The Lasse Viren 5k & Slow Growth

Every runner has their staple workout.

It may not be the workout you enjoy the most, or the workout you are best at, but is an accurate metric for your form at the moment. For me, it's what I call the 'Lasse Viren 5k' because to my knowledge he invented the workout. Basically, its in-&-out alternating 100m sprints for 5k on the track. I read about it when I was in high school, but never got around to doing it until the summer after my senior year.

The first time I did it, I had a 4:26 mile and a 16:17 to my name.

6/1/2010 - 18:30.

I remember it hurting a lot, the discomfort of changing gears every handful of seconds throwing me into oxygen debt quicker than I would like to admit, and struggled to make it through the whole distance.

6/18/2010 - 17:36

A couple weeks later and a couple weeks stronger. I wore flats this time and was mentally ready for The Pain.

Flash to a year later, starting to climb my mileage:

7/7/2011 - 17:19

My log:

Was 5:33 - 11:06 (5:33) - 16:40 (5:34), so damn consistent. Could've gone for another mile, but I didn't want to push it too hard. Still need to run miles this week. Felt smooth, pretty nice until last 8/1200m or so.

edit: Upon review the last time I did this was 2 weeks ago last year and I did it about 20sec slower, and I remember it hurting a lot more. Good sign.

A couple days ago I did it again:

9/10/2011 - 16:32

I knew 800m in that I was going to break 17, I passed it in 2:33 as my legs were just starting to warm up.

My stride is coming together nicely, I've been working on my lower core as that area being weak is what I've deduced is making me over-stride. I have the luxury of keeping some quality in my miles as I build, and I haven't lost the weight that I did last summer doing less miles than I am now, but I am managing to keep the power that I had during early track season. If I can keep that, AND build strength, I should be able to click this workout off in sub16 before the end of the semester.

Regardless of what I'm doing, I'm doing something right. And that's all I really care about.