Workout of the Day

Daniel Herrera (left) competes at the 2017 adiBoost meet in the Men's 1500m. Photo: 

4 x 200m, 1 x 400m, 4 x 200m

Splits: 

200m Set #1 — 27.8, 28.6, 27.9, 27.8
400m — 52.9
200m Set #2 — 29.6, 29.1, 27.4, 27.9

Recovery: 200m jog between reps & 400m jog between sets. 

Daniel Herrera — Jan. 31st, 2017

Context & Details

Daniel performed this session three days before a winning run this indoor season at the Boston University Scarlet & Silver Invite. It was designed to inject a sense of excitement about his abilities and leave him excited to compete.

Often the workout immediately prior before a race is the hardest to write. It needs to be Goldilocks in nature — not too hard, not too easy, just right. For the miler, I look to a healthy dosage of 200s and sometimes a quick 400m rep, such as the 52.9 performed by Daniel, to endow the middle distance runner with enthusiasm and aplomb going into race day. Over the years, I've observed mid-d runners intrinsically enjoy running fast and gain a lot of confidence from it, so I typically design fast sessions of modest volumes before races to help set the appropriate tone. 

The week-of-a-race-session is determined productive only when the athlete walks away from it feeling excited about their upcoming opportunity to race. Thankfully, such was the case with Daniel as he reported in his training log that he "felt smooth and crisp" and was ready to race. And we coaches must remember that is what training is really all about, building a person up and readying them to compete on race day to the height of their abilities. Nothing more, nothing less. 

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