On paper, a session of 8 x 400-meter repeats gives the illusion of an easy workout; but executed properly, these one-lappers can be a real doozy.

The workout, made popular by former marathon world-record holder Rob De Castella of Australia, is as simple as it sounds: eight, one-lap repeats of the track. The pace: it varies (more on this in a bit). The recovery: a scant, but swift, 200-meter float.

De Castella would perform this session weekly throughout the year, regardless of whether he was training for a marathon or not. The pace of the workout would fluctuate 鈥渄epending on if Rob was recovering in the winter versus when he was in peak shape and flying,鈥� recalled Derek Froude in Michael Sandrock鈥檚 Running With The Legends.

So how fast should you run your repeats? De Castella recommends an anaerobic threshold pace, or your fastest maintainable speed. For most runners, this roughly translates to a speed that is slightly faster than your current 5K race pace. Doesn鈥檛 sound too difficult, right?

Here鈥檚 the catch. The recovery between each repeat is a 200-meter, or half a lap, 鈥渇loat鈥� 鈥� not a walk or slow jog, but more of a brisk trot. The key to this session is that you never completely recover before starting the next 400-meter interval, and as the workout progresses you鈥檒l be forced to work harder to maintain the same pace at which you started out. This is threshold training at its truest, simulates race surging and will teach your body to recover quickly while running fast.

鈥淎s you get fitter, your red line rises from about 80 percent of maximum heartrate to 90-95 percent,” writes world-renowned running coach and top exercise physiologist, Jack Daniels. 鈥淧hysiologically, threshold training teaches muscle cells to use more oxygen 鈥� less lactate is produced. Your body also becomes better at clearing lactate: race-day red line speed rises.”

Beginner (Shorter) Version

• Warmup: Run easily for 10-15 minutes; follow with 4 x 20-second strides.
• Workout: 4-6 x 400 meters (one lap of the track) with a 200-meter 鈥渇loat鈥� between intervals. Run the 400鈥檚 at 1-2 seconds per lap (4-8 seconds per mile) faster than your current 5K race pace and the 200鈥檚 at a pace that鈥檚 about a minute per mile slower than your 5K pace.
• Cooldown: Run easily for 10-15 minutes, stretch, refuel.

Advanced (Longer) Version

• Warmup: Run easily for 20-25 minutes; follow with 6 x 20-second strides.
• Workout: 8 x 400 meters (one lap of the track) with a 200-meter 鈥渇loat鈥� between intervals. Run the 400鈥檚 at 1-2 seconds per lap (4-8 seconds per mile) faster than your current 5K race pace and the 200鈥檚 at a pace that鈥檚 about a minute per mile slower than your 5K pace.
• Cooldown: Run easily for 20-25 minutes, stretch, refuel.

When all is said and done, a full session of Deek鈥檚 Quarters yields two miles worth of faster intervals but totals three miles of total work since you’re not taking a full recovery between 400m intervals. This workout benefits a wide range of runners from weekend warriors hoping to improve their 5K time to serious marathoners looking to lop minutes off their personal best. De Castella used to perform this workout weekly, but for most runners, tackling such a session every other week or even once every third or fourth week is plenty. As you get fitter, your lap times 鈥� and your race times鈥攚ill get faster.

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I love hill workouts. Running up and down a hill gives you the most bang for your training buck: power, strength, endurance, and speed 鈥� all wrapped into one workout. The Sisyphus Session adds mental toughness to that mix.

For those who aren’t quite up to date on their Greek mythology, a quick refresher: was a greedy and deceitful mythical king who was punished for his crimes by being sentenced to roll a large boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll all the way back down to the bottom before he could ever reach the top. Despite his best efforts, he was forced to keep pushing the rock up the hill for the rest of eternity.

This hill workout proceeds in much the same way, but, unlike our poor friend Sisyphus, you’ll have the good fortune of getting to the top. And stopping. Eventually.

One Workout for All

The Sisyphus Session is one of the bread-and-butter strength-building sessions I like to have athletes do toward the end of base-building, in the weeks before beginning more pace-specific workouts. I’ll assign some variation of this workout to 5K racers, marathoners and everyone in between. It’s one hill session that doesn’t discriminate.

As the name of the workout implies, you’ll be running up and down the hill a number of times. To get started, you need to find a moderately steep incline that’s at least 400 meters long, ideally 800 to 1000 meters.

