sports science, research, training and performance
Intervals - a better understanding
Two of the most common misunderstood features in training are Intervals and Tempo runs. I want to look first at Intervals. I will look at how most programs “talk” about intervals and also how most people “do” intervals; both of which are usually wrong. Then I will give suggestions on how to do them right and what to look for in an interval program.
The Wrong way of TALKING about intervals
Most books/programs will give a set of intervals that are to be done on the track. They will give the volume (number of intervals), distance and the time to complete each one or effort to do them in. You usually see something like this:
8 x 400 @ 75 sec
What is wrong with this statement? Well, it is missing the most important part of the interval, the REST. How long should the REST be? Should it be jogged/ walked or lying down? How fast should it be jogged or walked? Most programs just give the “WORK” interval but there is also the REST interval. It is actually the REST interval which will determine the purpose for the particular interval. During the REST INTERVAL, you should be RECOVERYING. The “discoverer” of intervals was very clear on this, that the REST periods are as important as the Work periods!
The Wrong way of DOING intervals
Thus most people will go out and run 8 x 400 @ 75 with all kinds of different rests intervals, not knowing what to do. I found that I would do workouts like this routinely early in my career. I would just pummel the interval because I was so worried about RACING them. All I cared about was the time I ran them in. The rest was not important, I HAD to run these in a certain time or I would die!
The RIGHT WAY
When done right, intervals are great ways of improving training efficiency and race performance. The key is to get the REST right. It is very simple I believe. No matter what the interval length, volume, speed and/or effort, you should keep the REST interval about 30 to 90 sec and jogged at about a pace that is 1 min mile slower than your average training pace. The key is to manipulate distance, volume, speed and effort according to what you are training. If you are training for short races (1/2 mile through 2 mile) or are peaking; you may run fewer intervals, shorter distances and faster harder intervals. If you are training for longer races you obviously want to do more. Interval training is to help you sharpen up your ability to run at race pace and effort and to develop those energies system which are specific to you race.
THE FORMULA FOR SMART INTERVALS
Specificity: Zone Training
A key to training Smart is to train at the proper pace. If you are training for a 10K, you don’t train with mile training. This may sound obvious but then the problem is, at what pace do you train? My training program divides training into specific Racing Zones, for each type of race for which you are training. If you are going to train for a 5K, the appropriate zone is not in the 1 mile zone. This is very important. If you start working in another zone, you will lose the specifics for training for the race you are working towards. I will now go through and help you consider in developing your own interval sessions which lead you to RUNNING SMARTLY. The main components for Interval Training are:
. Total Interval distance
. Each Intervals Distance
. Rest Distance
. Interval Pace
. Rest Pace
Use the table below to help you figure out what paces to run for each Zone. These are from my scouring of books and tables. They are pretty close to giving approximate equivalences. These will help you figure how to RUN SMART. For instance if you run an 18 minute 5K and are training for an 8K, you projected 8K time would be 29:43.
Approximate Predicted times for Other Races Based on 5K Time
Distance based on 5K
1 mile 0.29 x 5K
2 mile 0.61 x 5K
5K Known
8K 1.65 x 5K
10K 2.11 x 5K
10mile 3.46 x 5K
½ marathon 4.70 x 5K
Marathon 10.00 x 5K
Total Distance of Interval Training
I like to add my interval work distance and interval rest distance together to come up with a Total Interval Distance (TID). A rule of thumb is that the TID is equal to the zone of your race or a little less.
Distance of Each Work Intervals
For every different kind of race there is a specific range of distances your intervals should be. For shorter races, you would use shorter intervals and for longer races, longer intervals. So for a 5k, you would intervals as short as 600 meters or as long as 1600 meters, while for Marathon training, you may a range or 1.5 miles to 3 miles for intervals.
