15 min @ HMP + 10 min @10k + 5 min @ 5k + 3 min @ 3k
Splits: 6:11/mile; 6:03/mile; 5:53/mile; 5:30/mile
Recovery: 3 min recovery throughout.
Rachel Phillips, September, 2011
This workout of the day comes from my all-time favorite runner…MY WIFE…the very beautiful and very talented Rachel Phillips.
At the time Rachel had just graduated from DBU, was excited about continuing to improve as a runner, and had some very high goals. Thankfully, she allowed me to continue being her coach…and this session was one of many where she showed me just how tough and talented she was…
Unfortunately, if you read the notes below, you can see that she noted that her foot was something she needed to work on…at the 8-mile mark in her goal half marathon about 3 weeks later she fractured that foot and was unable to finish.
Throughout my coaching career that build up is still the build up I am most fond of…there is no doubt in my mind that she would have run pretty close to the Olympic Trials standard at the Houston Marathon had she been able to continue training that Fall.
Here is Rachel’s own blog post about the workout…
Friday- 9.23.11
Workout: 2M warm up + 15’@HMP, 10’@10k, 5’@5k, 3’@3k + 1.6M cool down
- Surface: Memorial Park dirt loop + pavement for the 3′ segment
- Total Time: N/A 10.23M total – (6:46 AP for workout portion – 6.62M)
- Pace Progression: 8:47 w/u, 6:11, 6:03, 5:53, 5:30, 7:40 c/d
- Comments: Paces are close but not exact (I got different results when I put in the times/distance in my logarun.com website than what my Garmin says. Regardless, this was a tough workout for me. Each hard segment felt like it should be my last but Jake kept challenging me to do the next. Glad to have finished it out – and definitely thankful for the switch to the road for that last rep. Still needing to work on my hip flexor and foot…