Before beginning the workout, warm up with 15 to 20 minutes of easy jogging. Follow that up with some and a set of four to six 10鈥�20-second strides on flat ground.

Workout Overview

鈥� 30 seconds uphill @ 5K pace, jog down

鈥� 60 seconds uphill @ 5K pace, jog down

鈥� 90 seconds (1:30) uphill @ 5K pace, jog down

鈥� 120 seconds (2:00) uphill @ 5K pace

Walk down. Recover. Repeat the full set up to 3 times.

Effort-Based

After warming up, run up the hill for 30 seconds at roughly 5K race effort, then jog back down to the start for recovery. Note, the key word in that instruction is “effort.”

If you typically wear a GPS watch when you train, don’t pay attention to the pace. It will be slower than your actual race pace because you’re fighting against gravity 鈥� and since you’re not covering much horizontal ground at any one time it likely won’t register accurately on the watch, anyway. This workout is all about effort.

Without the aid of technology, how do you know if the effort level is where it’s supposed to be as you’re running up the hill? It’s as easy as asking yourself, “Can I maintain this level of intensity for 3 more miles?” If the answer is “no,” then back off the effort a bit.

Increasingly Long

Once you get back to the bottom of the hill, turn around and head right back up again at the same 5K-pace effort for 60 seconds. Pay close attention to your form as the workout progresses and you start to fatigue. Shorten your stride, get up on your forefeet, lift your knees and drive your arms back. You should have the sensation of being pulled up the hill by a climbing harness attached to your hips.

When you hit the 60-second mark, turn around and jog back down to the start.

At the bottom, do it all over again, this time going up the hill for 90 seconds.

Congratulations, you’re almost there.

After jogging back down the hill after the 90-second climb, head back up the hill for 2 minutes at the same effort.

Pat yourself on the back when you reach the top. You’ve finished the first set. Walk down to the start, grab some water, recover.

A completed set gives you 5 minutes worth of running uphill at an effort you should be able to maintain for a 5K race.

For a beginning runner or someone just getting back into harder workouts after a lengthy layoff, this is likely plenty of work the first time out. For more advanced runners looking to build some early-season strength, you can handle two to three sets (10-15 minutes of uphill running). If you’re feeling paticularly ambitious, try a fourth set, but for most runners, three will be more than enough. This is a tough session!

Variations

Besides choosing the number of sets you complete, you can make this session easier or harder by altering the length of the climbs.

One variation of this workout is to shorten the length of each uphill rep (e.g. start with 15 seconds, work your way up to a minute). This is a good option for easing into hill work, allowing you to do more sets with less training stress 鈥� unless you choose to hit each climb harder, changing it into more of a power workout.

Another option is to find a hill with multiple twists and turns and forget about running up and down for set amounts of time. Simply run hard to the first turn and jog back down. Do the same to the next turn and continue proceeding in this manner until you reach the top of the hill. Adjust your effort level for the uphill runs based on the length of the hill and the number of sets you’re hoping to complete. In general, I suggest aiming for 10鈥�15 minutes of uphill running at a strong effort, for experienced runners.

In my college cross-country days, we did this workout on a stretch of dirt called Mountain Road, which was exactly one mile from bottom to top. We’d run up to various landmarks along the road, turn around and do it again…and again…and again 鈥� until we’d finished the workout with an all-out ascent to the top, at which point we were finally allowed to stop.

Updated from an article originally published May 2016.

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It鈥檚 mid-winter and you haven’t really started training for the spring marathon you signed up for yet. Now you’re shocked to realize how close it is. Or maybe a friend just told you they鈥檙e going to run a marathon鈥攁nd you should join them. Is there still time to get in decent enough shape to finish it?

Yes, of course, assuming you鈥檝e been active and running a bit since the fall. We鈥檇 normally suggest a 12- to 14-week plan for optimal marathon training, but if you don鈥檛 have that much time you can still improve your situation in the next two months. We’ve designed an 8-week marathon training plan () aimed at getting you to the finish line with more aerobic fitness, strength, and speed than you have now.

The plan includes all the elements of a successful marathon training program: long runs, tempo runs, fartleks, and a few speed workouts (Learn more about each type of workout and how they fit into your marathon training program in our ).

This plan assumes that you’ve had some experience with speed workouts and are comfortable doing a workout like 6 x听 800m or a steady run of 10鈥�12 miles without getting unduly beat up. Keep your efforts moderate听 鈥� you don’t need to kill any one workout. The combination of paces and workout types will get your body ready to run smooth, fast and efficiently, while making sure you don’t break down before you get to the start.

