Mix these simple running workouts with your regular loops to transform your fitness level “without the monotony and fatigue of longer, steady sessions,” says Josh Maio, the head coach for Gotham City Runners in New York City, who designed them exclusively for FITNESS. Get ready to start your engines.
1- Boost Your Speed: Fartlek Run
Fartlek, which means “speed play” in Swedish, is a training method that builds your aerobic power as you push your pace occasionally (think 90 percent effort), then drop back to a conversational clip.
Try it:
On your next run, warm up at an easy pace for 10 minutes. Go hard for 10 one-minute bursts, alternating with 60- to 90-second slow-jog recoveries—or however long it takes to catch your breath. Cool down at an easy pace for 10 minutes.
2- Boost Your Push-off Power: Intervals
Unlike fartleks, interval runs are designed with specific sprint-jog timing to maintain a certain level of intensity, which trains your heart, muscles and mind to break out of your comfort zone, Maio says.
Warm-up:
Jog at an easy pace for 5 to 10 minutes.
Dynamic stretches:
Do 30 seconds each of skips, high knees, butt kicks and cariocas (see Hill Repeats).
Intervals:
Run fast (at your goal race pace or at 80 to 85 percent of your max effort) for 2 minutes, then recover for 3 minutes by jogging as slowly as you need to. Repeat this sequence 3 times. Next, increase your speed (about 15 to 30 seconds faster than your fast run above) for 3 minutes. Recover with a slow jog for 2 minutes. Repeat this sequence 3 times.
Cool-down:
Jog at a steady pace for 5 minutes.
3- Boost Your Strength:
Hill Repeats
These runs—done up and down a hill, as the name suggests—really work your butt and legs like gangbusters. This plan requires only a single good hill with a gradual grade—something that’s about an eighth to a quarter mile long and takes 30 to 100 seconds to jog up.
Warm-up:
Jog slowly on level ground for 5 minutes.
Dynamic stretches:
Do 30 seconds each of skips, high knees, butt kicks and cariocas (Cross right foot over left, then step left foot out to left. Cross right foot behind left, then step left foot out to left. Repeat sequence, then reverse directions.).
Hill circuits:
As you approach the hill, start at an easy pace and progressively increase your speed to a moderately fast clip (your 5K race pace, if you know it) as you climb. At the top of the hill, do 10 to 15 push-ups or hold a plank position (balancing on hands and toes) for 30 seconds. Jog slowly down the hill. Do 7 to 11 circuits.
Cool-down:
Jog slowly on level ground for 5 minutes.
4- Boost Your Endurance:
Tempo Progression Run
In a tempo workout, you sustain a comfortably hard pace for stretches of five minutes or more; they’re longer pushes than in an interval workout but done at a slightly lower intensity. In the tempo session below, you’ll be doing a negative
split:
running the second half of the run at a faster pace than you do the first.
Warm-up:
Jog at an easy pace for 5 minutes.
50-50:
run Whether you’re measuring by minutes or miles, start the first half of your run at a conversational pace (about 70 percent of your maximum effort, or 15 to 20 seconds slower per mile than your goal pace). Once you hit the halfway mark, progressively speed up with each mile or 10-minute segment so you end the run going at a speed that’s 15 to 30 seconds faster than the goal pace you set.
Cool-down:
Jog at a steady pace for 5 minutes.
