Need a Track for Speed Work? Pshaw!

Not doing speed work as a part of your weekly running because you don't have access to a track? Pshaw! You don't need a track!

I hear it frequently from runners. "I don't do speed work because I don't have access to a track." It's a common misconception. Because speed workout mimics most track events such as 800s or mile repeats, many runners think speed work needs to be done on a track.  Well, it doesn't.

Except for two weeks of vacation, I do a weekly speed workout with my RUNegades running group year-round! That's 50 workouts. None of those 50 workouts take place on a track. Really, all you need is a fairly straight stretch of greenway, even a parking lot will do.

You do need to think a little out of the box, but it can be done and be done very effectively. Not only is it effective, it breaks the boredom that track running often brings. For some workouts such as 400s, 800s, 1200s, mile repeats, you may need to measure and mark some distance points, but there are a ton of timed workouts that do not need specific distances marked.

For workouts like 800s or distance-based ladders or pyramids, I'll use chalk or cones to mark various distances. For 400s or 800s, I'll just put an orange cone at the beginning, end, or turnaround points. For runs with varying distances such as ladders or pyramids, I'll usually chalk every 200m. It takes a little prep time, but it works well.

But there are many workouts that are time-based that a runner can program into their GPS watch, use an interval timer, or a trusty ole stopwatch.

One of the benefits of time-based speed workouts, particularly when used with a group of varying paces, is that everyone is running the exact same amount of time. Some runners may cover more or less distance than other runners based on their pace, but everyone starts and stops at the same time. This is great because newer or slower runners won't feel like they're holding up the pack and faster more seasoned runners won't feel held back. It's a win/win.

For most of my time-based speed workouts, I have my runners complete them in a circular fashion such as around a parking lot or I'll have them do an out-n-back stretch of greenway. This works great not only because it keeps the runners in close proximity (like on a track), it also lets the runners continuously see each other. After several minutes into a workouts, runners are spread out continuously passing each other which enables them to support and cheer each other on. Awesome to see. Fast, seasoned runners get inspired by the determination of the slower, newer runners and the slower, newer runners get inspired by the seeing what the faster, more seasoned runners are able to do.

Below are some great Time-Based Non-Track Workouts to try:
Note: It's best to begin all speed workouts with an easy 1-mile warm-up run and end the workout with an easy 1-mile cool-down run.

90/60s
5 x  (Run 90 secs hard / Run 60 secs easy)
Take a 2-3 min recovery walk
5 x  (Run 90 secs hard / Run 60 secs easy)

30-20-10s
5 x (Run 30 secs very slowly / Run 20 seconds at moderate pace / Sprint 10 secs)
2-min recovery jog
5 x (Run 30 secs very slowly / Run 20 seconds at moderate pace / Sprint 10 secs)
2-min recovery jog

Up/Down Fartleks
Run 1-min hard / Run 1-min easy
Run 2-min hard / Run 1-min easy
Run 3-min hard / Run 1-min easy
Run 2-min hard / Run 1-min easy
Run 1-min hard / Run 1-min easy
Take a 2-3 min recovery walk
Run 1-min hard / Run 1-min easy
Run 2-min hard / Run 1-min easy
Run 3-min hard / Run 1-min easy
Run 2-min hard / Run 1-min easy
Run 1-min hard / Run 1-min easy

Below are some Distance-Based Non-Track Workouts to try:
Note: It's best to begin all speed workouts with an easy 1-mile warm-up run and end the workout with an easy 1-mile cool-down run.

Wind Sprints

Staggered Hill Repeats
Find  hill that's approximately a 1/2-mile in length. (Can be shorter, but a 1/2 mile works great.). Doesn't have to be extremely steep. A steady incline will work nicely.
Run up the hill for 30 secs / Turn and walk down the hill for 30 secs.
Repeat this run up / walk down staggered process until you reach the top of the hill or the 1/2-mile mark. Then easy jog back down the hill and repeat for a second cycle.

Over the course of about 4 months, I take my RUNegades group through 16 different non-track speed workouts. The above workouts are just a few of what we do. Give them a try and let me know what you think!