You might not set a new PR, but you’ll be ready to handle the distance (if you pace appropriately) and you鈥檒l be able to savor the moment you cross the finish line.

Originally appeared in 听痴别濒辞笔谤别蝉蝉

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At some point in your running journey most runners go from just wanting to finish a distance to wanting to finish it faster. Running faster, however, presents a problem. How do you learn to set and hold a faster pace?

The answer is as simple as sprinkling some small doses of speed work into your training schedule. As a newer runner, chances are you鈥檙e running over the same roads or on the same treadmill at the same speed every day. You鈥檙e using the same muscles in the same manner every time you lace up your sneaks. Then, when it comes time to race, you find yourself stuck in second gear from start to finish. In order to start shifting speeds, your metronomic muscle memory will need some new stimulation.

If you鈥檙e new to racing and want to reach the finish line faster, use these simple suggestions to safely start inserting some speed work into your training schedule.

Speed Workout 1: Strides

When introducing speed work into a training program, it鈥檚 important to do so safely. Running faster will force you to break out of your comfort zone and start recruiting your previously unused fast-twitch muscle fibers. Doing too much, too soon, however, will result in injury, so it鈥檚 important to sprinkle in speed work in small doses.

Strides are an easy and effective way to gently fire up those fast-twitch muscle fibers that will power your future speed workouts. So, how do you do them?

After one or two of your regular old runs during the week, find a flat stretch of road and accelerate for 8鈥�12 seconds. Once you approach top speed, gradually decelerate back down to a jog. Repeat four to six times and take a minute or so between repeats to fully catch your breath and get ready to go again. Remember, these aren鈥檛 all-out sprints but short accelerations. Focus on running relaxed with fluid form: get up on your toes and lift your knees a little more than you ordinarily would while covering ground quickly and comfortably.

In the beginning, a set of four to six strides two to three times a week after your regular runs is plenty. As your training progresses, strides will become something of a speed maintenance session, as well as serve as part of a warm-up routine for some of the more advanced speed workouts described in the following pages.

Speed Workout 2: Fartlek

Once you鈥檝e made strides a regular part of your training regimen, you鈥檒l be ready to start stepping up the speed work ladder. Fartlek 鈥� Swedish for 鈥渟peed play鈥� 鈥� is a great way to get your wheels spinning. This type of speed workout can be done on the roads, trails or treadmill and all you鈥檒l need is a little imagination or a reliable watch.

Essentially, is a series of faster pickups with a recovery interval in between. The length and speed of the pickups, as well as the recovery intervals, is totally up to you. When out on the roads or trails, after an easy warm-up jog of a mile or two, find an object off in the near distance, be it a tree, rock or telephone pole, and run to it at a pace faster than you ordinarily would. Once you reach your destination or start feeling fatigued, jog gently or even walk until you鈥檙e feeling recovered and then repeat the process all the way home.

If you prefer a little more structure in your speed play or are tied to the treadmill, set your watch so your pickups are of a predetermined duration, whether it鈥檚 30 seconds, 10 minutes or anything in between. Use the shorter pickups to practice sprinting and utilize the longer intervals to run strong at a steady pace you hope to maintain in a race. Mix in both short, fast running and longer, steady stretches to tap into your anaerobic system and increase your aerobic capacity, and thus improve your ability to maintain a faster pace. Try to perform a fartlek workout once a week and allow yourself a few days of easy running or rest afterward to ensure you recover completely.

Speed Workout 3: Hill Repeats

Few workouts offer more bang for your buck than running up a hill. Uphill repeats will help you get stronger and faster and will improve your running form all at the same time. Along with fartleks, hill workouts serve as a good transition workout before you add more advanced workouts, like track sessions and tempo runs, into your schedule.

While there are a that runners can mix into their training schedules, start with sets of short, swift repeats in the range of 20鈥�60 seconds on a moderate grade with an easy jog or walk back down the hill for recovery. By keeping the repeats at a minute or less, you can do more of them, run each one with good form, and reap all the benefits an incline has to offer.

Running up a hill encourages good running form because you鈥檙e forced to get up on your forefoot, lift your knees, and drive your arms to propel yourself forward. Try to run tall and plant your foot under your center of gravity while taking short, quick, powerful strides.

