Summer 2025 Schedule will be sent by coaches to registered members in the weekly coach email.  Schedules also available at the registration table.

Summer track will begin on Tuesday, July 1 and continue for 16 weeks.  Coaches will send a schedule to registered members. 

Types of Runs

Base Run – Base runs form a significant portion of your weekly running mileage, and while they aren’t particularly “hard” workouts, they are usually the most frequent type of run in your training plan.  These are a moderate distance and done at a natural easy pace.  These runs benefit in adding to your aerobic base.  Your weekday runs including our Thursday run at Academy should fall into this category.   

Long Run – This should be your longest run of the week.  The long run is done at a “conversational” pace, meaning you could chat with your running buddy throughout the run.  The long run will improve your aerobic fitness and increase your endurance.  It will also help you with the mental aspect so you know you can go the distance.  You should run only one long run a week and our Saturday runs are designed to be your long run for the week. 

Recovery Run (easy run) – These runs are shorter in milage and done at a low intensity. They are designed to assist in recovery after a hard run or a race, typically within about 24 hours.  Be careful not run your easy run too hard, the easier the better.    The recovery run helps aid with circulation with the purpose of achieving your weekly mileage without overtraining.  The purpose of our Sunday run at Alameda Open Space is to run easy and recover from the longer Saturday run.

Speed Work –Includes interval and hill work.  Always warmup for about 1 mile, complete several running form drill and strides before beginning the actual workout.  When you have completed the workout, jog slowly for ½ to 1 mile then stretch as part of your cooldown routine.  Our first track workout will be Tuesday, March 11 and you can learn how to get started with track workouts with the group.

• Interval – Intervals are short, intense efforts followed by equal or slightly longer recovery time. For example, after a warm-up, run two minutes at a hard effort, followed by two to three minutes of easy jogging or walking to catch your breath. It might also mean running 400 meters, followed by walking or jogging 200 meters. These are typically done on a track.  This helps to build running economy, endurance, strength and running form.  These are our Tuesday runs.

• Hill Repeats – Runners may choose a short, steep hill, such as one that can be run in 20-30 seconds, or a longer, which might take one to several minutes to summit. After your warmup run fast up the hill, walk down the hill for recovery then repeat the process 4-6 times. These are designed to build strength and power in your lower body.  This will help with running economy. 

• Fartlek – This is a Swedish word meaning “speed play”. This is an alternate workout for those who don’t like to run on a track and/or may not have access to hill training. So instead of running in a circle (two x 400m, two x 800m), or picking a hill that you run up and down, you select one of the running routes that you like and start out at a long run pace (conversational pace). After you are warmed up you look ahead and pick out a landmark that you run to at race pace and then slow back to the conversational pace. The nice part of this type of training is that it is controlled by you and where you are in your training. You control how far away that landmark is, how many times you do a pick-up pace, and how long you recover before your next pick-up.

Threshold Runs – Threshold workouts involve any work done at threshold effort. For example, you might warm-up and then run 4 x 5 minutes at threshold pace (10k race pace) with 2 minutes of recovery pace between each interval. Tempo runs are a specific type of threshold run.  Tempo runs involve maintaining threshold effort (usually run around 10k or half marathon pace) for a sustained 20 minutes or more.  Threshold runs help to increase your lactate threshold.