The Anytime Anywhere Speed Workout

This completed the second week working with my intermediate running group. Most of the participants are running 3-5 miles and they're ready for the next level. The 12-week program introduces the runners to a variety of "quality workouts" such as warm-up drills, fartleks, hills, and tempo runs. We meet twice a week and begin each workout with a 10-exercise core workout followed by a warm-up and some running drills, followed by the featured "quality workout" for the week. This week we did landmark and timed fartleks.

After Friday night's workout, I went home to feast on a crock pot of beanie weenies (turkey franks) that I fixed earlier in the day. I must have been really hungry, cause I ate two large bowls with two hunks of cornbread. The dining experience gave a whole new meaning to the term "fartlek." It had its benefits though, because for some reason I found myself enjoying the solitude of the family room later that evening. Sitting in front of the wide screen with the food network blaring, I soon drifted off to lala land where I dreamed that Rachael Ray had discovered my Rice-n-Bean Burrito recipe and was coming to the studio for a visit. This was one of those dreams so realistic that when you wake up you're not sure if it really happened or not. Of course the fact that Rachael Ray was coming to visit me should have been the immediate clue that it was just a dream, but one can be delusional if he wants, just for a little while, right?

Back to quality workouts and fartleks. Fartlek is a Swedish word for speed-play. Basically a fartlek is an informal interval thrown into a regular run. Sounds complicated, but all you do is speed up for a certain amount of time or distance during a regular run. They can be short (200-400m). They can be long (800m or 1/2mile). You can throw them in at the beginning, middle, or throughout. You can use landmarks to determine when you start and end the fartlek (i.e. run to the next block, or the next mailbox) or you can time them (run easy for 5 minutes and run fast for 1 minute). You're in control.

The other great thing about fartleks is that you don't need a track or a hill. No special location needed. The street right in front of your house will do. It's the perfect anytime, anywhere speed workout.

So why fartlek? Adding bursts of speed during a run is a great way to help increase your overall pace and endurance. It helps to increase your VO2Max (your body's ability to utilize oxygen at the muscle layer to make energy) and push out your lactate threshold (the point when you feel that burn in your legs). Also, if you've stagnated in your running and just can't seem to go faster or further, adding a weekly fartlek will soon have you out of that rut. Another cool outcome to a run with fartleks is looking at your time after you finish. You'll be amazed at how fast you just ran your usual 5-miler.

So, give it a try. Add some fartleks to one of your weekly runs. Who knows, you may even dream about Rachael Ray afterwards, or maybe that has to be in combination with a pot of beanie weenies.

Got a Treadmill? Got Speedwork!

Many runners at some point will find themselves in a rut. They’ve stagnated. Same mileage at the same intensity, week after week. They may even be putting on a few pounds even though they’re running. So, what’s up?

Well, the better question to ask might be “What’s not up?” Once you’ve become an established runner, it doesn’t take long for your body to acclimate to the demands you’re putting upon it. So, while that 5-miler you do every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday may be providing you some good base mileage and an aerobic workout, it’s probably not doing much to help make you faster, fitter, stronger. Nor is it doing much to ramp up your metabolism, the key in keeping those pounds off.

What’s the answer? SPEEDWORK! One weekly interval workout will do wonders to jack up your metabolism helping to shed those few pounds. It will also help increase your VO2Max, which is your body’s ability take in and use oxygen at the muscle level where it’s used to make energy. That weekly interval workout will also help push out your lactate threshold. Lactate is a byproduct of energy production. Ever get that burning sensation in your legs when you speed up and run hard? That’s due to lactate buildup. Usually the body is able to clear it out of the blood and there’s no problem. But when you ramp-up speed or intensity too quickly, the lactate can build up quicker than the body is able to clear it out of the bloodstream. Exposing your body to faster runs can gradually push out that lactate threshold, so it will take longer before you feel that burn.

So, I know some of you are saying, “I’d love to add speed work, but I don’t live near a track.” Well, if you own a treadmill, have a membership to a gym with treadmills, or have friend or family member with a treadmill, then you can get in an awesome interval workout.

An interval is nothing more than running fast for a certain distance and then running slow for the same distance or for a specific time. Typically a short interval (like a 200m interval) is run at a pace that’s about 30 seconds slower than your 5K race pace. Longer intervals (like the 800m or 1200m) are typically run at 30 seconds slower than you 10K race pace.