Muscularly, you engage everything from your lower legs to your hamstrings, hip flexors, core, and lower back when running uphill鈥攁ll while fighting gravity. It鈥檚 essentially running-specific weight lifting for your legs. The stronger you can make these muscles, the more resilient you will be to injury.

Since you have to work harder to get up a hill than you do to move forward on flat ground, your heart rate will elevate more quickly, providing an instant stimulus to your cardiovascular system. The result? You get fit鈥攆ast!

Speed Workout 4: Track Repeats

When most new runners think of speed work they immediately think of gut-wrenching laps around a track. This misrepresentation of the truth behind track workouts often prevents a lot of runners from deviating from the safety of their regular routine.

Regardless of your ability level, this shouldn鈥檛 be the case. Track work in the form of interval training is one of the most precise ways to keep your speedometer in check on race day. Similar to fartlek training in that bouts of faster running are separated by recovery intervals, track training will better allow you to keep a close eye on your pace and give you an accurate idea of what you鈥檒l be capable of in a race.

Introduce track workouts into your training schedule only after strides have become part of your regular routine and you鈥檝e had some fun with a few fartlek workouts and hill sessions. When setting out to do a track workout, warm up with a mile or two of easy jogging and then perform a set of four to six strides in order to get your fast-twitch muscle fibers ready to do some work.听 As for the workout itself, aim for two to three miles鈥� worth of intervals ranging from 200 meters (1/2 a lap of the track) to one mile (four laps) and run them at your goal 5K race pace or even a few seconds per mile faster. For recovery, jog or walk for half the duration of the faster interval before starting the next one.

So, for example, if your goal race pace for 5K is 8:00 per mile, a sample track workout would be to run one mile at your goal pace of 8:00 and follow that that with 4:00 of slow jogging or walking for recovery. Then run 2 x 800 meters at 3:55, or 10 seconds per mile faster than your goal race pace, and follow each of those intervals with about 2:00 of walking or jogging. Finish fast with 2 x 400 meters in 1:55 with about a minute recovery in between and cool down with a mile or two of jogging afterward. You should finish the workout feeling pleasantly tired and not absolutely annihilated.

Track workouts are very demanding on the body, so be sure to treat them with the respect they deserve 鈥� performing them once a week or even every other week is plenty, especially if you鈥檙e racing regularly. And as with any other type of hard session, recovery is key, so be sure to run easy or rest in the days following a track workout.

.

Updated from an April 2014 article.

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Train to run your fastest 5K in 10 weeks

Want to run a fast 5K? You don’t need to run the volume that you’d do for marathon training, but you’ll require speed and stamina to run fast for what feels like a very long time. combines a variety of workouts 鈥� hills, tempos, progressions, fartleks, long runs and track sessions 鈥� to hone your aerobic system, efficiency, speed and power.

This advanced 5K training plan is for those who have a few years experience under your belt and have so that 45 minutes a day, 30鈥�40 miles per week is normal. Tried and true workouts will put you on track to your fastest 5K in just 10 weeks.

Training Terms Defined

Easy Run

Aim to comfortably cover the distance at a conversational pace. Adding 90-seconds to two minutes per mile to your goal 5K race pace should do the trick.

Strides

This set of six short accelerations should be performed after an easy run and as part of your warmup for key workouts. Strides are a way to maintain turnover and improve efficiency. Accelerate for 5 seconds, run at your fastest sustainable speed for 10 seconds, and then decelerate for the final 5 seconds. Take a minute between strides to get your breath back.

Warmups & Cooldowns

Precede each of your key hill workouts, fartlek sessions, tempo runs and track workouts with 15鈥�20 minutes of easy running and a set of 4鈥�6 x 20-second strides to warm up. Follow the workout with 15鈥�20 minutes of easy running to cool down.

Hills

These sessions will build strength and stamina without tearing your legs apart. Find a moderate incline that forces you to get up on your toes. A 4鈥�6% grade on a treadmill will suffice, too. Walk or jog down the hill between repeats for recovery.

Fartlek

The term means . In this program, fartlek workouts consist of pickups measured by time rather than distance which you do in the middle of runs on the road or trail.

X-Training

Alternative aerobic exercise in the form of cycling, water running, swimming or the elliptical machine. These are scheduled before or after your key workouts for the week and cross training for 30 to 60 minutes on your non-running days is a good way to get in extra volume without beating up your body.

