VDOT and Mixing in Speed Work Weekly

A friend of mine who has no idea how fast her natural speed is, was asking me about my speed workouts.  I do not know if I have any great speed workouts, but I am a huge believer in using Jack Daniel’s VDOT pace tables to determine what pace I should be doing Tempo, Interval, and Repetition training.  If you are an aspiring and serious runner, I would buy his book (“Jack Daniels’ Running Formula”).  This calculator will help you set your paces based on your best recent races.  I try to use 10K, 15K, or ½ marathons to do the assessment rather than my 5K times.  The VDOT pace calculator linked here and below is great. http://www.runworks.com/calculator.html
Here is my VDOT lookup table: http://marathonquest.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html
On the track you can do intervals as ladders, a series of 400’s or 800’s or whatever you like.  I have trouble doing mine solo.  When I do intervals, I do ½ the interval distance at an easy jog for recovery.  On reps, I need 3-4 min for recovery at a minimum so I can hit the rep hard and fresh. Per, Mr. Daniels, I like to do one day of speed work for VO Max development and one day of tempo work for lactate threshold training each