Pace of intervals
The pace of the intervals should be in the low end of your racing zone or slower than the racing zone! Remember we are working on FITNESS not SPEED. So for a 5k, you would use paces Zone 4 and Zone 5, NOT ZONE 3. That is if you are gearing up for a 18 minute 5K, your intervals might be at 5:55 pace (29:43 8K) and not 5:48 pace (18:00 5K). Once in awhile you would go to lower zone perhaps when sharpening. If you go faster than your correct zone consistently you basically will not train the right energy systems for your race and thus you are not running smart!
Why run slower than pace?
The key is that you are training not racing. And your subconscious mind knows this. It doesn’t prepare when training as it does for the battle of racing! When you toe the line at a race, your heart rate automatically climbs, your blood vessels dilate and you can get more out of your body at a seemingly lower effort. However when you do intervals (or any other workout), your body does not respond this way and the same pace that you plan on racing will seem much harder. That is a 6 minute mile during training will FEEL harder than a 6 minute mile during a race. The key isn’t to run at race pace but to run at race effort or a below! (Which will feel like race pace!!) This goes against 90% of all training programs out there that claim you should train at race pace. My studies show that if you do run near race pace, you will end up running in the wrong zone and not RUNNING SMART!
Short rest intervals make Intervals race pace specific
One of the key components to Smart Running is not running your intervals too fast and getting the most out of them. One way to force you to run the correct and SMART pace is too have relative short rest intervals. I have determined that 200 meters is a good distance to use for any interval. There are two constants to running intervals; pace and rest interval. Thus you manipulate interval distance and total interval distance so that you can finish a workout appropriately. Make sure your rest intervals are 200 meters (or approximately one-tenth of a mile) and done at a pace which is about 2-2.5 min miles slower than your current 5k pace (or projected 5k pace). For instance, let’s say you run 6 min mile for a 5k pace. Your rest intervals (for any race preparation) would be at about 8 min to 8.5 min pace. This is very very important to learning how to RUN SMART.
Method in Running the Intervals: Simulating Races
First 3 minutes…A major key to Smart racing is negative splits. That is, the second half of a workout should be faster than the first. So typically when I do an interval set, I will start at a pace which is one zone higher than the zone I want to do most of my intervals. So if I want to do Zone 4 training, I would start in Zone 5. I would do the first half of intervals in Zone 5 and finish the last half in Zone 4 or a little faster. This will begin to teach your body and mind how to be prepared for a race since it simulates race conditions.
Tapering a Workout: Alternating Pace
There are three things I think about when I run my intervals. First, I try to make the first half of the intervals feel relaxed and know that I can crank it up another level or two in the second half. Second, I don’t like cranking it up all at once; I like to alternate slightly faster paced intervals with normal pace intervals during the second half. Third, I always run the last interval the fastest. Not all-out but maybe 1-2% faster than pace I started. This will develop your ability to RUN SMART during a race.
How should you feel after an Interval set?
When you are finished with an Interval set, you should feel as though you could have done 2 or 3 more at the same pace. You actually should feel refreshed in a certain way. NEVER NEVER FINISH AN INTERVAL SET with slower times then you started and feeling like you can’t do another one. This is not Smart Running. It is clearly Dumb running. So the key is to start “slow”, stay “slow” for the first 1/3 to 1/2, then get going. Remember this trend, will see it again and again!
The Perfect Interval Set
One of the fellows, Ben I am helping did the following workout. It was masterful. Ben ran a 17:41 for a 5K a few weeks back. So accordingly he did an interval workout in Zone 4/5.
Goal:
• Run 5 x 1200 averaging 4:30
• 200 jog in 1 minute.
• For the first 1200: 300 in 1:15, and 800 in 3:10.
Actual:
Interval 1: 4:42 - 200 jog in 56
Interval 2: 4:34 - 200 jog in 57
Interval 3: 4:29 - 200 jog in 57
Interval 4: 4:27 - 200 jog in 57
Interval 5: 4:19
TID = 4.25 miles, Total Time: 26:18, Total Pace Average: 6:11.3
Actual Average Pace of 1200s: 4:30
Here is what Ben had to say “I finished feeling really invigorated like I could have done a few more reps and could have gone faster. Normally, I finish an interval workout bent over my knees and gasping for air and on the last rep or two I usually dry heave. Today I finished the last one feeling great and jogged straight to the drinking fountain before rolling into my cool down. I also experimented on the first rep. I did the first 300 REAL slow (1:15) and didn't look at my watch at the 100 and 200 to influence things. Then I worked my way into pace. My first lap was 97 (!), followed by two 93s (800 in 3:10). I think doing that made the whole workout because after that I felt like I could gradually pick it up on each lap and then really pick it up on the last one. The jogs felt really easy too -- I think it's a great sign that a sub-60 second 200 jog feels like cake now.”
