Twin Peaks
Running
the 5-K and the 10-K--a.k.a. the "five and dimes"--requires
the perfect blend of speed and endurance. Here's a
plan to help you train for both!
By John Hanc
Strength. Endurance.
Speed. Strategy.
Racing the 5-K or the
10-K is truly an all-around challenge, demanding more
versatility from your body than almost any other distance.
A mile is all about speed, and the marathon is an
endurance test. But the so-called "five and dimes"
require the perfect blend of both. "It's not
difficult to complete a 5-K, but it is difficult to
run one well," says exercise physiologist Arthur
Golbert. "And almost everyone underestimates
what it takes to do a good 10-K." But the distances
are doable, which largely explains their appeal. Unlike
the more glamorous marathon, it doesn't take enormous
reserves of time or energy to complete a 5-K (3.1
miles) or 10-K (6.2 miles). Running USA estimates
that last year there were about 3.2 million finishers
in the 5-K and one million in the 10-K. It's when
you get competitive with yourself--trying to set a
PR, maybe going for an age-group award--that the distances
get more challenging. Especially when you train for
both at the same time.
One man who knows how
to handle the workload is John Henwood, 2004 10-K
Olympian and national 5-K champ in his native New
Zealand, who's clocked 13:30 for the 5-K and 27:45
for the 10-K. As a New York City-based coach (johnhenwood.com)
of both recreational and elite runners, he can show
you how to run both distances well. Certainly not
as fast as he can, but faster than you may have thought
possible. Even better, the 10-week plan designed by
Henwood doubles your returns, building your fitness
and getting you to razor-sharp race-readiness not
once, but twice: first for the fastest 5-K you've
ever run, then for a 10-K that you'll blow through
with a new level of fitness and confidence.
To reach these twin peaks,
you follow a twin workout, five-day-a-week schedule.
This means two quality sessions, focusing on speed
endurance (important for the 5-K) and strength endurance
(key for the 10-K), and two longer runs per week.
Be forewarned: Just because the races involved are
short, that doesn't mean the training mileage is.
It's best to have a base of 25 miles per week before
you start this program.
The Tuesday workout is
a speed-endurance session, designed to get you faster
for the 5-K, which is raced at about the level of
your anaerobic threshold, the point at which lactic
acid begins to accumulate quickly in the legs. The
Saturday sessions are a little slower and longer,
and are designed to help you "carry" your
speed for a longer distance. While Tuesday's workout
is of primary importance for the 5-K and Saturday's
targets the 10-K, both sessions will help you with
both distances. "You need both types of training
for both races," Henwood says. "You just
need a little more speed for the 5-K and a little
more strength for the 10-K."
Why the need for so much
speed? "With the marathon, if you're having a
good day, the first two-thirds of the race is comfortable,"
says Alan Culpepper, former U.S. champ in the 5-K
and 10-K and 2004 Olympic marathoner. "For the
5-K and the 10-K, your training has to prepare you
for the fact that it's not going to be comfortable."
Underlying both of the
quality workouts is a solid foundation of endurance,
which you build through the two weekly longer runs.
Why two? Because it's Henwood's belief that for every
mile you log in a speed or tempo workout, you need
a mile of endurance to get through those quality workouts.
He calls it the "mileage pot." Every mile
you log in your long runs goes into the pot; every
mile you run in a speed session is taken out. "If
you don't have enough miles in the pot," he says,
"you won't have the strength to effectively do
the sessions." TWIN PEAKS The Training Plan
This 10-week training plan, designed by New Zealand
Olympian and coach John Henwood, builds up to a fast
5-K as a lead-in to a fast 10-K. Before starting this
program, you should have a base of at least 25 miles
per week for at least six weeks. Because racing the
5-K and 10-K requires intense effort, two of your
weekly runs in this program will be faster-paced--a
speed-endurance session and a strength-endurance session.
