Week 6: Ladders on Ladders on Ladders

This week sucked particularly because I had just gotten over a terrible fever State Patty’s Weekend (by the way, missing out on that weekend was probably worse than any of these workouts that I’ll ever post here...).  The workouts are seriously starting to come along. I can really feel an improvement in my endurance and strength in every aspect of my game, which is obviously great. It really puts things in perspective: hard work pays off. I know that’s wicked cliché, but it’s so true. When you feel sluggish one day and are discouraged, just remember to think about the big picture. Everything counts. Just do it. Even when everything else in your week is going crazy, just do it. For example, midterms got you down or whatever,, a hard workout really helps to relieve all of that stress. My favorite part of midterms and finals in high school were actually the hard workouts my coaches gave my team on purpose to have us wind down in a sense. Oh and just a reminder, I don’t only do one hard workout a week, I just post the most valuable one.  With all of that being said, let’s talk about ladders…

            No, I don’t mean the kind you use to paint your house; I mean distance interval workouts on a track. Like how one moves up and down on a ladder to different levels, so does one in a ladder workout. You start with a low distance then gradually build up. Once you’ve run your longest distance, you do the whole workout backwards from there, AKA going back down a ladder.

            Ok, so we start with a 100 at a: 25-:30 second goal time with a walk that goes a length down one side of the track afterwards. Next up is a 200. This should be at a: 35-: 40 second goal time with a one minute slow jog afterwards. Then we do 300 at: 45-: 50 seconds with a 3 minute slow jog afterwards. Next is a 400 at: 55-:60 seconds. Do a 4-minute slow jog afterwards. After this is a 600. This should be done at around 1:35- 1: 40. Do a 5-minute slow jog afterwards. Last but not least is an 800 at around 2:30. Once again, the slow jog afterwards should be around 5 minutes. Once you’ve gotten through all of these intervals, do it backwards starting from the 800. It’s not enough to do the ladder up until the 800; you need to tire your body out and force it to getting accustomed to pushing when it wants to stop. After all, why would you climb to the top of a ladder with no expectation at coming back down at some point? Who would ever want to just stay up there all night?