The 10-Week Advanced 5K Training Plan

Plan originally published June 2011

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Lee Troop knows a few things about the marathon. The 47-year-old Boulder resident was a three-time Olympian for Australia and holds a personal best of 2:09:49 for the distance. He now some of the best runners in the United States, , who placed second in the 2020 Olympic Trials marathon.

One of Troop’s key marathon-specific workouts is a progressive long run, done twice during the last two months before the race. Here are the key details:

WHAT: An 18-mile long run that starts off easy and gets faster every 3 miles. The last 6 miles are completed at goal marathon pace.

For example: If your goal marathon pace is 7:30 per mile, begin the run with 3 miles at an easy training pace. Then run miles 4-6 at 8:15 per mile, miles 7-9 at 8:00 per mile, miles 10-12 at 7:45 per mile, and the last 6 miles at your goal marathon pace of 7:30 per mile.

WHY: 鈥淚t gives me a really good indication of what they鈥檒l be able to hit [on race day],鈥� Troop says. 鈥淚f they hit it, we can go into the last couple weeks [of training] with a lot of confidence.鈥�

WHEN AND HOW: Troop has his athletes complete this challenging workout eight weeks out from their goal race, then again four weeks out. They use this workout to also practice their fluid and fuel intake: taking a water bottle every three miles.

鈥淭his is one of the last hard workouts we do,鈥� explains Troop. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 done off a fairly heavy block of training leading into it, so it鈥檚 just the right amount of stress.鈥�

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Think back to your elementary school days and the first race you probably ever ran: the gym-class mile. If you ran track competitively in high school or college, you might have raced the mile; a fast, four-loop race that is surprisingly tough as well as tactical. Fast-forward a few years, you’ve done countless 5Ks, dozens of 10Ks and half-marathons and and a handful of marathons, but racing the mile has likely been relegated to a former life.

Fortunately for those of us who would like to return to the simpler racing of our youth, the mile has made a comeback, both the four-lap event at all-comer鈥檚 track meets and unique road miles in cities across the country, offering an alternative to long-distance racing and a different way to connect with the sport.

鈥淭he race is hard enough that it takes a great deal of effort, but short enough that anyone feels like they can do it,鈥� says Erik Nedeau, a former 3:57 miler, and the听former cross-country and track coach at Amherst College in Massachusetts. 鈥淎 5K might seem long to some and a marathon too much of an endeavor, whereas knowing that there is a local mile race coming up can be just the motivator.鈥�

Don鈥檛 fear the mile. It鈥檚 not just an exclusive all-out sprint reserved for a handful of fast folks with spiked shoes. Whether you鈥檙e trying to break five minutes or 12 minutes, this classic footrace allows all runners to test their personal limits.

A Balance of Strength and Speed

To race the perfect mile, a runner needs to possess an equal balance of strength and speed. The fastest guy in the field won鈥檛 make it to the finish line first if he isn鈥檛 strong enough to hold that speed for 5,280 feet. And the strongest guy won鈥檛 win, either, if he doesn鈥檛 have a decent set of wheels. Use this plan to maximize how long you can maintain your fastest sustainable speed for four laps of the track or a one-mile stretch of road, while fighting off the inevitable rush of oxygen debt this middle-distance race is known for.

鈥淟ike any race of longer distance, strategy and tactics are learned by experience, training, trial and error,鈥� says John Mortimer, a former professional runner whose mile personal best is 4:01.64. 鈥淏ut in the mile specifically, I suggest an athlete do race-specific training to teach the body to handle the increased levels of oxygen debt. Luckily at the end of a mile, it is only a few short minutes of pain versus miles of pain if one hits the wall in a marathon.鈥�

The twice-weekly workouts in our one-mile training blueprint represent a balanced mix of strength (hills), stamina (tempo runs) and speed (intervals) aimed at preparing you to run your best mile. You鈥檒l start with a one-mile time trial at the beginning of the training program, and the progression of the workouts over the following eight weeks are geared toward helping you improve this initial mark. Will some of these sessions be uncomfortable? Most definitely, but training for and racing the mile is all about embracing a new challenge, dealing with a few minutes of discomfort and breaking through barriers.

The Training Plan

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Every week, runners from Boulder to Budapest head to the track in search of speed. Elites and age-groupers circle the oval in repeats ranging from 200 meters to two miles. More often than not, however, these sessions follow a predictably bland format: 10 x 400 meters, 6 x 800 meters, 3 x 1 mile, etc. You get the picture.