One of the impressive things about this workout is that Ben simulated how to run a perfect race as prescribed by the Smart Runner Principles. He ran the 300 and 800 exactly as he should if he were to run a race at 6 minute pace, EXACTLY! When Interval sessions are done right they will basically simulate a race but in parts.
Frequency of Interval Sets and Repetition
As a rule, I would say do no more than one interval set a week. If the Interval set has the specified TID then there is no reason to do another set during the week. If you really feel the need for more Intervals, increase your TID to the maximum for the particular zone you are working in.
Variation is KEY as well
Vary your types of interval sessions as well. For instance, don’t always do 800s with a TID of 4000 meters. Mix and match. I typically run a longer set one week followed by a shorter set the following week. Do what feels right. It is real easy to get stale doing the same workout over and over and it loses its effectiveness as well. Staleness takes its course! I rarely employ the same Interval workout or Hard workout over a month of training!
Bottom Line for Interval Training
To be a SMART RUNNER, you can’t talk about Interval training without talking about the Rest interval. This one factor can make or break the utility of your interval training. You also need to do your intervals correct, they can’t be too fast, too long or too often. To be a SMART RUNNER, requires that you be a THINKING and FEELING one.
The Wrong way of TALKING about intervals
Most books/programs will give a set of intervals that are to be done on the track. They will give the volume (number of intervals), distance and the time to complete each one or effort to do them in. You usually see something like this:
8 x 400 @ 75 sec
What is wrong with this statement? Well, it is missing the most important part of the interval, the REST. How long should the REST be? Should it be jogged/ walked or lying down? How fast should it be jogged or walked? Most programs just give the “WORK” interval but there is also the REST interval. It is actually the REST interval which will determine the purpose for the particular interval. During the REST INTERVAL, you should be RECOVERYING. The “discoverer” of intervals was very clear on this, that the REST periods are as important as the Work periods!
The Wrong way of DOING intervals
Thus most people will go out and run 8 x 400 @ 75 with all kinds of different rests intervals, not knowing what to do. I found that I would do workouts like this routinely early in my career. I would just pummel the interval because I was so worried about RACING them. All I cared about was the time I ran them in. The rest was not important, I HAD to run these in a certain time or I would die!
The RIGHT WAY
When done right, intervals are great ways of improving training efficiency and race performance. The key is to get the REST right. It is very simple I believe. No matter what the interval length, volume, speed and/or effort, you should keep the REST interval about 30 to 90 sec and jogged at about a pace that is 1 min mile slower than your average training pace. The key is to manipulate distance, volume, speed and effort according to what you are training. If you are training for short races (1/2 mile through 2 mile) or are peaking; you may run fewer intervals, shorter distances and faster harder intervals. If you are training for longer races you obviously want to do more. Interval training is to help you sharpen up your ability to run at race pace and effort and to develop those energies system which are specific to you race.
THE FORMULA FOR SMART INTERVALS
Specificity: Zone Training
A key to training Smart is to train at the proper pace. If you are training for a 10K, you don’t train with mile training. This may sound obvious but then the problem is, at what pace do you train? My training program divides training into specific Racing Zones, for each type of race for which you are training. If you are going to train for a 5K, the appropriate zone is not in the 1 mile zone. This is very important. If you start working in another zone, you will lose the specifics for training for the race you are working towards. I will now go through and help you consider in developing your own interval sessions which lead you to RUNNING SMARTLY. The main components for Interval Training are:
. Total Interval distance
. Each Intervals Distance
. Rest Distance
. Interval Pace
. Rest Pace
Use the table below to help you figure out what paces to run for each Zone. These are from my scouring of books and tables. They are pretty close to giving approximate equivalences. These will help you figure how to RUN SMART. For instance if you run an 18 minute 5K and are training for an 8K, you projected 8K time would be 29:43.