Does the math to figure out the pace for such a short distance make your brain hurt? Don’t worry. I’m with you. Put that calculator down and use The McMillan Running Calculator instead. Simply select the distance (5K or 10K) and then put in your race time and hit “calculate.” The next screen will tell you paces for every training distance you’d ever need to know based on your 5K or 10K pace.

Most interval workouts use some combination of 200m, 400m, 600m, 800m, 1000m, and 1200m intervals. Each fast interval is followed by a slow recovery interval. The recovery interval isn’t based on a certain distance. It’s based on time. The shorter the fast interval distance, the shorter the recovery interval time. The longer the fast interval distance, the longer the recovery interval time. For example, a runner doing a 6x800m workout would take about a 90-second recovery interval jog/walk between each fast 600m interval. A runner doing a 4x1600m workout would take about a 3-minute recovery interval jog/walk between each fast 1600m interval.

Most treadmills have an oval track diagram on the control display providing a wonderful visual to track your progress as you run your intervals. If you’ve never run intervals on a track you may not be familiar with the typical interval distances. The key below can help you better understand the distances you’re running as you’re looking at the track display on your treadmill monitor.

• 200m = 1/2 lap (1/8 mile on the treadmill)
• 400m = 1 lap (1/4 mile on the treadmill)
• 800m = 2 laps (1/2 mile on the treadmill)
• 1000m = 2.5 laps (5/8 mile on the treadmill)
• 1200m = 3 laps (3/4 mile on the treadmill)
• 1600m = 4 laps (1 mile on the treadmill)

Your body can acclimate to intervals just like it does when running that same old 5-miler three times a week. So, mix-up your interval workouts. Keep your body guessing by varying the interval distances each week. There’s no right or wrong way. Just remember to insert a recovery interval in between each fast interval. Below are some sample workouts for you to incorporate once a week into your normal running routine. 

• Workout #1—5x1000m @5K race pace with 2-minute recovery (walk or jog) in between
• Workout #2—6x800m @10K race pace with 90-second recovery (walk or jog) in between
• Workout #3—Do Three sets of the following:  1x1200m @ 10K race pace with 1-minute recovery, 1x400m @5K race pace with a 3-minute recovery (walk or jog) before repeating the set
• Workout#4—4x1600m @10K race pace with 3-minute recovery (walk or jog) in between
• Workout#5—8x800m @10K race pace with 90-second recovery (walk or jog) in between
• Workout#6—400m @ 5K race pace (30sec recovery); 800 @ 10K race pace (90-sec recovery); 1200m @10K race pace (2-min recovery); 1600m @10K race pace (3-min recovery); 1200m @10K race pace (2-min recovery); 800 @ 10K race pace (90-sec recovery); 400m @ 5K race pace

Your total mileage for an interval workout may be no more than 3-4 miles, but you’re getting a lot more out of this workout than your regular 5-miler. Think of the interval workout as a “Quality Workout.”

To better simulate outside running, be sure to set your treadmill to an incline of 1° or 2°. This will help account for uneven terrain of outside running.

Quick-n-Simple Interval Workout

A speed workout is one of the best ways to kick your running program into high gear, but it doesn't have to be anything fancy. The key to an effective speed workout is speed. You can definitely get that doing repeats on the track, but you can also get in an effective speed workout while on the trail, running at the park or at home or in the gym on the treadmill.

Basically all you need is a series of slow and fast intervals. These intervals can be based on time or distance. For example you can run at a moderate pace for 4 minutes and then run fast (just below your 5K pace) for 1 minute. Or if you'd prefer to base the intervals on distance, try running a quarter mile at a moderate pace and then run a quarter mile at a fast pace. The key is to repeat this series of slow/fast intervals for at least 30 minutes.

Your workout might look like the following:
1. Begin with a 5-minute warm-up (a brisk walk or easy jog)
2. Select one of the following interval combinations below. Rotate between the slow/fast intervals for 30 minutes.
4 mins @ a moderate pace / 1 min @ a fast pace
3 mins @ a moderate pace / 2 mins @ a fast pace
1/4 mile @ a moderate pace / 1/4 mile @ a fast pace
1/2 mile @ a moderate pace / 1/2 mile @ a fast pace
3. Finish with a 5-minute cool-down (easy jog or walk)

Incorporate this workout once a week into your running routine and you'll see improved muscular endurance, improved VO2, improved speed, and overall better running efficiency.
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For a recap of the workout, check out the following video clip from RunnerDude's Fitness.

