Class 15

This was your last trip this term to the Amazon Trail. Now that you’ve found it, I hope you’ll continue to use it – in the company of many Eugene runners at any hour.

Thursday’s run will take you back where you started the first week, with the same distance: one or two miles as a retest to see how much you have improved the past two months.

TODAY’S 3.7 MILES

(with per-mile pace and comparison to your last long run here; target was to match that pace for this longer distance; if you didn’t stop time at lights, you problem ran faster than listed)

James B. – 30:46 (8:18 pace, +12 sec. per mile) 2^nd best pacer

Leah – 31:28 (8:30s, -2:40)

Olivia – 34:27 (9:18s, -26 sec.)

Amina D. – 38:59 (10;32s, -37 sec.)

Tori – 3:52 (8:20s, +26 sec.)

Bella – 34:27 (9:18s, +53 sec.)

Daniel – 31:20 (8:28s, -25 sec.)

Aminah K. – 40:11 (10:51s, -18 sec.)

Katie – 37:18 (10:05s, +27 sec.)

James – 44:03 (11:54s, +1:17)

YingYing – 40:11 (10:51s, -17 sec.) 3^rd best pacer

TODAY’S 4.7 MILES

(same info as above; I suspect that the first four times below might have been for a 4.3-mile course -- that is, taking the one-kilometer loop at Amazon instead of the one-mile)

Erik B. – 37:32 (7:59s, or 8:43s if 4.3 miles)

Houston – 33:54 (7:12s, or 7:53s if 4.3 miles)

Scott – 34:28 (7:20s, or 8:00s if 4.3 miles)

Eric S. – 30:50 (6:33s, or 7:10s if 4.3 miles)
Eleanor – 46:45 (9:56s, +8 sec.) best pacer, earning extra credit

LESSON 15: 5K TRAINING

You routinely run 5K and beyond in training. The quickest way to improve your race time, then, is by upping the pace one day a week for a distance well below 5K (one to two fast miles total, excluding warmup, cooldown and recovery intervals). Run at projected 5K or slightly faster, so you become familiar with that pace. On another day, extend the length of one weekly run to above the race distance (four to six miles). Run at least one minute per mile slower than race pace, to make the 5K seem shorter. The three to four easy-day runs each week average about a half-hour each at a relaxed pace.