By Ryan Soule, M.S. Exercise Physiology, NSCA Certified Personal Trainer
Once you have developed a good running base, it’s time to add some speed work into your normal running routine. A speed workout will benefit you if you are training for any distance from one mile to 26.2 miles and beyond. Speed workouts help to increase running speed and efficiency to get you to that personal record.
When to add speed workouts to your running routine?
Once you are consistently running 30-40 miles per week, or more, a speed workout may benefit you. To avoid injury while adding speed workouts to your running program, make sure to only 10% of your weekly miles are speed workouts. When adding your first speed workout to your program, start with one workout the first few weeks. Also, make sure to have an easy recovery run the following day to help increase the recovery time form your workout.
Types of Running Workouts
- Hill Workout
- Benefits: Improved leg strength, running efficiency, and increased running speed.
- How to Do It: Run or power-hike up a steep hill or steps for one minute, then do an easy jog or walk down to the bottom of the hill. Repeat this 5-10 times. A simple treadmill workout could be one minute at an incline of 5+ degrees and two minutes of recovery jogging or walking on a flat surface. Repeat 5-10 times.
- Tempo Run
- Benefits: Increased speed and running efficiency, improvement in aerobic capacity.
- How to Do it: A tempo run is at or just below the anaerobic threshold, which is approximately 75-85% of your heart rate max. These runs should be about 30 seconds per mile slower than your race pace. For example, if you run a 5k at a pace of 7 minutes per mile, you should run a three mile tempo run at a pace of 7:30 per mile. A tempo run should also be a minimum of 15 minutes at your anaerobic threshold.
- Interval Run
- Benefits: Improved leg speed and strength, improved aerobic and anaerobic capacity.
- How to Do It: Intervals are similar to hill workout in duration, however they are usually done on a flat surface. Typical interval times are 30 seconds to five minutes. Interval workouts are also done at a higher intensity, approximately 85% of heart rate max or goal race pace. An easy interval workout would be 4 half mile repeats (4x800m) at goal 5k race pace. Make sure your heart rates comes down to at least 120 beats per minute to ensure a full recovery before you move onto the next interval. A simple formula to estimate 85% of your heart rate max is ((220-age)*.85).
- Fartlek Run
- Benefits: Increased speed and running efficiency, improvement in aerobic capacity.
- How to Do It: “Fartlek” is a Swedish word meaning “speed play.” A Fartlek run is a run where you increase your pace for short bouts during your run. An example of a Fartlek run cpuld be a 5 mile run where you increase you pace for a quarter mile of each mile. This can vary based on your personal fitness level and experience.
- Stride Outs
- Benefits: Improved leg speed and strength
- How to Do It: Stride outs are short bouts that help to increase top running speed at the end of a race. Stride outs are generally 75-100 yard accelerations where you slowly increase your pace until you reach your top end speed for the last 10 yards. Try adding 8-10 stride outs once per week to the end of an easy pace run.
Resources
Noakes, T. (2002). Lore of Running. Champaign, Ill: Human Kinetics.
Lydiard, A. (2012). Running to the Top. Meyer & Meyer Sport (UK).