will take a few weeks to see how people differ. Next week do 10 x 400 ( you have already done 6 x 800 so 10 x 400 should be OK ). The first 5 should be at 5K pace and the second 5 at 3K pace. Assuming people are looking for 40 minute 10K's then the 5K pace = 19.30 which equates to 93 seconds per lap. You might think that's slow. However, they should be done in a way that you havn't got hands on knees when you finish as your recovery will be short ( in this case 57 seconds ). Basically it is a 2 minute 30 seconds cycle ( 93 seconds running and 57 seconds recovery ). The second 5 can be quickened to 90 or 91 seconds.Let me know how the group get on as the idea will be to build it up to 14 x 400 and get the cycle down to 2 minutes 15 seconds. Using the ladder system means that you build it up week by week - increase the number and / or reduce the cycle time.

There will be no other options for session 1 and session 2 is 1x15-20 minutes @ 1/2 marathon pace.