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Greg Weich – Broomfield HS (Colorado)

20:00 jog warm-up.  

2×150, 2×100 strides (progressively faster)

8×500 at 3200 goal pace (alternating rest-100 after odds, 200 after evens)

15:00 jog cool-down, 2×100

I have my 3200 runners do this workout on a Wednesday when they don‘t have a hard 3200 at a Saturday meet.  500’s are quite a bit more difficult than 400’s. 

The way the recovery is done it is a better workout when the athletes are in good shape, probably 4-5 weeks before the State Meet.  I encourage the athletes to run the same pace as they would in a 400-meter workout, which is a challenge psychologically, particularly with 100 rest after the odd-numbered 500’s.  I had a 9:18 elevation 3200 performer (9:00 at sea-level) do this workout, and it looked like this:

85-86 average (68-69 through 400)

This athlete could run 12-16×63-64 second 400’s with 2:00 rest, but 68-69 through 400 with the short rest made this a great workout for him, and I felt I had better data to work with than the 400’s.  I estimated he could run under 9:20 after this workout, and give 9:00 a scare at sea-level, which he did.