What is the workout?
Disclaimer: This isn't a workout I did, but one the high schoolers I help coach did. That said, I think it's a great workout, so I wanted to share it.
The "speed shifter" as they ran it was: 5 sets of 3 minutes easy, 90 seconds moderate, and 30 seconds relaxed fast. No real rest between sets, just go from the relaxed fast portion straight into the easy portion of the next set. While the 'easy' part should be around your normal everyday running pace, the 'moderate' part should be near your tempo pace (or lactate threshold or half marathon or whatever you want to call it) and the 'relaxed fast' should be as fast as you can run without straining, while still holding form (think: strides. Relaxed is the key word here.). In total, it was 25 minutes of total running and 10 minutes of hard running. Add in a warmup and cooldown, and that's a solid day for a high school athlete.
Why should you do it?
You should do this to get a feel for shifting your effort between different paces, from slower to gradually faster. (Notice a theme with the Progression Run from a couple week ago?) This is a great workout to use as a transition from base work into speed work. Since its mostly easier running, you get a good aerobic stimulus from the workout. However, as you add in the moderate pace, you start to gain some lactate buffering benefits (improving your body's ability to clear lactic acid at a fast pace). As you then transition to a short bout of relaxed fast running, you stimulate improvements in neuromuscular coordination and running economy (read: you can't run fast without practicing running fast). Basically, you hit three hugely important aspects of running fitness in one session, hopefully without straining to do it too much.
Also, because this is such a free-form workout (notice a trend?) you can do it wherever you like. Run it on a track, so you can track your distance and see just how far you can get on each segment. Try it on the roads on a hilly course to really challenge your sense of effort. Or, better yet, do it on a grassy field...soft surfaces are nearly always best for running.
When should you do it?
Because this is a very transitional workout, the best time to do this specific one would be sometime later in your base phase or earlier when you're just beginning speed work. Use this workout as a way to ease speed work into your schedule. But here's the super cool thing: you can change up the workout to best fit your schedule! If you're a little earlier in base training, make the easy running portion longer and the moderate / fast portions respectively shorter. If you're in a phase where you're doing lots of tempo work, then extend the moderate portion of the cycle. Finally, if you're working on specificity for a race 10k or less, try extending the relaxed fast portion. Also, if you're a high-mileage runner or are training for a long long distance race, make the sets longer than 5 minutes or do more than 5 sets (or both). Just make sure not to get carried away -- I'd recommend doing no more than a total of 30 minutes at moderate effort and 15 minutes at the fast effort. I love this workout because you can make it whatever you want it to be. Get creative with it!
Disclaimer: This isn't a workout I did, but one the high schoolers I help coach did. That said, I think it's a great workout, so I wanted to share it.
The "speed shifter" as they ran it was: 5 sets of 3 minutes easy, 90 seconds moderate, and 30 seconds relaxed fast. No real rest between sets, just go from the relaxed fast portion straight into the easy portion of the next set. While the 'easy' part should be around your normal everyday running pace, the 'moderate' part should be near your tempo pace (or lactate threshold or half marathon or whatever you want to call it) and the 'relaxed fast' should be as fast as you can run without straining, while still holding form (think: strides. Relaxed is the key word here.). In total, it was 25 minutes of total running and 10 minutes of hard running. Add in a warmup and cooldown, and that's a solid day for a high school athlete.
Why should you do it?
You should do this to get a feel for shifting your effort between different paces, from slower to gradually faster. (Notice a theme with the Progression Run from a couple week ago?) This is a great workout to use as a transition from base work into speed work. Since its mostly easier running, you get a good aerobic stimulus from the workout. However, as you add in the moderate pace, you start to gain some lactate buffering benefits (improving your body's ability to clear lactic acid at a fast pace). As you then transition to a short bout of relaxed fast running, you stimulate improvements in neuromuscular coordination and running economy (read: you can't run fast without practicing running fast). Basically, you hit three hugely important aspects of running fitness in one session, hopefully without straining to do it too much.
Also, because this is such a free-form workout (notice a trend?) you can do it wherever you like. Run it on a track, so you can track your distance and see just how far you can get on each segment. Try it on the roads on a hilly course to really challenge your sense of effort. Or, better yet, do it on a grassy field...soft surfaces are nearly always best for running.
When should you do it?
Because this is a very transitional workout, the best time to do this specific one would be sometime later in your base phase or earlier when you're just beginning speed work. Use this workout as a way to ease speed work into your schedule. But here's the super cool thing: you can change up the workout to best fit your schedule! If you're a little earlier in base training, make the easy running portion longer and the moderate / fast portions respectively shorter. If you're in a phase where you're doing lots of tempo work, then extend the moderate portion of the cycle. Finally, if you're working on specificity for a race 10k or less, try extending the relaxed fast portion. Also, if you're a high-mileage runner or are training for a long long distance race, make the sets longer than 5 minutes or do more than 5 sets (or both). Just make sure not to get carried away -- I'd recommend doing no more than a total of 30 minutes at moderate effort and 15 minutes at the fast effort. I love this workout because you can make it whatever you want it to be. Get creative with it!
Comments
Post a Comment