Find out what works best for you!
Before you look at these types of workouts be aware of the different levels of runners that are out there. I understand that many of you that are reading these have different goals and running abilities. I may target a specific type of runner when I explain these workouts. However, please feel free to modify these workouts to “your” abilities. Not everyone is the same; even experienced runners at the top levels modify their workouts to accommodate their skills. So don’t feel bad if you need to change it up. It’s good to do so, but try not to deviate from the purpose of the workout all together. I also recommend that you get a heart rate monitor. You will find that this will help you stay within the boundaries of your workout and will make your run more entertaining.
Easy: Easy workouts are type of workouts where you need to get the legs moving, get your heart rate up and prepare your body for a hard exertion or for recovering from a hard effort. I like to call these types of workouts, “conversation pace”. This means that as you run you are able to hold a conversation with a running partner or if you’re alone, you can sing a song without getting winded. By the time you’ve completed this workout, you should have a light sweat going. Duration will vary depending on your conditioning. If you are just beginning, this may be just walking for 20-minutes. If you are a veteran runner or multi-sport athlete, this could be around 40-minutes. If you are wearing a heart rate monitor, this should be around 40-50% of your maximum heart rate.
Medium: Medium workouts are designed to help with pace and endurance. These workouts can range from being on the border of easy and hard, depending on what you’re skill level may be. I’ve often times referred to this as “whistle pace”. This is where you can not really carry a conversation but at any point during your workout you should be able to whistle for a second or two. If you’re going too hard, it will be difficult to whistle because your breathing pattern will be too strong and in order to achieve a whistle, you may have to hold your breath a little to get the right wind velocity. If you are not able to whistle, then you are going to hard. Duration will obviously depend on skill level, as I stated before, but this should range anywhere from 30-minutes to 1-hour. Your heart rate zone should be 50-65% of your maximum.
Distance: I’ve placed this between medium and hard because… well… it belongs there. I’ve also created a different category for it as well. This is harder than a medium workout just for the pure fact that you are out there for an extended period of time. However, this is not a hard workout, because of your pace is not going to be as harsh and your heart rate will not be on the border of the red zone (where lactic acid is building up in the muscles at a more rapid rate). That’s why I’ve decided to create a category all by itself. LSD… not the drug! Some people mistake this for Long-Slow-Distance running. Actually, this should Long-Steady-Distance running. The difference is that some people take the term “slow” literally. Ten plus years ago, people would basically do a distance run at an “Easy” pace (see above for the definition of Easy workout). The problem with this is that you are just doing that, doing an easy run, just for a longer distance. Though you may be helping your endurance slightly, you are forcing your muscles to go into a muscle-memory mode and you are not really helping yourself the way that you could. Recently, coaches and publications have since retracted the word “slow” and replaced it with “steady”. Making this change will change the way you do this workout. So what does this actually mean to you as a runner? This means that you are going to go out at a steady pace. If your are a beginner, this could mean that you are going to run a 5K at your 10K pace or if your running a 10K, run at your marathon pace. What if you’ve never run that far before so how can you possibly know what your 10K or marathon pace is? This will involve some guess work, but in general think of it as running a “medium” workout just for a longer duration. An example is if your Medium workout is an 8-minute pace for 5K, then for your long run, run at an 8:30 to 8:45 pace. Experienced runners may run on the faster side of that. Another example may be if you can run a 10K at a 6-minute pace, then do your long run at a 7-minute pace. If you’re wearing a heart rate monitor, you should be in the same zone as a medium workout, which would be around 50-65% of your max heart rate.
Hard: Ah yes, these quite honestly are some of my most favorite workouts. Maybe I have some liking to pain and suffering, when in reality, I like them because they add flavor and variety to my running regimen. I feel that I could write on this all day long and be brutal to everyone who attempts to take on my hard workouts. However, to be honest, if you are a beginner, you should replace the hard workouts with either Distance workouts or slightly modified Medium workouts. Your heart rate should range from 65% to as high as 85% of your max heart rate. This is where your conditioning will play an important role on how hard you can push yourself. One of the most important things to remember when doing these workouts is your “recovery” period. Make sure that your recovery time is equal to hard effort. You may need to vary your recovery time depending on your conditioning. However, it is best to stick to equal time on and off your hard efforts. Examples of these types of hard workouts are Interval workouts, Fartlek workouts, Hill repeats and if you’re in a group, Indian runs. Here is an explanation of the workouts that I just mentioned:
Interval workouts: These are based off of TIME. So you will be running at the specified effort for a specific amount of time. These can be the same times throughout the workout, or you can mix it up a little by varying the times. Examples of these would be:
- Steady Intervals: Where you do the same repeat of effort over and over again.
- Long and Short: Where you have one duration be long and the next one be shorter, then back to long and back to short and so on.
- Pyramid: Where your duration is short to begin with, then goes into longer durations then back down to short
- Valley-style: Where you start long, then shorten the duration then go long again
- Progressive-Long: Where you start with shorter durations and then you end with longer durations
- Progressive-Short: Where you start long and end with shorter durations (opposite as Progressive-Long)Important! Be sure that your recovery time is equal to your hard effort. Experienced runners can shorten it and less experienced runners should extend their rest periods.
Fartlek workouts: Which means, “speed-play” and these are based off of DISTANCE. It’s the same concept as an Interval workout, but instead of time you are working with distances. Most people like to utilize a track for these types of workouts. When doing these, it is recommended that you also keep your times so you can gauge your effort with speed.
Hill repeats: These are similar to Interval and Fartlek workouts but you are making your efforts running up an incline and recovering on the downhill back to your starting point.
Indian runs: These are fun if you are running in a group. A group of 6-10 people are ideal. Experienced runners will have less people in their groups. The fun thing about this type of run, is that you can do this anywhere. You start off with everyone running in a line. The front person will determine the pace. This should be about a medium pace. The person in the back will make a hard effort to the front position. Once at the front the person will yell “go!” and then the last person in line will run to the front and then yell “go!” and the process just keeps going. Spacing between each runner should be about three to five strides behind one another. Smaller groups will have less of a recovery time and should be spaced farther apart. Larger groups will have longer recovery times but can range their efforts by the groups spacing. So the larger the spacing the longer the effort. If everyone is bunched up, then the effort is shorter with longer recovery. These are great for teams and team work and great for social runners. The most important thing with these hard efforts, that I can not say enough of, is your recovery time. Your recovery is just as important as your hard effort.
With these workout definitions you will find that as you create your workout schedule you will be able to set yourself up for success and enjoy them at the same time. Over the coming weeks you should see articles on how to utilize these workouts and how to place them in your planning for your running goals. You will also hear me say time and time again, to have “fun” because the day you stop having fun will most likely be the day that you will stop running.
