When you have plans to hit up your native observe this week, think about giving this damaged 400-metre interval exercise a strive. It’s difficult and enjoyable, and it’ll enable you enhance your velocity endurance for your subsequent 5K or 10K race.
The exercise
Slightly than working a complete lap of the observe, every interval on this observe session is damaged into two 200-metre repeats with a brief relaxation in between. The shorter intervals will let you crank up the velocity, whereas the brief relaxation ensures your coronary heart charge stays elevated to enhance your endurance on the similar time.
These intervals are supposed to be run quick–ideally, whenever you add up your time from every set of 200s, the overall time needs to be a bit quicker than your typical 400m time. One other means to consider that is working at 800m to 1,500m tempo.
The rep vary for this exercise is kind of giant, and there’s a motive for it. Whereas it might not look very difficult on paper, this exercise isn’t any joke. For those who’re new to speedwork or are simply getting again into coaching, think about doing fewer reps whereas preserving the depth excessive. For those who’re a speedwork veteran or are in the midst of a coaching block, purpose for the upper finish of the rep vary, so long as you may keep the depth.
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Warmup: 10 to twenty minutes’ simple jog, adopted by type drills
Exercise: 4 to 10 x (200m/30 seconds’ relaxation/200m/2 minutes’ relaxation)
Cooldown: 10 to fifteen minutes’ simple jog, adopted by gentle stretching
