This section explains the four main types of running or workouts we will do. We may sometimes squeeze two of these types of workouts into one workout. The most common example of this is doing strides after an easy run.
Easy/Recovery Pace – E (example: 30-60 minutes at 7:30-8:00 mile pace)
This is running done at an easy pace. Most runners should be able to talk while running at an easy pace, though this might be difficult for new runners. The goal is simply to strengthen your body so you can do faster, harder running. When you spend a lot of time running, your body strengthens itself in two main ways.
It strengthens your joints, bones, tendons, muscles and ligaments. These tissues adapt to the stress of running and are able to handle more and more running. This is why runners who have been running for years can usually do a lot more work than new runners without getting hurt.
It also strengthens your cardiovascular system. When you run long easy runs, it increases your hearts ability to pump blood. Just like any muscle, when you work your heart, it gets bigger and stronger. Also, blood vessels grow and increase their ability to transport blood. The biggest changes you will notice are increased endurance and often a lower resting heart rate.
Threshold/Tempo Pace – T (example: 20 minutes at 6:25 pace; or 3x1mile at 6:10 with 1-2 minute recovery between)
When you run at faster paces your muscles produce something called lactate. Your muscles can use this as a fuel, but they need to practice doing that. The best way to practice that is to spend time running at what is called your lactate threshold pace. This pace is the fastest speed you can run and still burn the lactate as fuel as fast as it is produced. The more time you spend at this speed, the more efficient you get at doing this, and the faster this threshold speed becomes.
For example, at the beginning of a season, your threshold runs might be at 6:30 pace, but by the end, you might be able to run 6:10 pace at the same effort. Threshold pace can be described as ‘comfortably hard.’ For experienced runners, it should feel like you could run this pace for 20-30 minutes without too much difficulty, but the thought of running that pace for an hour probably seems pretty tough. For new runners, the thought of running for an hour at any pace probably seems insane.
Interval/V02Max Pace – I (example: 5x800 meters at 2:30 with 2:30 recovery)
V02Max refers to your muscles ability to burn oxygen as a fuel, or rather, your body’s total ability to consume oxygen. Similar to lactate threshold training, the best way to increase this is to spend a lot of time running at the speed where your body uses the most oxygen. The more time you spend there, the better your muscles get at burning oxygen and the more work your muscles can do in a minute – or in a mile race. You may not remember those last three sentences, but once you do one, you’ll remember that interval paced workouts are the ones that hurt…a lot. They are the workouts where halfway through you’re going to wonder why you’re doing this crazy sport, and by the end of the workout, your body is trying to convince your mind that it cannot go anymore.
You may think trying to spend as much time as possible at a painful speed sounds nuts, but these are the workouts that make you able to run fast for a long time. They also don’t hurt as bad as a hard race. The reason for this is because of how we spend a lot of time running this fast. We do this by taking short breaks. No one can run their fastest mile time twice in a row without stopping. But if you do a workout such as the example above, you run for over 12 minutes at a really fast pace in one workout…a pace that you couldn’t hold for more than 5 or 6 minutes straight, even in your best races. This is more time spent training hard and this is what makes you better.
Repetition/efficiency Pace – R (example: 6x300 at 52 seconds with full recovery; or strides after an easy run)
The purpose of running at this speed is to make your stride smoother and more efficient when running at the speeds you would run in a race. The more efficient you are, the less energy you spend, which also means you can go faster with the amount of energy that you have. Though other workouts are hard, they are not at as fast a speed as you might race a mile or definitely not as fast as you would race an 800. Repetition pace is usually close to the speed you would race at, but for much shorter differences. The purpose is not to learn to run fast, but to learn to run fast with good form. For this reason, your rests should be long enough that you don’t feel exhausted by doing these. When you run at race speeds, your body decides the best way to run fast. It decides exactly how high your knee should lift, how to position your foot, how much your torso leans and how to swing your arms. You probably never even realized your body did all that, but do you really think about all that when you run fast? The more you practice this, the better the body gets at deciding these things, and the more your muscles get used to that stress.