Warm-up: Dynamic Stretching followed by 10-15 mins of easy running and 4-6 strides.
Workout: 2-5 x 1 mile w/ 800 at Tempo pace, 400m at 5K effort, 400 back at tempo. 2 mins rest between.
Followed by some short sprint work. Something like 5-6×10 sec hills all-out w/3 mins rest, or 2×80,2×100,2×120 w/3 mins rest.
Cool-Down: 10 mins of easy running followed by either light hurdle mobility and/or plyo work. Finish w/ 5 to 10 mins of dynamic flexibility. Some athletes throw on some additional static stretching if they choose to.
We use workouts like this when the kids have an important race late in the season and we are trying to maintain fitness. If the race is on Friday, we might do this workout on Tuesday. However, we have done this with only a day of rest between the workout and race w/ great results. We just had to reduce the volume a little.
The volume usually depends on the age of the athlete, and the importance of the race. Our freshman/low volume kids typically only do 2×1 mile, where the older kids can do 4 or 5. Before a race like the League Championships our older kids might do 5 of these as the only workout that week, knowing the race itself counts as the most important effort of the week. Before state or NXRSW we might only do 3 of these w/ 2 or 3 days of rest after.
The short hill sprints at the end of the workout are there to help keep their speed up. Late in the year they have already developed a nice base of speed hopefully, and the short hills are to make sure that they do not loose that.
I have found that the kids usually bounce back very quickly from this workout, and walk away feeling pretty good from the effort. As a coach, I like to watch and make sure they are not pushing too hard, especially on the tempo portions of the workout. It is important to not let the kids get carried away with this workout if you want them feeling good for an important race.