Richard Airey, Author at Breaking Muscle

Strength & Conditioning: Richard Airey – Week 4, Day 5

Richard Airey — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 09:00:00 +0000

EDITOR’S NOTE: These workouts are designed by endurance athlete, CrossFit coach, and RunningWOD founder Richard Airey. Get a faster mile while also improving your technique and building strength with this exclusive four week program. Read more about Richard and his training philosophy here.

When it comes to running, everyone is familiar with the elusiveness of the four-minute mile. It’s the gold standard of elite distance running. For many of us it is hard to fathom the pace needed to sustain and achieve such a feat, but that doesn’t mean you can’t try to replicate the training needed to improve your own mile personal best. The following four-week program is designed specifically to help you improve your one mile PR. The workouts will be posted Monday through Friday, but feel free to jump in any time.

The program begins with a one-mile and 400m benchmark time trial. These are all-out efforts to find your starting point. Once you have your initial mile time, you will be able to determine the various paces required for each individual running session. This website will help you determine your (R)ace Pace, (M)arathon Pace, (T)hreshold Pace and your EZ pace. These paces are important and will help you improve your performance drastically.

Week 4, Day 5

Run

1 mile/1500m Max Effort

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Strength & Conditioning: Richard Airey – Week 4, Day 4

Richard Airey — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 09:00:00 +0000

Week 4, Day 4

1200m w/ 3:00 recovery

800m w/ 2:00 recovery

400m w/ 1:00 recovery

200m all at T pace.

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Strength & Conditioning: Richard Airey – Week 4, Day 3

Richard Airey — Wed, 28 Aug 2013 09:00:00 +0000

Week 4, Day 3

4 Rounds (not for time):

Pull Ups x 5
Ring Row x 10
Good Morning x 5
80m Farmer Carry

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Strength & Conditioning: Richard Airey – Week 4, Day 2

Richard Airey — Tue, 27 Aug 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Week 4, Day 2

5k @ EP pace, then 6 x 100m, with 100m walking recovery

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Strength & Conditioning: Richard Airey – Week 4, Day 1

Richard Airey — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Week 4, Day 1

Run

6k @ EZ Pace

Run 100m every minute on the minute for 8 minutes

Strength Workout

Clean 5×5
Push Press 5×5 (rest 2:00 between sets 5:00 between movements)
Russian Kettlebell Swing 5 x :30/:30 (work/rest)
Hollow Rock 5 x :30/:30

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Strength & Conditioning: Richard Airey – Week 3, Day 5

Richard Airey — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Week 3, Day 5

Run:

30:00 (10:00 @ M Pace then with the remaining 20:00, :30 at T pace, 2:00 at EZ Pace)

Strength Workout:

5 rounds (not for time):

Handstand Push Up x 10
Goblet Squat x 10
Suitcase Deadlift x 10 (5 left hand, 5 right hand)

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Strength & Conditioning: Richard Airey – Week 3, Day 4

Richard Airey — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Week 3, Day 4

All at T Pace:

1200m with 3:00 recovery
800m with 2:00 recovery
400m with 1:00 recovery
200m

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Strength & Conditioning: Richard Airey – Week 3, Day 3

Richard Airey — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Week 3, Day 3

Every minute on the minute for 7:00

3 Muscle Ups

Rest 5:00

Every minute on the minute for 7:00

4 Burpee Box Jump (30”)

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Strength & Conditioning: Richard Airey – Week 3, Day 2

Richard Airey — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Week 3, Day 2

5k @ EP pace
6 x 100m w/100m walking recovery

The post Strength & Conditioning: Richard Airey – Week 3, Day 2 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The Importance of Pace in Running

Richard Airey — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 10:00:00 +0000

Click Here for Richard’s Free Four Weeks to a Faster Mile Workouts

As a runner and a coach I’ve found there are a few key components that are crucial to being a successful runner. Running is very simple, is as natural as breathing, and everyone is capable of doing it. But when you look at running from a competitive aspect or in terms of optimal performance the first thing we must address is pace. The longer you intend to go the more important it is to know your pace. Running the correct pace can be the difference between running a personal record or falling short of your goal every time.

