Melbourne Track Club Training – General Summary
(Information provided by some past and current Melbourne Track Club athletes)
The Melbourne Track Club don’t differentiate base training to racing period training as much as most athletes/groups, when it comes to overall mileage. However, interval workouts are a lot sharper, as expected in racing period.
Most MTC 800m-1500m runners will be logging 85-100 miles (130-160km) per week virtually all year, other than in racing weeks. 5km-10km runners will be logging 100-120 miles (160-190km) per week, all year.
The interval workouts (normally 2 per week) change throughout the year, but not completely. In the base period (during times more than say, 4 weeks from racing) pace will not often be faster than 5km race pace during interval workouts. For example, 8 x 1km in 2:50-2:55 with 1min rest. Recoveries in these workouts in the base period are normally very short (30-60sec) and rarely more than 3mins. Occasionally they will throw in some quicker race within the workouts (60sec 400m pace)
In the summer time, milage is reduced only slightly with the cut-out of afternoon runs from time to time. In the interval workouts elements of speed at 800m, 1500m and 3km pace are interspersed within endurance work (longer intervals at 5km-10km pace).
Many of their interval workouts have alternating paces within each individual interval, logically to prepare for surges or kickdowns in a race. An example of this:
Workout from 14th June 2016 @ London
2000m (alternating 200s in 29sec and 39sec)
1600m (even pace: 67sec per lap)
1200m (400s in 67, 62, 67)
800m (400s in 63, 60)
6x400m (alternating pace of 59, 68).
Recovery: between the 2000m, 1600m, 1200m and 800m, rest is 1 lap jog (around 2mins) and between the 6x400m, rest is 45sec.
In the base period, training weeks are similar every week. Staple workouts include 8x1km with 1min rest, 25-40min threshold runs, “Quarters” workout (a fartlek described below) and long hills (800m or 3mins).
In the racing period, workouts are rarely repeated (i.e. they will not often do the same exact workout twice). They will sometimes do similar workouts but rarely exactly the same. Below you will find over 40 specific examples of workouts leading up to and during racing period, in preparation for racing that were completed during 2015-2017.
Melbourne Track Club 800m/1500m Example Workouts
Melbourne Track Club 5000m/10000m Example Workouts
