The summer racing season is nearly upon us and for many it is a time to focus on shorter races and get some faster paced running in the legs before again laying a winter foundation. Many will look to race over distances ranging from 800m to 10 miles mostly, so we aim in this article to look at some sample workouts that may be worth trying. There are many forms of faster paced work that can help endurance runners but some factors to take into account before deciding what to use are:
- Target Race Distance
- Individual Athlete Physiological Profile
- The athlete training age
- The athlete injury history
- Proximity to goal race and key preparation races
- How much of an aerobic (endurance) foundation has been built to that point
- Time and ability to recover well
It is critical athletes & coach’s think about these key factors before deciding what faster paced work they will include in their program and how much of it is needed. Some spices of faster running can provide the stimulus to improve your race performances, you often don’t need as much as you think you need. Below we delve into a few sample types of workouts for various target race distances.
800m:
Sample 1: 2-3 sets of (4*200m @ CURRENT 800m pace) with 90 secs- 2 mins walk/jog recovery between reps and 4 minutes between sets
Sample 2: 2 sets of (400m/400m) @ 800m pace with 90 secs-2 mins between reps and 7-8 mins between sets
These are specific workouts at 800m pace aimed at getting in some volume of work at race pace. The focus should be on relaxation and best technical model at race pace.
1500m:
Sample 1: 2-4 sets of (400m/300m/200m @ CURRENT 1500m pace) with 60-90 secs walk/jog recovery between reps and 3-4 minutes between sets
Sample 2: 2-5 sets of (600m @ CURRENT 1500m pace, 1 min walk/jog recovery, 200m @ CURRENT 800m pace) with 4-5 minutes between sets
These are specific workouts at 1500m pace aimed at getting in some volume of work at race pace and also some change of pace work. The focus should be on relaxation and best technical model at race pace.
3000m:
Sample 1: 3-4 sets of (600m/400m/200m @ CURRENT 3000m pace) with 60 secs walk/jog recovery between reps and 3 minutes between sets
Sample 2: 3-6 * 1000m as (300m Tempo pace/100m float jog/300m @ 3000m pace/100m float jog/200m @ 1500m pace) with 3 mins between sets These are specific workouts at 3000m pace aimed at getting in some volume of work at race pace and also some change of pace work. The focus should be on relaxation and best technical model at race pace. The 100m float jog should be done at a steady pace for most 30-40 secs. Adding in 480m fast strides with walk back recovery after this workout works very well.
5km:
Sample 1: 2-3 sets of (1000m/800m/400m @ CURRENT 5km pace) with 75 secs walk/jog recovery after the 1000m & 60 secs recovery after the 800m with 3-4 minutes recovery between sets
Sample 2: 4-6 * 1000m as (800m @ CURRENT 5km pace/200m @ CURRENT 3km pace) with 3-4 minutes walk/jog recovery between reps These are specific workouts at 5km pace aimed at getting in some volume of work at race pace and some change of gear work. The focus should be on relaxation and best technical model at race pace. Adding in 480m fast strides with walk back recovery after this workout works very well.
10km:
Sample 1: 2-3 sets of (1600m/1200m/800m @ CURRENT 10km pace) with 2 minutes walk/jog recovery after the 1600m & 90 secs recovery after the 1200m with 3-4 minutes recovery between sets
Sample 2: Fartlek 7/1/6/3/5/2/4 minutes @ CURRENT 10km pace with EQUAL walk/jog recovery between reps
This is a specific workout at 10km pace aimed at getting in some volume of work at race pace. The focus should be on relaxation and best technical model at race pace. Adding in 4*80m fast strides with walk back recovery after this workout works very well.
10 Miles:
Sample 1: Aerobic Fartlek 1-3 sets of 30/45/60/75/90/75/60/45/30 seconds with EQUAL easy walk/jog recovery after each repetition and 3 mins easy walk/jog recovery between sets
This is an aerobic type training which provides a variety of speeds or paces. This type of training allows the athletes to run whatever distances and speeds they wish and playing around with the recoveries. Fartlek can be done almost anywhere including in forests, on rolling terrain, on trails, on grass pitches etc. These are always done in control, at paces roughly from 10km-5km-3km, at an RPE of roughly 7-8/10 and always in the best technical running model. One set of this totals 8.5 minutes of reps and including the equal jog recovery 17 minutes of running. So if you do one set the total time is 17 minutes, 2 sets = 37 minutes (including the 3 minutes jog recovery), 3 sets = 57 minutes. There is as good volume of running and time on your feet so specific also to the 10 mile race distance.
Sample 2: 2-4 sets of (1 Mile @ CURRENT 10 mile pace, 1 min easy walk/jog recovery, 1 Mile @ CURRENT 10km pace) with 3 mins easy walk/jog recovery between sets
This workout rotates current 10 mile and 10km race paces and works on change of pace.
Conclusion:
When starting any type of faster running gradually introduce this to your program and add more over time depending on how your body responds to the training. All types of faster paced training are only beneficial when you have laid a solid aerobic & structural foundation first through easy aerobic running, long runs, tempo/threshold runs, S&C exercises, drills, strides etc. When this aerobic & structural foundation has been laid an athlete becomes more robust, can handle more volume & intensity of training and will get more gains from faster paced workouts. This aerobic work must also be continued or maintained during the faster paced training period. For most athletes small spices of faster paced training are all that is needed to produce a good race performance. Too much can have a negative impact and especially when done too intensely. Try to finish all these workouts with more in the tank and then empty the tank on your race days.
Note: All training examples above are just samples and must always be applied to the individual athlete correctly according to their exercise history, running background, injury history etc and adjust volume/recovery/no of sets etc according to the individual athlete.
