Quick question...I am in my first year in Portland Fit and every week our long run is over 5 miles is a new personal distance record for me. As I am in the Red Group (Red and Proud), each week I have the option of speedwork. To date I have only taken up the option once and usually run whatever the schedule has dictated for that week (typically 30-40 minutes). The question is, should I? I have heard conflicting opinions from - your first year you should focus on the minutes/miles and save speedwork for next year TO you should do speedwork 5% of the time. Any opinions from experienced runners/coaches is appreciated. Thank You.

Hi George!

If you haven't started speedwork already, it's probably not a good idea to start now. As you can see from the schedule, the speedwork levels increase each week. Jumping in and out of the speed workouts could cause injury. Eric Lewis runs the speedwork sessions at Duniway each week, hopefully he'll pipe in as well.

Good luck in your training!
Sharon

Sharon, Thank you - i talked to Eric this morning and his advice was not to add speedwork your first year.

Good advice. Follow it.

"Speed work" is misleading. Your feet should be moving faster AND your intensity should increase.
Increase intesity....recover.....increase intensity.....recover..... You may not be "speeding" or going fast.

But the general idea involves going faster. When you're ready. I encourage you to incorporate this with other experienced runners. Like Tuesday's at Duniway track. Watch what they're doing and feel free to ask why.

It's not a "drop the hammer for 4minutes."

You can benefit from Variety in your training. It's good to remind your legs what ti's like to go faster than normal. But do it safely. RUn/Walk is similar to this I think. There are basic concepts...instead of "cooking on high" though you vary between medium and low.

enjoy!
Tony

George--

Speedwork even at this point can be beneficial, but what I would suggest is doing the speedwork that was in the program for late May -- the so-called "thirty-thirty" workout. This workout is designed to be a good starter into doing speedwork. Note that you should only take it on if you are feeling healthy, rested and well warmed up.

Here is a link to an earlier discussion thread on how to do 30-30 workouts. Doing this workout several weeks in a row could give you some benefits.

--Eric