Often I speak to athletes about their races and their goal times they wished to achieve, but when I ask them about their pace strategy they have none. Having a time goal with no pacing strategy will almost always set you up for failure. That’s not to say that with no pace plan you won’t get lucky; even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while. But why take the risk of putting in all that effort training and then on race day go out and wing it? Think about this, almost all distance national and world records are set by athletes running even pace or negative split (running faster at the end then in the beginning) pace for their race.

Let’s take the 5K distance, for example. If your goal is to break 19:00 for the first time, what should your pace be? To run 18:59 you would need to average 6:07 per mile. Unfortunately in a race setting most inexperienced runners will let the race dictate their pace and inevitably run their opening mile substantially faster then their desired goal pace. By allowing the race to dictate your pace you will run at a much faster pace. Our competitiveness gets the best of us and we run at a pace that exceeds what we are capable of sustaining. Although we can sustain that fast early pace for a short time, the effort quickly becomes a grueling death march and by the time we get to the finish line our pace has slowed far beyond that of our goal time.

Once you have set your time goal, figure out the average pace per mile needed to reach your goal. If your goal pace is to average 6:07 miles for 5km, there is no need to run your first mile in 5:52. Fifteen seconds when you’re fresh might not seem like much, but it can have a huge detrimental impact on your race. It would be more beneficial to run a 6:15 opening mile and close at 5:52, rather then vice versa. Even though running 5:52, 6:07, and 6:22 will generate the same time as 6:22, 6:07, and 5:52, the negative split athlete will have a much more positive experience and will have a greater sense of satisfaction and accomplishment from the performance.

In order to achieve success as a runner and reach your full potential we must pay close to our pace goals and have a plan on how you are going to reach your goals long before you toe the starting line. Pacing is something that can and should be practiced in training. Every interval session and tempo run should have a specific pacing plan for you to stick to.

I recently worked with an athlete who had a goal of breaking three hours in the marathon. He had previously tried to do this seven times, only to come up short in each attempt. When I examined his training logs it was evident that he wasn’t paying attention to his pace when he trained or raced. He was obviously fit enough, but he always started out much faster than needed. Each interval in training and every mile racing would be slower then the previous. After seeing this I told him he would have no trouble breaking three hours. From that point, every training session I programmed for him I gave him specific time goals to hit for each interval. I had him focus on running negative splits when he did his interval training and tempo runs finishing much faster than the pace he started at.

During his build-up in the months leading up to his marathon he raced a 5K, 10K, and a half-marathon. For each race I gave him specific times to run for each mile. Before his 5K he doubted the strategy because the early split times were slower than what he was used to running in previous races. I convinced him to trust the plan and to give it a try, and sure enough he ran his fastest 5K ever. By controlling his pace early on he was able to finish faster and ended up with a one minute PR.

When it came time to race the 10K and the half-marathon, I gave him similar strategies with similar results. Over the 10km distance he set a new personal record by two minutes and in the half-marathon he bested his previous PR by six minutes. By the time the full marathon rolled around he had practiced proper pacing and was ready to roll. When he bested his personal record by eight minutes and broke three hours it was no surprise at all.

Over the years I have found that the track is the best place to practice pacing. It’s on the track where you can pace your splits every 100 meters and every 400 meters. As you get better at pacing on the track you can begin to extend the length of your intervals and even venture away from the track.

Proper pacing takes practice. It requires patience and self-control, especially in race settings. It’s very easy to get caught up in the excitement and let the race dictate your pace. Know your pace heading into the race and stick to it, regardless of how fast the race leaders take out the pace. Remember there’s no prize for who gets to the first mile in the lead, just the finish line.