Approximate Predicted times for Other Races Based on 5K Time
Distance based on 5K
1 mile 0.29 x 5K
2 mile 0.61 x 5K
5K Known
8K 1.65 x 5K
10K 2.11 x 5K
10mile 3.46 x 5K
½ marathon 4.70 x 5K
Marathon 10.00 x 5K
Total Distance of Interval Training
I like to add my interval work distance and interval rest distance together to come up with a Total Interval Distance (TID). A rule of thumb is that the TID is equal to the zone of your race or a little less.
Distance of Each Work Intervals
For every different kind of race there is a specific range of distances your intervals should be. For shorter races, you would use shorter intervals and for longer races, longer intervals. So for a 5k, you would intervals as short as 600 meters or as long as 1600 meters, while for Marathon training, you may a range or 1.5 miles to 3 miles for intervals.
Pace of intervals
The pace of the intervals should be in the low end of your racing zone or slower than the racing zone! Remember we are working on FITNESS not SPEED. So for a 5k, you would use paces Zone 4 and Zone 5, NOT ZONE 3. That is if you are gearing up for a 18 minute 5K, your intervals might be at 5:55 pace (29:43 8K) and not 5:48 pace (18:00 5K). Once in awhile you would go to lower zone perhaps when sharpening. If you go faster than your correct zone consistently you basically will not train the right energy systems for your race and thus you are not running smart!
Why run slower than pace?
The key is that you are training not racing. And your subconscious mind knows this. It doesn’t prepare when training as it does for the battle of racing! When you toe the line at a race, your heart rate automatically climbs, your blood vessels dilate and you can get more out of your body at a seemingly lower effort. However when you do intervals (or any other workout), your body does not respond this way and the same pace that you plan on racing will seem much harder. That is a 6 minute mile during training will FEEL harder than a 6 minute mile during a race. The key isn’t to run at race pace but to run at race effort or a below! (Which will feel like race pace!!) This goes against 90% of all training programs out there that claim you should train at race pace. My studies show that if you do run near race pace, you will end up running in the wrong zone and not RUNNING SMART!
Short rest intervals make Intervals race pace specific
One of the key components to Smart Running is not running your intervals too fast and getting the most out of them. One way to force you to run the correct and SMART pace is too have relative short rest intervals. I have determined that 200 meters is a good distance to use for any interval. There are two constants to running intervals; pace and rest interval. Thus you manipulate interval distance and total interval distance so that you can finish a workout appropriately. Make sure your rest intervals are 200 meters (or approximately one-tenth of a mile) and done at a pace which is about 2-2.5 min miles slower than your current 5k pace (or projected 5k pace). For instance, let’s say you run 6 min mile for a 5k pace. Your rest intervals (for any race preparation) would be at about 8 min to 8.5 min pace. This is very very important to learning how to RUN SMART.
Method in Running the Intervals: Simulating Races
First 3 minutes…A major key to Smart racing is negative splits. That is, the second half of a workout should be faster than the first. So typically when I do an interval set, I will start at a pace which is one zone higher than the zone I want to do most of my intervals. So if I want to do Zone 4 training, I would start in Zone 5. I would do the first half of intervals in Zone 5 and finish the last half in Zone 4 or a little faster. This will begin to teach your body and mind how to be prepared for a race since it simulates race conditions.
Tapering a Workout: Alternating Pace
There are three things I think about when I run my intervals. First, I try to make the first half of the intervals feel relaxed and know that I can crank it up another level or two in the second half. Second, I don’t like cranking it up all at once; I like to alternate slightly faster paced intervals with normal pace intervals during the second half. Third, I always run the last interval the fastest. Not all-out but maybe 1-2% faster than pace I started. This will develop your ability to RUN SMART during a race.
