Luke Mathews – 1:45:51 800m Season Opener – Training Leading In
Australian Commonwealth Games 800m medallist Luke Mathews opened up his season last night at the Perth Track Classic with a brisk 1:45:51; his fastest season opener ever and potentially a sign of a 1:43-1:44 coming soon.
For an 800m runner Mathews logs big mileage, regularly clocking up 140-160km weeks. Mathews also races the 1500m and could potentially see a big result coming soon in this event given his improvement over the distance in previous years.
Here’s what his training looked like leading up to his quickest 800m season opener ever:
Saturday Feb 16th
AM: Hills: 5x600m, 4x300m (Total: 15.6km including warm up/cool down)
Times: 1:45, 1:44, 1:44, 1:40, 1:40, 46, 45, 46, 46. Recovery: Jog back.
Sunday Feb 17th
AM: 1hr30min. 21.3km. Average Pace 4:14/km
[137km total for the last week]
Monday Feb 18th
AM: 1hr8min. 16km. Average Pace: 4:17/km
PM: Sprints/Drills + 15mins Jog
Tuesday Feb 19th
AM: Track Session. 4 sets of 1km, 600, 400. Recoveries: 60 seconds between reps, lap jog between sets. (1) 2:51, 1:38, 59 (2) 2:51, 1:38, 60 (3) 2:52, 1:37, 59 (4) 2:48, 1:35, 56.
(Total: 17.24km including warm up/cool down)
PM: 30mins. 6.82km. Average Pace: 4:22/km
Wednesday Feb 20th
AM: 1hr8min. 16km. Average Pace: 4:18/km.
Thursday Feb 21st
AM: Threshold: 2 laps of Albert Park. 29min36sec. 9.44km. Average Pace: 3:08/km (Total 17.5km including warm up/cool down.
PM: 30mins. 7km. Average Pace: 4:11/km
Friday Feb 22nd
AM: 59min21sec. 14km. Average Pace: 4:14/km.
Saturday Feb 23rd
AM: 30mins. 6.73km. Average Pace: 4:27/km.
PM: Track Session: 3×500, 3×400, 3×300. All with 3 mins recovery. 73.7, 72.2, 71.4, 56.6, 54.5, 54.6, 39.1, 38.9, 39.8.
Sunday Feb 24th
AM: 1hr30min. 22.13km. Average Pace: 4:05/km.
Monday Feb 25th
AM: 1hr9min. 16km. Averge Pace: 4:21/km.
PM: Sprints/Drills + 15mins jog
Tuesday Feb 26th
AM: Track Session. 3 sets of 1200 + (3×400) + an extra 1200 at the end.
Recoveries: first set all off 60 seconds, second set all off 75 seconds, third set all off 90 seconds, lap jog between sets. (1) 3:31, 62.5, 62.3, 61.6 (2) 3:19, 60.5, 59.7, 59.6 (3) 3:11, 56.5, 57.6, 56.8 (4) 3:24.
(Total 19km including warm up/cool down)
Wednesday Feb 27th
AM: 1hr6min. 16km. Average Pace: 4:09/km.
PM: Sprints + 15mins jog
Thursday Feb 28th
AM: Threshold: 2 laps of Albert Park. 30min17sec. 9.44km. Average Pace: 3:12/km. (Total including warm up and cool down: 18.5km)
PM: 30min. 6.61km. Average Pace: 4:33/km.
Friday Mar 1st
AM: 59min36sec. 14km. Average Pace: 4:14/km.
Saturday Mar 2nd
AM: 31mins. 7km. Average Pace: 4:25/km.
PM: Track Session. 3 sets of 600/300/300. Recoveries: 3 minutes between reps, 4 mins between sets (1) 1:27.7, 40.8, 38.1 (2) 1:26.0, 39.3, 38.2 (3) 1:29.2, 40.8, 38.9
(Total including warm up and cool down: 10.8km) [37 degrees celsius today]
Sunday Mar 3rd
AM: 1hr34min. 22.4km. Average Pace: 4:14/km.
Monday Mar 4th
AM: 1hr9min. 16km. Average Pace: 4:21/km.
PM: Sprints/Drills + 15min Jog.
Tuesday Mar 5th
AM: Meant to do track session but track was being used for a carnival so switched to trail. 8x800m, 4x400m, 5x150m hills. Recoveries: 1 minute between 800’s, 1 minutes between 400’s, 2:30 between sets, jog down recovery after hills. (1) 2:18, 2:17, 2:16, 2:16, 2:15, 2:16, 2:15, 2:15 (2) 61.2, 61.9, 62.5, 60.9 (3) 23.0, 22.7, 22.3, 22.8, 23.6.
(Total 18.8km including warm up/cool down)
PM: 30mins. 6.66km. Average Pace: 4:30/km.
Wednesday Mar 6th
AM: 1hr6min. 16.1km. Average Pace: 4:09/km.
Thursday Mar 7th
AM: Threshold + 5x400m. 7km tempo Average Pace: 3:08/km), 2:30 recovery, 5×400 with 60sec recovery (63, 61, 60, 61, 61)
(Total 19.56km including warm up/cool down)
PM: 30mins. 6.6km. Average Pace: 4:35/km.
Friday Mar 8th
AM: 59min44sec. 14km. Average Pace: 4:16/km.
Saturday Mar 9th
AM: 30min44sec. 7km. Average Pace: 4:23/km.
PM: Track Session. 400 “hard but controlled”, 4×300, 4×300, 3×200. Recoveries: 5 mins between sets, 2 mins for first set of 300’s, 3 mins for second set of 300’s. 3 mins for 200’s. (1) 50.6 (2) 41.0, 40.3, 41.0, 40.6 (3) 38.3, 38.6, 38.9, 40.2 (4) 25.6, 26.0, 26.9.
(Total 12.8km including warm up/cool down)
Sunday Mar 10th
AM: 1hr31min. 20km. Average Pace: 4:35/km.
Monday Mar 11th
AM: 1hr1min. 14km. Average Pace: 4:22/km.
PM: 15mins easy (3.4km), 3x120m fast, 7.5min easy (1.6km)
Tue Mar 12th
Track Session. 2×800, 3×600, 3×400, 2×200. Recoveries: 1 min between 800’s, lap jog between 600’s, 2ish mins between 400’s, 200 walk/jog between 200’s (1) 2:11, 2:11 (2) 1:30, 1:30, 1:30 (3) 56.2, 56.3, 56.6 (4) 25.7, 25.9.
(Total 15.6km including warm up/cool downs)
PM: 30min. 6.6km. Average Pace: 4:31/km.
Wed Mar 13th
AM: 21min14sec. 4.81km. Average Pace: 4:25/km.
PM: Track Session. 8 x 200 with 200 jog, 6 x 200 (in spikes) with walk around recovery (1) 29.8, 29.6, 29.4, 29.6, 28.1, 28.6, 28.6, 28.3 (2) 25.1, 24.6, 25.5, 24.1, 25.0, 25.8.
(Total 14.1km including warm up/cool down)
Thur Mar 14th
AM: 30mins. 6.7km. Average Pace: 4:29/km.
PM: 30mins. 6.6km. Average Pace: 4:31/km.
Fri Mar 15th
PM: 22mins. 5km. Average Pace: 4:19/km. Strides.
Sat Mar 16th
AM: Shake out 15min jog. 3.21km. Average Pace: 4:30/km.
PM: 800m 1:45:51 (season opener, world championships qualifier)
[Source: Strava]
