Running Training Week 3

Dr. Shawn Talbott (Ph.D., CNS, LDN, FACSM, FACN, FAIS) has gone from triathlon struggler to gut-brain guru! With a Ph.D. in Nutritional Biochemistry, he's on a mission to boost everyday human performance through the power of natural solutions and the gut-brain axis.

OK – 3rd week of the running training…

Your GOAL this coming week is EXACTLY the same as last week (I know – “boring” – but “effective” for getting your stronger/faster in these early first weeks)!

NEXT week will lead us into week FOUR where we will switch things up to keep your muscles and lungs adapting at the proper rate (we’ll also discuss NUTRITION next week in a podcast/audio).

Just like the last 2 weeks, we want you to complete at least THREE specific workouts:

  • one “interval” workout…
  • one “hill” workout…
  • one “endurance” workout (LSD = long slow distance)

Remember that the objective of intervals is to make you faster – the objective of hills is to make you stronger – and the objective of LSD is to improve your endurance and fat-burning efficiency.

Here is WEEK 3:

  • Sat Sept 16 or Sun Sept 17:
    • 60-70 minute Long Slow Distance (LSD) – “endurance”
      • RPE (rating of perceived exertion) = 5-7 (out of 10)
  • Mon Sept 18 or Tues Sept 19:
    • 1 mile easy jog to warm-up
    • 6-7 Intervals – “speed”
    • 60-seconds “fast” (RPE = 7-9)
    • 60-seconds “slow” (RPE (2-3)
      • NOTE = be sure to go hard / easy – NOT “medium”
    • 1 mile easy jog to cool-down
      • NOTE = this is only 6-7 minutes of “hard” effort – so if you want a longer workout, you can run additional “tempo” miles to your level of fitness.
  • Wed Sept 20 or Thurs Sept 21:
    • 1 mile easy jog to warm-up
    • 6-7 Hills – “strength”
    • 60-seconds per UPhill (RPE = 7-9)
    • 60-seconds per DOWNhill (RPE = 2-3)
      • NOTE = be sure to go hard / easy – NOT “medium”
    • 1 mile easy jog to cool-down
      • NOTE = this is only 6-7 minutes of “hard” effort – so if you want a longer workout, you can run additional “tempo” miles to your level of fitness.

Tempo workouts are those “medium hard” efforts that leave us feeling like we had a “good workout” – but they’re not very effective for actual “performance” – so we prefer to run tempo pace (RPE = 6-7) when we want to loosen the legs + free the mind (not for our 3 specific training sessions each week.

That’s all for now – please send Shawn and Julie any questions – and Good Luck training!

About the Author

Exercise physiologist (MS, UMass Amherst) and Nutritional Biochemist (PhD, Rutgers) who studies how lifestyle influences our biochemistry, psychology and behavior - which kind of makes me a "Psycho-Nutritionist"?!?!

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