How should you feel after an Interval set?
When you are finished with an Interval set, you should feel as though you could have done 2 or 3 more at the same pace. You actually should feel refreshed in a certain way. NEVER NEVER FINISH AN INTERVAL SET with slower times then you started and feeling like you can’t do another one. This is not Smart Running. It is clearly Dumb running. So the key is to start “slow”, stay “slow” for the first 1/3 to 1/2, then get going. Remember this trend, will see it again and again!
The Perfect Interval Set
One of the fellows, Ben I am helping did the following workout. It was masterful. Ben ran a 17:41 for a 5K a few weeks back. So accordingly he did an interval workout in Zone 4/5.
Goal:
• Run 5 x 1200 averaging 4:30
• 200 jog in 1 minute.
• For the first 1200: 300 in 1:15, and 800 in 3:10.
Actual:
Interval 1: 4:42 - 200 jog in 56
Interval 2: 4:34 - 200 jog in 57
Interval 3: 4:29 - 200 jog in 57
Interval 4: 4:27 - 200 jog in 57
Interval 5: 4:19
TID = 4.25 miles, Total Time: 26:18, Total Pace Average: 6:11.3
Actual Average Pace of 1200s: 4:30
Here is what Ben had to say “I finished feeling really invigorated like I could have done a few more reps and could have gone faster. Normally, I finish an interval workout bent over my knees and gasping for air and on the last rep or two I usually dry heave. Today I finished the last one feeling great and jogged straight to the drinking fountain before rolling into my cool down. I also experimented on the first rep. I did the first 300 REAL slow (1:15) and didn't look at my watch at the 100 and 200 to influence things. Then I worked my way into pace. My first lap was 97 (!), followed by two 93s (800 in 3:10). I think doing that made the whole workout because after that I felt like I could gradually pick it up on each lap and then really pick it up on the last one. The jogs felt really easy too -- I think it's a great sign that a sub-60 second 200 jog feels like cake now.”
One of the impressive things about this workout is that Ben simulated how to run a perfect race as prescribed by the Smart Runner Principles. He ran the 300 and 800 exactly as he should if he were to run a race at 6 minute pace, EXACTLY! When Interval sessions are done right they will basically simulate a race but in parts.
Frequency of Interval Sets and Repetition
As a rule, I would say do no more than one interval set a week. If the Interval set has the specified TID then there is no reason to do another set during the week. If you really feel the need for more Intervals, increase your TID to the maximum for the particular zone you are working in.
Variation is KEY as well
Vary your types of interval sessions as well. For instance, don’t always do 800s with a TID of 4000 meters. Mix and match. I typically run a longer set one week followed by a shorter set the following week. Do what feels right. It is real easy to get stale doing the same workout over and over and it loses its effectiveness as well. Staleness takes its course! I rarely employ the same Interval workout or Hard workout over a month of training!
Bottom Line for Interval Training
To be a SMART RUNNER, you can’t talk about Interval training without talking about the Rest interval. This one factor can make or break the utility of your interval training. You also need to do your intervals correct, they can’t be too fast, too long or too often. To be a SMART RUNNER, requires that you be a THINKING and FEELING one.
About the author of this blog post
Article courtesy of Josh Scully at online-running-coach.com. A competitive road runner and triathlete since 1983, Josh has successfully coached High School teams and individual athletes to perform at the very highest levels using his RUNNING SMART principles. His coaching achievements encompass Five State Champions; 35 All State Runners; Two Cross Country Team State Championships; Two Cross Country Team State Runner-ups; Four Cross Country Team State Third place finishes; Six time Cross Country Coach of the Year. Josh is a High school and college teacher and has a PhD in Biochemistry.
Josh offers online coaching at online-running-coach.com and his acclaimed book, Smart Running is available to purchase online. He can be contacted via email at smartrunning@sbcglobal.net.
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The material contained on this website is in no way intended to replace professional coaching or medical advice and should not be used as a basis for diagnosis or choice of treatment or training.
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