McMillan Custom Marathon Plan: Week 1 Day 2

Posted by Steve ()

July 1, 2008

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Great workout tonight, mainly due to the cooler temperature and lower humidity, but also due to the fact I was raring to run tonight after a busy day at the office. It’s quite refreshing that Coach McMillan is less concerned with actual mileage than time running which is why a target time range for each workout is listed below.

Week 1, Day 2
Phase: Base
Workout: 15 to 30 minute Warm Up, Stride Workout: 8 to 10 times 20 seconds starting at 5k and progressing down to Mile race effort with 1 minute recovery jog between each, 15 to 30 minute Cool Down
Purpose: Build Sprint - leg turnover and lactic acid tolerance.
Comments: Strides are NOT all-out sprints but are short periods of faster running starting at around 5K race pace and getting faster to around mile race pace (95% of top speed).

I warmed up with a steady run of about 3 miles before beginning the strides and decided to take advantage of the local soccer fields to minimize the pounding on my joints. The workout called for 8 to 10 times 20 seconds starting at 5k pace, progressing down to Mile race effort. It took one or two strides to get a feel for the right pace, but I was soon in full flow and really enjoying the 20 second bursts. The 1 minute between strides was a perfect amount of time to recover and before I knew it I was on my 10th one and ready to jog the couple of miles home.

As you can see by the heart rate profile on the left, each 20 second stride put slightly more stress on my system than the previous one, which I think is exactly what Coach McMillan intended.

According to the plan, the goal of the strides (and later in the program, the sprints) is to flood the muscles with lactic acid and then let them recover. Leg strength and ability to tolerate lactic acid build-up will improve, allowing me to sprint for longer. Sounds reasonable doesn’t it?

Full workout details can be viewed by clicking on the MotionBased map below:

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