Workout Wednesday: Cody Beals’ treadmill kilometre repeats
Cody Beals shares the adaptable speed running workout he performs on the treadmill in the final few weeks of training prep for the half distance.
Half distance star Cody Beals shares a fun and adaptable treadmill or track workout for triathletes of any level in this edition of Workout Wednesday.
“This benchmark treadmill (or track) workout has been a staple leading into some of my best runs, like this showdown at Ironman 70.3 Santa Cruz last September. Denis Chevrot, Ben Hoffman, Jesse Thomas and I battled for nearly the entire run, ending up with nearly identical 1:13 (half-marathon) splits,” says Beals.
The workout
The following paces are Beals’. Triathletes should adapt the pace to meet their own program.
“Treadmill Km Repeats”
(1:30, 24 km total, 3:45/km average pace)
30 mins warm up @ ~4:10/km, all 1% incline
8 × [1 km @ 3:00/km, 3:00 recovery @ ~4:10/km]
12 mins cool down @ ~4:10/km
Purpose
“This challenging workout features 8 km (24 mins) of VO2 intensity work above open 10 km race pace. Completing it without digging deeply signals that I’m near personal best run fitness. Outdoors, this workout as written would be excessively demanding for me, but it’s manageable on the treadmill. I rarely, if ever, do formal fitness tests, instead using benchmark workouts like this to objectively gauge fitness. It’s a good idea to stick with the same treadmill for consistency, since accuracy can vary among machines.
I try to devote some time every workout to visualization, especially during monotonous indoor workouts. I mentally rehearse a race situation such as the one shown in this photo and picture positive outcomes.”
Context
Beals adds that this workout is perfect for the type of half distance specific work that occurs in training in the final weeks before a race.
“The preceding blocks throughout December and January focused on very short (<90 s), high intensity intervals. With less than three weeks until my first race of 2017 at Ironman 70.3 Campeche, I’m beginning to progress towards 70.3 race specific intensity. I tend to build most of my fitness at higher intensities and only sparingly dial in race specific intensities (tempo-threshold) for running and cycling for a few weeks leading into races.”
See more about how Beals trains in our video series with him here.