Don’t get me wrong, these standard track sessions are all great workouts, but they’re rather monotonous.听One of my favorite, not-so-boring workouts is repeat kilometers, or “Ks” in runner-speak. Right out of the gun they are different as they don’t start and end at the same place: 1,000m requires 2 and half laps of a 400m track.

They’re also a nice moderately-long distance for playing with different purposes and strategies. Depending on the training focus of the athlete and where he or she is at in the training cycle, Ks can take many different forms and achieve a variety of different ends by manipulating paces, the number of repetitions and the recovery intervals in between.

Spice up your next speed work session by finding a place for听one of the following four workouts:

Cruise Ks

A close cousin of the , cruise intervals are essentially a sustained effort broken into smaller chunks with a short recovery period between repetitions. A bunch of one thousand meter reps are a great way to get in some lactate threshold work without totally destroying yourself.听Cruise intervals are an effective early-season strength workout for 5K-10K runners and an excellent alternative to the tempo run for half marathoners and marathoners.

A sample cruise interval workout using Ks is 10 x 1K @ half-marathon pace (or a touch faster) with 30鈥�60 seconds recovery between reps.

Race-Pace Ks

Exactly as the name implies, these Ks are runs at goal race-pace with a relatively short recovery between reps. This is a great workout to run about 10 days out from a goal 5K or 10K to give you the confidence that you’re ready to roll on race day.

An example of a race-specific workout using Ks is 5 x 1K @ 5K race pace with 1:00 recovery between reps, or 8 x 1K at 10K race pace with 1:00鈥�2:00 recovery between reps.

Alternating Ks

These Ks will keep you on your toes! Performing a session of 1-kilometer repeats alternating between two to to three different paces is a great way to stress a few systems in the same workout 鈥� and adds some fun variety.

For example: Run 8 x 1K, alternating between 5K pace and half marathon pace on each repeat. Take 2鈥�3 minutes recovery after the 5K-pace intervals and 1鈥�2 minutes after the half-marathon-pace efforts.

Or, try descending pace sets: Run 3 x 1K with the first rep at half-marathon pace (followed by 1:00 recovery), the second at 10K pace (2:00 recovery), and the last at 5K pace. Take a 3鈥�4 minute recovery and repeat the set 3鈥�4 times.

For marathoners and half marathoners, try 12鈥�16 x 1K, alternating between marathon pace and half-marathon pace with a short rest (30鈥�60 seconds) between reps. This is a brilliant way to improve your fatigue resistance and develop a better sense of race rhythm.

Sit-n-Kick Ks

Perhaps my favorite variation of 1-kilometer repeats, sit-n-kick Ks are designed to help 5K and 10K runners improve their finishing kick at the end of races.

Take a standard set of repeat Ks, say 5 x 1K at 5K pace, but rather than maintaining a steady pace throughout, run the first 800 meters (2 laps of the track) at 5K race pace, then change gears and kick home for the final 200 meters.

Or 10K runners doing 8鈥�10 x 1K can run 600 meters (1.5 laps) at 10K pace, then 听kick hard over the final 400 meters.

If you would normally take 2:00 rest between reps when running a workout of 1K reps at a consistent pace, add another 30 to 60 seconds if you add the gear-changing element into the mix.

—

About the Author

听is a Bay Area-based running coach who works with a number of Olympic Trials-level marathoners, internationally ranked ultrarunners, and competitive age-group athletes. He also writes and publishes听, a weekly email newsletter and podcast that covers running and other topics that interest him.听Follow Mario on听听, and听.听

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In the early phases of a training program, many runners regularly do as a way to work on lower-leg strength, improve power and reinforce the basic tenets of good running mechanics. Later in the training cycle, however, hill workouts tend to get replaced by a听weekly interval session (or two) in order to improve speed, enhance efficiency and dial in race pace. And while there’s nothing wrong with transitioning to more frequent interval work leading up to race day, it’s always surprised me that many coaches and athletes seem to forget about hill workouts altogether once they get into the meat of the training cycle.

One of my favorite early-to-mid-season workouts I assign my athletes interrupts a traditional interval workout with a set (or sets) of hill repeats. The purpose of doing so is to introduce a new training stimulus that will challenge the musculoskeletal system in addition to the aerobic system. Also, keeping some hill work in the weekly rotation acts as a means of muscular support during a period that’s usually heavily focused on improving specific fitness for a goal race.

