2 Mile Time Trial
Posted: August 3, 2010
2 Mile Time Trail
©roguerunning.com
I know that many of you will begin to consider me a very cruel man. A time trial as the one of the very first workout of the program? The reason? So that we can get a handle on where your current fitness is RIGHT NOW. Why? So we can make sure that the times that you run for the workouts are appropriate for your current fitness. I am sure that some of you will be unhappy with your finish time; others of you will probably be surprised at how fast you run. Regardless of your feelings, I promise that this will be a very useful barometer for you throughout this training program.
So what does my time for this 3200 meter run tell me? Well, first off, it is important to understand that the 2 mile distance is the optimal distance to test your fitness. This is because your body begins to go through some significant changes when you are running on the edge of your capacity for 1.5 miles. If you should run the time trial at a hard effort, & in the final half mile you will probably feel that you very close to your limits. This feeling is your body working at its maximum level of oxygen consumption when it begins to accumulate lactic acid. How well your body clears this by-product of the exercising muscles is a clear determination of your current fitness. All this is science speak for saying the 2 mile time trial takes you closest to your limits while still allowing you to run hard. I will be discussing more about the happens in your body during running in my methodology & energy systems essays & seminar this coming weekend.
For now, just follow these steps:
Run your 3200m. (or 2 miles/8 laps around the track) in the best time possible. I recommend that everyone go out conservatively & try to run faster as they progress. Going out too quickly is always the kiss of death for runners. We are trying to determine the best time you can run for this distance.
RELAX: Do not worry too much about this time trial. It is only a tool used to help you determine where you are in your fitness right now. You will only get faster as a result of this training program.
REMEMBER YOUR TIME!!!! We will not be able to remember everyone's time so be sure you catch it. There will be a race clock at the finish line that will have your time.
Take your time, enter the time on your profiles page, it's at the bottom of the page. Then click the hyper link to, view running paces, now if you have entered your 2 mile time trail it will show you all the paces you will need for the next 8 weeks. Take a look where your time places you in terms of a marathon time. This is an equivalent time to your time trail time. Of course, this based on what you ran today...some of you in less than ideal conditions & it may not be a perfectly accurate time but it allows us to begin planning our training schedule.
Print at a copy for yourself and your coach.
These are your current (date) paces for the workouts that we will be doing between now & Week 9, at which point the Intermediate/Advanced will do another time trial (the Beginner group will not be focusing on time, rather they will be working on extending these paces to the marathon distance.) At that point we should see a marked improvement. Please keep these times available in your training log to reference in the future. As the training & your fitness progresses these times may become less relevant but they will help us in the first workouts & the IBM Uptown Classic to have determined the right way to set up your race or Progressive Pace run.