These should be done on a track, a marked trail, or
a path. How hard, or how fast-paced, should your intervals
be? To make your training as simple as possible, intensity
in the Twin Peaks program is based on a rate-of-perceived-effort
scale from zero (you're asleep) to 100 percent (maximum
race effort). The Tuesday speed-endurance sessions
should be 80 to 90 percent of effort. The Saturday
tempo sessions should not be as hard: 70 to 80 percent.
Warm Up Thoroughly
Do at least 10 minutes of easy jogging before each
speed session and tempo interval. Try to keep an even
pace throughout each speed or tempo interval. Don't
go charging out of the gate as if it's a competition
for every one of these workouts, or you'll never make
it to the starting lines of the actual races.
Long Runs-The
Foundation For The Program
Should be done at about 60 percent effort--that is,
a steady, comfortable pace.
Basic Schedule:
Monday:
off
Tuesday: Speed-endurance session
Wednesday: 40-50 minutes easy or
off
Thursday: Long run 1
Friday: off
Saturday Strength-endurance session
Sunday: Long run 2
WEEK: 1
Tuesday: 800 meters x 4 with 2-minute recovery jog
between
Thursday: 50 minutes
Saturday 20-minute tempo
Sunday: 70 minutes
WEEK: 2
Tuesday 600 meters x 5 with 2-minute recovery jog
between
Thursday: 60 minutes
Saturday 4 x 1 mile with 1-minute jog between
Sunday: 80 minutes
WEEK: 3
Tuesday 400 meters x 8 with 2-minute recovery jog
between
Thursday:.65 minutes
Saturday..2 x 2 miles with 2-minute recovery jog between
Sunday: 85 minutes
WEEK: 4
Tuesday:400 meters x 5 with 1-min. recovery jog between;
3 x 150-meter strides
Thursday:70 minutes
Saturday:10-minute tempo with 1-minute jog, 5-minute
tempo with 1 -minute jog, 10-minute tempo
Sunday: 90 minutes
WEEK: 5
Tuesday: 10 x 1-minute 20-second hill repeats
Thursday:70 minutes
Saturday: 4 miles time trial
Sunday: 90 minutes
WEEK: 6
Tuesday: 600 meters x 4 with 600-meter recovery jog
between
Thursday: 70 minutes
Saturday: 400 meters x 12 at 5-K race pace with 100-meter
recovery jog between
Sunday: 90 minutes
WEEK: 7
Tuesday: 10 x 1-minute 20-second hill repeats
Thursday: 70 minutes
Saturday: 2 x 1200 meters with 3-minute jog between;
3 x 400 meters with 1-minute jog between
Sunday: 90 minutes
WEEK: 8
Tuesday: 200 meters x 6 with 200- meter recovery jog
between
Thursday: 50 minutes
Saturday: 5-K peak road race
Sunday: 50-60 minutes, easy
WEEK: 9
Tuesday: 8 x 300 meters at mile race pace with 300-meter
jog between
Thursday: 70 minutes
Saturday: 2 x 1200 meters with 3-minute jog between;
3 x 400 meters with 1-minute jog between
Sunday: 80 minutes
WEEK: 10
Tuesday: 6 x 200-meter strideouts with 200-meter recovery
jog between
Thursday: 50 minutes
Saturday:10-K peak road race
TWIN PEAKS Beginners'
Program
If you've been running regularly for at least six
months but aren't quite ready for a program that includes
two speed sessions per week, try John Henwood's modified
program instead. You'll still build up to run a 5-K
and then a 10-K. While this program is similar to
Henwood's more advanced plan, this schedule has one
"quality" session per week, every Tuesday,
alternating between a speed workout and a tempo workout;
and there's only one long run. As in the more advanced
program, intensity is measured by RPE--rate of perceived
exertion using a percentage scale, with 100 percent
being maximum race effort. The Tuesday speed-endurance
sessions should be about 80 percent of effort; and
the alternating tempo sessions about 70 to 80 percent.