So how long should your hill repeats sandwiched into the middle of an interval workout be? It depends on what you’re trying to achieve with them. For emphasizing pure power and maximum muscle-fiber recruitment, max-intensity sprints in the range of 10-12 seconds with full recovery between repeats will do the trick, while longer hill repeats in the range of 30-90 seconds will help you to develop a greater level of fatigue resistance in your legs.

Here are three examples of classic short, medium and long interval workouts, along with different options for effectively interrupting them with an incline.

Option 1: Short Intervals

Typical Workout: 12 x 400m at 5k race pace (or slightly faster) with 60-90 seconds recovery between repetitions

Interruption Option: 2 sets of 4-5 x 400m at 5k race pace (0r slightly faster) with 60-90 seconds recovery between repetitions. Follow each set of flat 400m repeats with 2 x 60-second hill repeats on a moderately steep grade at the same effort. Recover from each repeat by jogging back down to the bottom of the hill. The added element of the incline stimulates promotes muscular gains you don’t get from running fast on flat ground.

Option 2: Medium Intervals

Typical Workout: 5 x 6 minutes at 10k race effort with 3-minute recovery jog between repetitions

Interruption Option: Use the base of a moderately steep hill as the starting point for your intervals. Begin your 6-minute reps at the base of a hill, running away from it on a flat stretch of ground for 3 minutes at 10k race effort before turning around and returning at the same pace. Take 2-3 minutes of walking/jogging recovery after each flat 6-minute rep, then charge up the hill for 30 seconds at a hard effort that’s 10-15% short of all-out. Focus on driving your arms, getting up on your toes and charging up the hill with strong form. After competing the 30-second uphill effort, take 2-3 minutes of recovery and repeat the sequence four more times.

Option 3: Long Intervals

Typical Workout: 3-4 x 2 miles at half-marathon race pace with a 3-minute recovery jog between repetitions

Interruption Option: Take a 2:30 recovery after each 2-mile repetition and then perform 2 x 10-second hill sprints at max effort. Recover fully with 1:30 to 2:00 of walking/light jogging after each hill sprint before beginning the next 2-mile/2 x 10-second hill sprint sequence. The short, but intense uphill efforts recruit a greater number of muscle fibers, which will rapidly increase the muscular fatigue in your legs, making each subsequent 2-mile effort that much more of a challenge. At the end of the session, you’ll have gotten in 8 miles of running at goal half-marathon race pace, 80 seconds worth of high-intensity hill work and a toasted set of legs. This is a big workout 鈥� be sure to recover well in the days that follow!

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Need听a challenging workout you can do year-round, regardless of your specific training focus?

Look no further than 400s on the track 鈥� but with a slight twist. Rather than busting out a handful of single-lappers as fast as you can with a long, hand-on-knees recovery between repeats, alternate running 400m at your 5K-10K pace with a 400m “recovery” lap 10 seconds slower than the one you just completed. This is the catch. These aren’t really 400m repeats 鈥� it’s a continuous workout. No stopping!

So how long should you go? Until you can no longer maintain the target paces, explains听, an听elite runner and coach based in Andover, Mass.

Jenkins, seventh-place finisher at the who represented the U.S. at the 2009 World Championships, says, “This is a workout you could do every week of the year and have it be the right workout at the right time. You get some specific work but the faster rests prevent it from becoming so anaerobic that it is dangerous in the base phase.”

Workout Instructions

If your current 10K race pace is 8 minutes per mile, that breaks down to 2 minutes per fast 400m. For this workout, alternate running one lap at 2:00 with a “recovery” lap at 2:10 (8:40/mile pace) until you can no longer maintain those paces. Alternating 400s, a similar workout to , takes a lot of discipline in order to execute properly and stay on pace.

Why You Should Do It

It’s is a great benchmark workout 鈥� one that you can repeat every few weeks as a means of tracking your progress. As your fitness level improves over the course of a training cycle, try running your faster laps closer to 5K pace, which means your “recovery” laps will also speed up a bit. If you can run more laps at the same pace than the last time you completed the workout, it’s a sure sign that your fitness is improving.

“This is a great threshold workout,” Jenkins says. “It also really forces you to relax at quick speeds. Too听often we hammer workouts and extend rests to hit times and that is counter-productive because there are no rests on race day. This forces you to recover while running pretty quickly and to relax while running race pace because if you aren’t relaxed at pace you won’t be able to recover during the quick 400m rest.”

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