Why Should I go to Tuesday Night Workouts?

Meet the Herd

The Buffalo Chips Tuesday night workout is by far the most fun, social, well-attended and important workout. While a good Saturday and Sunday morning run might have more than a dozen runners, the Tuesday night workout can have as many as 60 Chips in attendance! There is no better way, short of serving on the Board, of meeting your fellow Chips. There are runners of all ages and abilities, so you’ll be sure to have someone to run with. If you can only make one, make it Tuesday night! Running pretty much continuously for the past 20 years, it is easily the “Crown Jewel” of the Chips training empire.

Buffalo Science

Tuesday’s interval workouts are intended to help improve your VO2max, which is a measure of your body’s ability to consume oxygen. Why is this important? This is important because the volume of oxygen consumption is an indication of how efficient your cardiovascular system is at delivering oxygen to your muscles and how much of that oxygen your muscles can then use to perform work. In the simplest words, if you improve your VO2 max, you can run faster.

Each week, a team of highly trained Buffalo Scientists (i.e., George) puts together a workout for the group. A recent week’s looked something like this:

A-D...2(1,800,600,400)
E-F...2(1, 800, 400)
G-H...2(1), 2(600)SS & FW…steady, of course

What, you may ask, does that mean? Let’s start with the numbers because that is the easiest. The numbers: 2(1, 800, 600, 400) would mean you’ll run a one-mile interval, followed by an 800 meter interval, then a 600 meter interval and then a 400 meter interval. The “2” outside the brackets means you will then repeat this sequence. Between each interval, you will jog a short recovery distance.

The letters A through H represent runners at different levels of training volume. Based on the findings of the most cutting edge Buffalo Science, to get the most out of your speedwork, and to prevent injury, you should run no more than 10 to 15-percent of your total running volume as speedwork. In other words, if you are running 25 miles a week, you shouldn’t be doing more than around 2.5-miles of intervals on Tuesday night. On the other hand, if you’re running 60 miles a week, you can probably handle up to 6-miles of intervals.

If you are a newer runner, and still building the strength and mileage you need to begin running intervals, there is always a group doing easier, steady-state running.

Finally, the interval workouts are not a race. You should approach the workout with a specific pace in mind and stick to it. The pace you run your intervals in should be approximately the same as your most recent 5K pace. You might run the shorter intervals slightly faster than the longer ones, but only if you must. If a given pace seems too easy, then run a little faster next week. What you absolutely don’t want to do is run the first intervals so fast you can’t complete the workout!

Another thing to avoid is running the first intervals fast and then slowing down for the rest. This is harmful in three ways. First, it wastes your time because it is less effective. Second, it is demoralizing and takes a lot of the fun out of the workout. And finally, if you slow down toward the end of your workouts, you are learning to slow down towards the end of a race—something you definitely don’t want to do! The workout should be hard, but it shouldn’t be so hard you don’t want to come back next time!

Your teammates are there to encourage you and to help you with your pacing and make the workouts more enjoyable. They are not there to compare yourself against. You can do that when it matters: on race day.

To keep this a reasonable length, I tried not to go too far into great, geeky detail. There are some excellent books out there on the subject. You should also do yourself a favor and read George Parrott’s training essays on the Chip’s website (see Coach’s Corner) and talk to him about your running goals. I’d also be happy to answer any questions you might have about this article. You can usually catch me at the Tuesday night workouts. You can also email me at buffaloblue@sbcglobal.net. Happy running!