Workout of the Day
3,000m Threshold + 2 x 200m Drill + 2K Aerobic Flush
Splits:
3,000m — 10:25
200m Drill #1 — 34.34 / 33.56 / 33.61 / 33.73 / 33.45
200m Drill #2 — 32.28 / 33.12 / 34.59 / 33.21 / 32.42
2K Flush — 7:40
Recovery: 600m after 3K, Alternating 200m/100m rec within each set of 200m Drill, 400m jog between 200m Drill sets and before 2K Flush
Eleanor Fulton — Dec. 27th, 2016
Context & Details
There looks to be a lot going on in this session, but don't be confused. The heart of this session is the 200m Drill.
The 3,000m at Aerobic Threshold and 2,000m Aerobic Flush are merely a preface and epilogue, fulling a minimum required dosage (5K of work volume) to assist the building of Eleanor's aerobic tolerance. However, seeing as she was a budding national caliber miler, time spent at target 1500m pace was her preparation priority.
The 200m Drill is another workout staple of mine. For the milers I coach, it compliments the 1K breakdowns I discussed in a previous WOTD quite well. Again, the versatility of the construct is what attracts me most.
When the athlete is ready, the 200m Drill is first introduced into their program as 5 x 200m at target 1500m pace with 200m recovery jog between reps. That is it. Then to develop the athlete's tolerance to 1500m racing speeds, the recovery distances are slowly and progressively shortened to 100m each, while the pace run for 200m is unaltered.
The second time they do the 200m Drill, only the 4th recovery interval is shortened to 100m, then a shortening of the 1st recovery interval on the 3rd time. The 4th 200m Drill sees two sets added to the program. The next progression is shortening each 3rd recovery interval in a set to 100m, and finally, when the athlete is near race ready all recovery intervals are 100m.
Five by 200m at target race pace with 100m recovery (which is usually no more than 35" or 1:1 work to rest ratio) is an honest, taxing session. Two or three sets completed to success is a clear signal the miler is race ready.
Typically, I have milers perform the 200m Drill every 5th to 7th workout in a preparation cycle. It is a steady, methodical approach to helping the miler acclimatize to the harsh psycho-physiological demands of racing a 1500m at a high level.
Thankfully, Eleanor was a high responder to the 200m Drill progressions her first year as a Pro. She came to HPW with a 4:19 personal best in 2016. A year later she was consistently racing up front in national class races, setting lifetime bests in 600m to 1 Mile, and capping the year off with a 4:10 lifetime best in her final 1500m race.
There are more 200m Drills in her future and, fingers crossed, hopefully, a few more PBs as well.
Any questions? I'm happy to answer. You can send me a Direct Message on Twitter or email me at jmarcus.hpw@gmail.com
Thx // jm