6 x 2 minutes with 1 minute recovery

This morning, it was time to head out the door for my last up tempo workout before Boston.

Since I returned to marathoning a few years ago, I have been constantly been refining my workouts during my marathon tapers. Like most people, I try to keep what makes me feel good and fast while dropping those workouts that I feel are not giving me the push that I need.

A workout that has become a staple in my taper is the 6 x 2 minutes with 1 minute recovery during race week. I always try to schedule this workout 4 days out from my marathon. There are 2 reasons why I like it.

The first reason is; it is short both in time and distance. 6 x 2 minutes only comes to 12 minutes of hard effort and distance wise it is just a little less than 3 miles. Because it is such a brief up tempo workout, it is very easy to recover from it before race day.

The second reason is that the workout is very up tempo. My legs will be turning over a little faster than marathon pace which ensures that my breathing is slightly labored. A workout like this helps with the imprint of the turnover on my nervous system. It also helps the mind acknowledge effort. Many hours during training have been spent callusing the mind in preparation for race day, so this workout just a touch of hard effort to keep this in place for just a few more days.

From here on it, I have just some easy miles and strides until Monday morning.

 

Thoughts from the Cool Down Runner