Although I’m now many years removed from my high school days, I’m still amused sometimes thinking about the workouts I did as a 16-17 year old. Don’t get me wrong, I was at best a mediocre high school runner - never cracking 10:10 for 3200 - but damned if my teammates and I didn’t do some awesome interval workouts. I can recall doing 12x400 averaging 68 seconds per repeat on more than one occasion. Other times we did 3 or 4 mile repeats at 5:10 a piece. This may not sound like much, but for most of my high school career, I was a 10:20-10:30 guy in the 2 mile. Doing mile repeats at two mile pace...? Pretty extreme.
So what was the trick? And why, with these great workouts (that would still be challenging for me today when I’m nearly a minute faster in the 2 mile) was I so slow back then? The recovery. We would stand around for several minutes after even the shortest of repeats, which, since those all-out track sessions were pretty much our only quality work, made us great in workouts and crappy in races.
But in training, as in most things, context is everything, and there is a time and a place for nearly everything.
- Short recoveries between intervals challenge the body’s metabolic pathways, increasing its ability to tolerate ever-increasing lactate levels.
- Fast recoveries between intervals, as I discussed in the last WORKOUT REVIEW (LINK), increase the body’s ability to process and remove lactate from the body while continuing to run relatively quickly.
These two types of workouts make up the vast majority of the interval sessions that I prescribe to myself or the athletes I coach. So when is it appropriate to ditch these more aerobically challenging workouts, and delve into the hardcore intervals of my high school days?
Long recoveries/fast intervals allow you to run fast, and to do so relaxed. This is the important part of the equation. There is value to be had, as a complement to other training, in doing a good amount of running at a fast pace, without straining. This can only be done by allowing the body to recover sufficiently between repeats. This type of work isn’t absolutely necessary for success in the longer distances (10k and up), but it’s indispensable at shorter races to really achieve maximum potential. Any miler will tell you that 200s, 300s, and 400s at goal pace or faster are a key part of their in-season training.
But those of us with 59 second 400 speed can’t be bothered with mid-distance nonsense; we need to know how to apply this type of work to 5k, 10k, and beyond. On that note, the workout that I did last week is one that focuses on 3k to 5k fitness, and putting the final touches on the speed needed to race well at those distances. At least that’s the idea, and at the very least it turned out alright for my race. So here are a couple of examples:
Jer (3 days before 5k PR) - 2x(600, 400, 300, 200) w/ equal recovery, extra 400 jog between sets:
600-1:45, (2:47)
400-66, (1:52)
300-49, (1:28)
200-31, (1:02)
400 Jog- (2:00)
600-1:43, (2:51)
400-65, (1:57)
300-48, (1:29)
200-29, (1:04)
Emily, same workout, Wednesday March 14th, 9 days before goal race (Rice 5k):
600-1:58, (2:49)
400-73, (1:56)
300-53, (1:25)
200-34.6 (58)
400 Jog- (1:58)
600-1:56 (2:52)
400-72 (1:54)
300-52.7 (1:27)
200-32.9 (63)
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