Your long runs should be done at 50 percent-- that
is, a steady, comfortable pace where conversation
is easy. Take Monday, Wednesday, and Friday off, or
better yet, cross-train.
Basic Schedule:
Tuesday: Speed or tempo session
Sunday: Long run
WEEK: 1
Tuesday: 800 meters x 4 with 2-minute jog between
Thursday: 40 to 45 minutes
Saturday: 40 to 45 minutes
Sunday: 45 minutes
WEEK: 2
Tuesday: 4 x 1 mile with 1-minute jog between
Thursday: 40 to 45 minutes
Saturday: 40 to 45 minutes
Sunday: 50 minutes
WEEK: 3
Tuesday: 600 meters x 5 with 2-minute jog between
Thursday: 40 to 45 minutes
Saturday: 40 to 45 minutes
Sunday: 55 minutes
WEEK: 4
Tuesday: 2 x 2 miles with 2-minute recovery jog between
Thursday: 40 to 45 minutes
Saturday: 40 to 45 minutes
Sunday: 60 minutes
WEEK: 5
Tuesday: 400 meters x 8 with 2-minute recovery jog
between
Thursday: 40 to 45 minutes
Saturday: 40 to 45 minutes
Sunday: 65 minutes
WEEK: 6
Tuesday: 10-minute tempo with 1-minute jog, 5-minute
tempo with 1-minute jog, 10-minute tempo
Thursday: 40 to 45 minutes
Saturday: 40 to 45 minutes
Sunday: 70 minutes
WEEK: 7
Tuesday: 600 meters x 4 with 600-meter jog between
Thursday: 40 to 45 minutes
Saturday: 40 to 45 minutes
Sunday: 75 minutes
WEEK: 8
Tuesday: 200 meters x 6 with 200-meter jog between
Thursday: 40 to 45 minutes
Saturday: 5-K road race
Sunday: 45 minutes, easy
WEEK: 9
Tuesday: 8 x 300 meters at mile pace with 30-meter
jog between
Thursday: 40 to 45 minutes
Saturday: 40 to 45 minutes
Sunday: 60 minutes
WEEK: 10
Tuesday: 6 x 200 meter strideouts with 200-meter jog
between
Thursday: 40 to 45 minutes
Saturday: 10-K road race
How To Build
A Solid Base
The Twin Peaks 5-K/10-K program is designed for those
who are ready to handle a heavier workload. To use
the beginner's program, you should have been running
about 15 to 20 miles per week for six months. If you're
not quite there yet, here's how to build your base
to the point where you're ready to scale the peaks.
Instead of doing three
miles four days a week, which is a typical schedule
of many beginning runners, try running on alternate
days and varying the distance (3-5-3-5, for example).
This will challenge your body, and gradually build
your endurance, while giving you recovery days to
adapt to the changes.
After a few weeks, start
to add hills one day a week: This doesn't have to
be a "hill repeat" workout, per se. You
can get the same strength-building benefits of hill
running by finding a hilly course. Besides, changing
your running route once in a while is a good thing.
Gradually increase the
distance of one of your runs by five to 10 minutes
per week. (Back off five to 10 minutes every third
or fourth week to give your body a break from distance
running.) This weekly run will become your "long
run," the cornerstone of any endurance running
and racing program.
Do a 5-K race: You don't
have to wait until you're ready for the Twin Peaks
program to participate in the most popular racing
distance in America. Use the race, however, as a training
tool, an opportunity to see what running at a harder-than-normal
pace for 3.1 miles feels like. This, says coach John
Henwood, "will lift your fitness and increase
the amount of oxygen you can take in. If you're running
just normal pace all the time, you never get to expand
your lungs."
Your first 5-K will also
give you a benchmark for the distance. So that a few
months down the road, when you're ready for your 5-K
(and later 10-K) race at the conclusion of the Twin
Peaks program, you'll be able to gauge your improvement.
