Pick up any running book or running magazine, listen to a coach down a running club, and you will come across throw out phrases like, ‘Run at Threshold’.
Sometimes the coach will give a specific pace, like run the 400’s @ 5km pace. Make your Tempo run at Marathon Pace. This helps, if you are experienced, but even then, you have to decide whether to run them at your, hoped for, personal best time, or at your current fitness. There’s lots to decide.
If you are new to running, short of going to a lab and having lactose levels tested while running on a treadmill, it is a bit of a guess. The lab will accurately give you information to set your training speeds, but few can or want to do this. Mostly it is a suck-it-and-see situation. Over time you will run most distances and be able to work out the pace per kilometre or mile, required, until then, you need to use your judgement on how the pace feels.
Think about how far, or how many repetitions you are being asked to do, how much recovery in between, and use this information to judge a pace that you can maintain without straining towards the end. You should be working hard enough that you are tired at the end – the balance is hard to find.
If the distance of the effort is short, and the recovery period between efforts fairly long, then you will need to run the efforts faster than if the distance is longer, or the recovery a shorter interval. The training session will have been set for a different purpose or intended outcome by the coach- to develop flat out speed, or develop the ability to hold a pace for a long period of time.
I have done many a speed session on a running track where I have led most of the repetitions while someone in the pack is just cruising. Then, as you approach the last effort, woosh, they are off like a rocket, and ‘win’ the last effort. Well, I know who got the most out of the session, and it isn’t the person who worked in a comfort zone until the last effort!
For groups of established runners of similar ability, one tactic I have found works to make sure everyone is taking a turn at the work, is to say that every one takes the lead in a repetition in rotation – so, if there are 5 in the group, and there 15 repetitions, then everyone must lead out 3 of them.
Useful training paces and when to do them:
- Easy Running – short distances – these are ‘recovery’ runs that allow the body to move blood around your working muscles, without creating more stress, to help with ‘active’ recovery.
When to do: As a cool down after a hard session, or the day after a tought session, as a ‘recovery day.
- Easy Running – long distances – in the early phase of aerobic base training. Long runs of 90 mins to 2 hours should be kept to a ‘conversation’ pace effort. Ultra-runners may go for much further distances as a run-walk exercise, just to get used time on feet.
When to do. In the early stages of a training cycle, when you want to lay an aerobic base before layering some faster training on top.
- Steady Running – this is mostly what you do when you just go out the door and run. It can cover a wide range of paces, from easy to tempo, depending on the stage you are at. You might do a lot of steady running at the time you are building volume in your training but be mostly running at a fast tempo once you are coming to a peak. You might run a slower steady pace the day after a hard interval session, a faster steady pace on a midweek longer run, eventually building to tempo running.
When to do: Depending on the time in the training cycle, as a middle or long distance runner you will run steady 80 to 90% of the time.
- Tempo running tends to be a generic term that simply describes a fast-paced run. I used to do them as part of a club group session in the late winter, when training was building towards the final phase. The club run would start steady enough, then for the middle 5 or 6 miles of an 8-mile route, become a bit of a race, pushing each other on, before we all slowed down towards the end.
When to do: Generally you will start to run at these faster paces 10 to 16 weeks before a target race so that you start to get accustomed to faster continuous running.
- Marathon Pace running – or another race pace depending on your target race. This can sometimes be practiced in a shorter race, like a local half marathon, where you control your speed, so you are practicing the pace you want to run the marathon. I favour progressive runs in the last 6 weeks to a marathon. On these, the runner starts the long run at a steady pace, then picks the pace up as the run goes on, with the aim of finishing at marathon pace. On a 2-hour run, the last 30 minutes may be at marathon pace, so you are getting used to going at that pace while you are fatigued – really, holding your pace at the end of the marathon when you are feeling tired is tough.
When to do: In the last 6 weeks before a major distance race, such as a marathon.
- Threshold running is a more specific speed. The concept came out of track cycling, it is measured as the speed you could maintain for 1 hour without slowing down. It’s about 87% of your working heart rate. You would normally do a threshold run over 20 to 30 mins after having done a mile or so warm up. Or, run parkruns or cross country runs at a controlled training pace.
When to do: In the last 6 week before a major endurance race.
- Hill running, which can take several forms, from straight forward running up a hill fast and jogging back down, to running a hilly circuit for a set time, say 40 mins, trying to hold the perceived effort on both ups and downs, whilst keeping even all the way through the session. Hills are ideal ‘speed endurance’ training, coming in as a transition between the end of an aerobic block, and the early stages of an interval running block.
When to do: 14 to 18 weeks pout from a main race.
- Fartlek Running. A Finnish word meaning ‘Speed Play’. You start to through in some faster sections into steady runs, varying the distance run fast, the terrain run over, and the length of recovery between faster sections. You can formalise it a bit, if you know when hills are going to come up on a route, run fast-slow, between lampposts on a straight stretch of path, etc.
When to do: After a period of steady running, to allow your body to prepare for more formal repetition and interval running. Usually 14 to 18 weeks out from a target race.
- Repetition running. This is usually running at 10km pace over a repeated mile or so. The recoveries will typically be a little longer too, two to three minutes. You can do them in any place, over any distance, which might just be the distance around your local park. Aim at repetitions that take 5 to 10 minutes, and a session duration of 30 to 40 mins.
When to do: The type you do, and the pace they are run at will change as you near a major race. Generally, they can come in about 16 weeks out from a major race.
- Interval Running 1. There is a case for more elite runners to cover far more efforts in a session, to develop ‘repeatable speed’ – my typical session was 20 x 400m @ 10km speed with 100m easy run recovery (about 25 secs). That’s a 10km distance, with the recovery intervals, or about 30mins of running for me back in the day.
When to do: The type you do, and the pace they are run at will change as you near a major race. Generally, they can come in about 16 weeks out from a major race.
- Interval running 2 is the top end speed for endurance runners. Typically, run at what is called VO2 Max speed, it is usually the speed you could hold for a 3km race. A session might be something like 12 x 400m @ 3km speed, with 90 second recoveries. That’s just short of 5km for the speed part of the session, and great for tuning up in the final weeks before a marathon.
When to do: As you drop off the bulkier interval sessions- typically in the last 4 to 6 weeks before a major race, gradually reduce the number of repetitions and increase the recovery interval. You will build up lactic acid quickly and it will give a boost to the mitochondria, the engines of the muscle, which learns to ‘buffer’ the lactic acid.
- Racing. The purpose of all that training. However, not all races can be important, there are some races that should be the focus of your ambition – a half or full marathon, for instance. Other races can come in as a form of training. We call it, ‘training with a number on’. This allows you to keep interested in a long season, measure progress, and learn some to the skills of racing, such as pace judgement, hanging on to an opponent, sitting in a group so you can draft off them, and for some, how to win.
When to do: You can race all year round. Out of season race for fun and to enjoy the sport, as a target event comes closer, use races as hard training, then as a gage of progress. If racing a marathon, use a shorter race, like a marathon, to either practice your intended marathon pace, or to estimate what a realistic target for the marathon might be.
