SRR Track

You must be a SRR member to participate in the workouts regularly but if you are considering track/SRR and would like to check us out, you are welcome to come to a session as a guest.

Aug - November 2026
Currently we are holding our outdoor workouts at the Hormel Stadium track in Medford. As soon as Tufts finishes resurfacing their outdoor track, we plan to return there. We will stay outdoors at least into November. How long we go depends on the weather.

Please contact Coach Joe O'Leary if you have any questions about track workouts.

Pace chart is located here. Look up your 5k race time or pace on the far right and you can see your complete list of recommended paces. If you do not have a 5K race time, but have some other race times, there are alternate ways to determine your paces. more on that below.

About our pace terminology:

We use the pacing system designed by legendary coach Jack Daniels. It assigns each runner 3 sets of paces corresponding to a desired intensity. The paces are:

THRESHOLD - About your one-hour race pace

INTERVAL - VO2 max pace. About the pace you could hold in a race that lasts 10-15 minutes

REPEAT - About the pace you could in a race lasting 3-4 minutes

You can determine your pace set using one of the many online calculators. For example, go here and enter a known race distance and time. Then click on the “Training” tab below to see your paces. (I suggest ignoring the “Easy” tab. We don’t use it in workouts and frankly, I find it faster than I like to run on most days)

SRR Track Tuesday - Aug 18 - 6:30 PM at Hormel

Cruise Intervals. Miles at THRESHOLD with 1:00 rests. Do at least 3. Do up to 6. I tend to scale the # of reps to your weekly mileage but as long as you feel good and stay at the right pace, it is fine to do more regardless.

Tuesday Aug 25 - 6:30 PM at Hormel

All INTERVAL pace

Due to the event that is going on weeknight at Hormel, we will be returning to Tufts this week. We will meet at 6:30 just outside of the track and then jog over to Packard and do one more hill workout.

Everyone will do 2 sets of 5 reps It is entirely up to you what a rep is. Either a half hill (up to Professor’s Row) or a full hill (up to the crosswalk at the top). The recovery from each rep is the jog down the hill on the sidewalk.

Between the sets, after you complete your recovery jog down the hill after the 5th rep of the first set, take an extra 3 minute break.

Next week the plan is to return to Hormel

Tuesday Sep 1 - 6:30 PM at Hormel

Deek Workout

This is a a 5k Pace Session, perfect for your Summer racing needs.

This is one continuous 4800 meter run on the track (or 5400 or even 6000 if you feel up to it). The pace alternates between 5k Race Pace (for 400 meters) and "float" pace (for 200 meters". "Float" pace is normal training pace. It is *not* a warmup jog. It is not even a recovery jog. Just go from hard into what you would normally do for an average 10 mile training run. Then go right back into hard.

It is easy to lose track during this workout so think of this as 8 sets of (400 hard, 200 float). That is 4800 meters total

Anyone running over 50 miles per week, make it 9 sets (5400 meters total)

Anyone running over 60 miles per week, make it 10 sets (6000 meters total)

Tuesday, Sep 8 - 6:30 PM at Hormel

Tatyana Podzyakova Workout

This is one continuous run in which you alternate the pace every 800 meters between THRESHOLD and MARATHON pace. So, start off at THRESHOLD pace, for 800, switch to MARATHON for 800, back to THRESHOLD, etc.

The total distance is up to you but should be at least 4800 meters. That will be 6 x 800. Roughly 3 miles. However if you are doing a good deal of weekly mileage right now, I urge you to try to continue the workout and for another mile (2 x 800) That will be 6400 meters (not 6000 as I mistakenly wrote on the track page)

The point of this workout is to force yourself to be able to recover at speed. Marathon pace is not a jog. It should be your go marathon pace or the marathon pace that corresponds to your THRESHOLD pace on the Daniels chart. If you do not know what that is I will bring a copy of the chart for you to look it up at track.

Tuesday Sep 15 - 6:30 PM at Hormel

Something different. Short reps. INTERVAL and REPEAT

Tuesday Sep 22 - 6:30 PM at Hormel

Gear Changers: Miles at THRESHOLD with a short section in the middle at REPEAT. Details to follow

Tuesday Sep 29 - 7:00 PM at Hormel

Step Down Miles. This starts off like a normal, Cruise interval workout. But then the pace keeps getting faster and the rest keeps getting longer

Mile 1: Run at THRESHOLD and take a 1 minute rest.
Mile 2: Run 10 seconds faster than THRESHOLD pace. Take 1:30 rest
Mile 3: Run 20 seconds faster than THRESHOLD.

At this point unless you are feeling ambitious, consider yourself done. This is not an easy workout. But if you are one those people who just cannot get enough and really want a challenge, take 2:00 rest and try a fourth mile, 30 seconds faster than threshold.

I do not recommend trying for five. I don’t think anyone has ever succeeded at that. Frankly, if you do, I suspect your paces are not quite accurate :-).