As our distance runners move into April, they will have about 8-10 weeks left in the regular season. By now, some of the workouts and/or paces they have been training at may no longer be as effective. This could be because the athletes are fitter than their initial rust-buster suggested, or it might be time to progress their workouts in some way.
Consider a scenario where you've worked up to a session like 4-6x1000 meters at threshold pace. In our Coaching Distance training plans, the threshold pace is defined as the athlete's 1600-meter time plus 60 seconds.
Let's take one of my runners, Isaiah, who ran a 5:00 minute 1600m in his opening race.
Up to this point in the season, we've employed straightforward workouts aimed at building capacity in specific areas, without resorting to cut-downs, progressions, or similar strategies.
If Isaiah's last threshold workout consisted of 6x1k at 3:45 (which equates to a 6:00 minute/mile pace), I aim to introduce some progression into this week's workout.
Rather than increasing the pace of the entire workout, I plan to incrementally speed up each repetition until we hit the next training intensity, roughly equivalent to a 5k race pace.
Here's how the 6x1k cut-down workout would be implemented:
1st 1k: 3:45 (LT pace)
2nd 1k: 3:43
3rd 1k: 3:41
4th 1k: 3:39
5th 1k: 3:37
6th 1k: 3:35 (5k pace)
utilize a 100m walk/100m jog recovery
This approach allows for a gradual increase in intensity, helping the athlete transition smoothly to a higher level of training and ultimately performance.
Add 3-4x 150m @ 1600/800m rhythm after the workout and you have a well-structured training session.