Written By Rick Platt
Speed work is good for the body—not just your race times.
Speed workouts. Intervals. Those words strike fear in many runners—something they did in high school or college sports, and something they don’t want to repeat. They remember leg-draining or lung-busting sprints, over and over again, training for a specific sport, whether cross country or track, or for a team sport like basketball, baseball or football. Repeat quarter miles or 100-yard sprints on the track. Multiple charges up a steep hill. Coaches yelling to push harder, to do just one more. Sweating profusely on a hot summer day. Running to exhaustion. Sore muscles the next day.
As adults now running for health and fitness, or just getting ready for a local race, not many of us want to relive those painful workouts. But speed, done right, can be fun, can improve your race times and can be good for your whole body.
Why is speed good?
First, it’s a mistake in training to do the same workout every day—the same total miles, the same course, at the same pace.
Since that stresses the legs in the same way for every step, it may lead to injury. Better to vary the pace. The opening mile or two of every workout should be run at a substantially slower pace; as the body warms up, circulation increases, joints become lubricated and tight muscles slowly stretch out.
To better understand speed training, take for example a runner who can run a 5K race at 8:00 minute pace per mile (or just under 25 minutes), and who can run anywhere from 3 to 6 miles routinely in workouts, anywhere from 3 to 6 times per week.
Using a Garmin-type watch to clock your pace, the first mile should be in the 11s (including multiple stops for loosening up the muscles), the second mile in the 10s, and the rest of the workout can comfortably be in the 9s. For most runners a distance-run workout pace should be 1 to 2 minutes slower than their race pace. “Speed” workouts would be anything in the 8s, and down to race pace (8:00 per mile), or perhaps a bit faster for shorter distances.
The actual pace per mile would be much faster for the elite, competitive age-group runner (down to 5 minutes per mile for the fastest), and much slower for the beginner runner (down to 15 minutes per mile). The key is the differential
between the fastest running (race pace) and the slowest running (warm-up pace). Whatever level of runner you are, start the workout as much as 3 to 4 minutes per mile slower than your fastest pace, then settle into a steady-state pace of 1 to 2 minutes per mile slower than race pace for your standard distance workout, with speed workouts defined as anything from “faster than race pace” to “about a minute slower than race pace.”
From easiest to hardest, here are some examples of how to safely incorporate speed or intervals into your running.
Vary the pace
After 1 to 2 miles warm-up, simply vary your distance running pace from 30 seconds per mile faster than that average pace, to 30 seconds slower than your average pace. Varying your pace in a workout will actually make the muscles in your legs feel fresher and better after you’re done, since you’re not repeating the same motion on every step.
Fartleks
“Fartlek” is a Scandinavian term literally meaning, “speed play.” It’s where you pick up the pace for anywhere from 50 meters to a half mile or more, then back off. If running with a group of similar abilities, any runner can push the pace at any time for whatever distance they choose, with the rest break anywhere from 10 seconds to several minutes. A group variant of that workout would be “Indian File” running, where the runner last in line sprints to the front, settles into the group pace, followed by the next runner in the back going to the front, etc.
Striders
Another way to do speed is “striders,” which can be done either towards or at the end of a distance run, preferably on grass or on a gravel/dirt surface, where you pick up the tempo to a brisk pace, but not sprinting, for anywhere from 100 yards to a half mile. I routinely do three “striders” of .4 miles each the day before races to freshen up my legs. These “striders” are also good towards the end of your warm-up before races, anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes before the start.
Tempo runs
In a tempo run, as part of a regular distance workout, you want to approach the “aerobic threshold,” but stay under that point where the body switches from aerobic, steady-state running (your race pace) to anaerobic running (where you’re gasping for breath, and running faster than the body can sustain for a long distance). Start with a mile, and slowly build up to as much as four miles of “tempo” running.
My favorite tempo run, incorporated into a 10- to 12-mile distance run, is to run four miles as a warm-up, a mile tempo (1 to 1.5 minutes faster), an in-between mile (at your regular pace), a second tempo mile, another in-between mile, and concluding with a tempo two-mile repeat, before finishing with a mile cool-down.
Intervals
Actual “interval” workouts are the final step in incorporating speed into your runs, and can be done on your own, or with a local running club. The Colonial Road Runners (CRR) weekly interval workouts in Williamsburg include up to 3 or 4 miles of intervals of varying distances (from .4 miles up to a mile), with anywhere from 1 to 3 minutes rest period in between each interval. It’s better to jog or walk in between intervals, to keep the legs warmed up, as opposed to stopping.
Start slowly with the intervals, increasing the pace on each one, until you reach maximum pace about halfway through, then maintain that max pace (which is usually around your race pace). Finish up with 1 to 3 miles cool-down afterwards. Half-mile repeats are ideal for a 5K race and longer, and up to one-mile repeats are ideal for the 10K distance and up to the half marathon. Hill repeats are just a type of intervals, using hills to strengthen the quads, and build strength and stamina.
Make it gradual
The key principle for adding speed or intervals into your workouts is making that transition gradual. Don’t start out with four miles of intervals; just do two half-mile repeats, or one mile total, then add an additional interval every week or two.
And anyone can do intervals. At CRR workouts, we routinely have three women over 70 years old, lots of runners in their 40s, 50s or 60s, and also kids as young as eight. So, whatever your age, gender or pace, adding speed to your running can be a fun and positive change.
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RACE DAYS
Williamsburg
May 5
Colonial Heritage 5K
Colonial Heritage Athletic Club
9 a.m.
(757) 645-2029
May 12
Queens Lake 5K
New Quarter Park
8 a.m.
stbaldricks.org/events/williamsburg
May 19
Achievable Dream 8K
College of W&M
8 a.m.
RunForAchievableDream.com
May 20
Run for the Dream Half Marathon
Colonial Williamsburg
7 a.m.
RunForAchievableDream.com
May 26
Chick-fil-A 5K
The Mariners’ Museum
8:30 a.m.
cfa5k.com
June 2
5K Run for Mental Health
Eastern State Hospital
8:30 a.m.
colonialroadrunners.org
For more upcoming races in your area, colonialroadrunners.org
Richmond
May 6
Carytown 10K
West Cary Street, Cary Court
8 a.m
May 6
Run Like a Girl 8k & 5k
Pocahontas State Park
7:30 a.m.
(804) 647-3070
May 12
Memorial Regional Nursing 5K Challenge
Pole Green Park
8 a.m.
bsvaf.org/mrmc5k
May 12
Central Virginia Race for the Cure®
Brown’s Island
9 a.m.
komencentralva.org
May 19-20
Achievable Dream 8K/Half
College of W&M
8 a.m./7 a.m.
RunForAchievableDream.com
May 19
Power Kids Triathlon
Shady Grove Family YMCA
All day
(804) 303-4833
For more upcoming races in your area, RRRC.org
Hampton Roads
May 19
Achievable Dream 8K
College of W&M
8 a.m.
RunForAchievableDream.com
May 20
Run for the Dream Half Marathon
Colonial Williamsburg
7 a.m.
RunForAchievableDream.com
May 26
Chick-fil-A 5K
The Mariners’ Museum
8:30 a.m.
cfa5k.com
June 2
Fox Hill 5K
Langley Elementary School
8:30 a.m.
foxhill5K@yahoo.com
For more upcoming races in your area, Peninsulatrackclub.com
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