Sprint and Lift!

For year and years, the thought was that long slow runs were the best way to burn calories. Well, long slow runs will burn calories but there’s something else that happens during long slow runs. Something called cortisol is released. Cortisol actually can eat way at your muscle tissue. This can slow your metabolism causing you to burn fewer calories, and you can actually start to gain weight.

Have you ever heard a fellow runner say, "I run and run, but I can’t lose weight"? I bet if you dug deeper into their running routine, they’re probably running the same mileage at the same low-intensity pace week after week. Now while this is good aerobic exercise, it could be doing harm to their metabolism and muscle mass.

So what’s a person to do? The solution is really easy and some of you may already be doing it. Just mix up your routine with some speed work and some resistance training.

Speed work doesn’t have to be on a track. You can do speed work by throwing in something called fartleks into a regular run. A fartlek (I know you’re snickering) is nothing more than speeding up and slowing back down to the original pace over and over during a run. Fartleks can be timed (run at regular pace for 2mins and run a fartlek for 30 seconds or a minute or whatever time increments you like). Fartleks can be measured by distance (run at regular pace for 1 mile and run a fartlek for ¼ mile or whatever distance increments you like). Just remember that after the fartlek to pull back to the pre-fartlek pace. Repeat this process several times during a run and you’ve had a good speed workout. Be sure that your fartlek pace is around your 5K race pace. You can also do a more formal speed work by doing interval workouts at a track such a 6 x 400m). Hill workouts and tempo runs are also good to ramp up the intensity. Research has shown that short intense speed workouts burn just as many (if not more) calories as a long slow run and you don’t get the cortisol release.

A non-running activity to add to the mix is resistance training. I know, I know. It seems sacrilegious for a runner to advocate a non aerobic activity, but hear me out. Resistance training is a fancy way of saying weight training. Weight training or resistance training doesn’t have to consist of just dumbbells and barbells. It can be your body weight. Course, sometimes I’ve been called a dumbbell, but I’m sure I’m the exception.

Now, I know many of you still have ruffled feathers over the non-running activity thing, but be assured; I’m not talking about Arnold-building, bicep-bulging, scary-looking, meathead-with-no-neck kinds of workouts. Arnold and those other big boys used something called hypertrophy training. That’s training designed to create those big bulgy muscles. Runners can use something called endurance training.

Endurance training uses lower weight and higher reps. For this type of exercise, you’ll be using less than or equal to 67% of your one rep max. Basically that’s a weight that you can handle for about 12-15 reps. Or, you don’t even have to use any weight other than your body weight. Exercises like squats, lunges, and deadlifts are great resistance training exercises for runners (with or without weights). Upper body exercises are just as important. Ever been on a long run and your arms get fatigued? If you’ve increase their muscular endurance along with your legs, you’re going to delay fatigue much longer than just focusing on the legs. Core exercises are great too and are extremely important in maintaining proper running form which will help fight off fatigue.

Another key to endurance weight training is that there’s very little rest time in between sets (30 seconds). So give it a try. Lighter weights, higher reps, less rest time in between sets. Now endurance resistance training may not officially be an aerobic activity, but I guarantee that it will get your heart rate up and you breathing hard. Give it a try and you’ll see.

Now as an endurance runner, you’re going to do some long slow runs. In fact you’re going to be doing a lot of them, especially if you’re training for a marathon or ultra marathon. So what gives? Well that speedwork and resistance training also have other added benefits. Sprinting and other forms of speed work, causes the body to release human growth hormone factor which has been called nature’s fountain of youth. It helps your body build muscle tissue as well as repair muscle tissue quicker. Resistance training does a similar thing, it also helps to release human growth hormone factor (more in females) as well as testosterone (more in males). Both of these help build and repair muscle tissue. So, mixing-up your weekly routine with some speedwork and some resistance training helps to counteract the bad effects of cortisol released during a long slow run. Not only that, it also makes your weekly workouts much more interesting!