Interval Advice, but not from me!

Nate Jenkins is a local runner who writes with Running Times Magazine. His blog hasn't been updated in some time, but there is still plenty of older material to dive into. And I liked his response to a question in the comments section from this post to be really interesting. I'll have to try it some time...

The question basically asked what his thoughts were on active recovery between intervals vs. standing recovery.

His Response:

"There is a huge difference in the aerobic requirement of recovering while jogging vs. standing still. For example in your 10x400m workout if you jog 200m rests in 1min rather then stand in place this becomes an extremely tough session for your AEROBIC system as well as your anaerobic. why? well the simplest way to look at is this if you run 10x400m at 75 with 1min standing rests you will cover a total of 4000m in 21:30(over 8min mile pace average). you will do 4000m of work in this session in 12:30.

If you do the same session with the 200m jogs in 1min you will have the same 4k of work in 12:30 but you will cover 5800m in 21:30 (5:46 mile pace!!! average for nearly 4 miles of work. That is really tough to do for many runners.

Its funny but talking at a camp yesterday about this same subject and me and a good local college coach were in total agreement that this single thing is the easiest way to improve HS runners. So so often HS runners are doing VERY fast rep sessions but there races simply don’t line up. For example in HS I myself once ran 6×400 in 59 and I routinely ran an 8x400m in 65 session and thought it was kinda easy, but I only ran under 9:50 for two miles once or twice with a 9:47 PB. Now this winter I did 8×400 in around 65, but my best 3k was 8:10( roughly an 8:46 two mile) the difference in those sessions? well in the hs sessions I would take walking or standing rests, this winter I was running 200m in 40 to 45 seconds.

Quick jogging rests are one of the few ways to really train your aerobic system to the specific demands of racing. If I were to give a HS runner one tip for BIG improvement in a short while it would be to do aussie 400′s once a week during his/her season and just try to bring that jog down to as close to 45(for the guys) and as close to 55 or a minute for girls or younger/newer guys.

I don’t think you’ll find a single HS guy in the US who can run 10:00 who would consider 8×400 in 75 to be a tough workout. But most of them can barely, if they can at all, break 16:00 for 3 miles- particularly in a workout. So if take these guys and have them run 8×400 with 200m jogs in 1;00(that is only 8min mile pace) and have them do 8 jogs- either by starting with one before the first rep or finishing with one after the last rep- they will cover 3 miles in 18:00- Coaches you will be shocked how many of your 9:40 to 10:00 kids can’t do this session. You will be shocked again to see how fast they improve in their races after only doing this type of sessions a couple times. If an athlete can move to running the 8x400m in 75 with the 200 jogs at 45 he’ll be running 3 miles in 16:00mins. An athlete who can run that session can easily run 15:00 to 15;30 for 5k and will run well under 9:40 for two miles, probably more like 9:20.

A few pointers for including this session in your own work- the JOG is the key- the intervals are secondary. Way way to often kids, and adults, RUIN a workout by adding to the rest so they can hit the times they want on the intervals. This is one of the worst things you can do! Better to hit the times on the rest and let the intervals fall where they may.

Now lets say you have a top notch HS team and you have a group of guys with 2 mile bests from 9:20 to 10:00 what pace should they run? So often coaches will either have them all run the fastest guys pace (in this case 70) or have them all run their individual paces. In this session absolutely don’t do either of these. Have them all run 75′s, in the second half(last 4 reps) you have an athelete or athletes who feel they can go faster, let them, BUT only let them go faster on the JOG.

I know I got real specific with the 8×400 aussie 400′s but that is because it is easy to explain and do right. The truth is that with all reps middle to long distance runners should be equally or MORE focused on their rest then they are on the intervals themselves. The rest, or more correctly the lack of rest, is what enables an interval workout to be a stepping stone to better racing performance. Standing rest is never a good idea, no matter how short except in sessions that are about muscular development.

So why are your intervals slower when you take a jogging rest? Your aerobic system is massively under trained compared to the rest of your systems and you are running far too hard, to get optimal training benifits, on your interval sessions when you take standing rest. Now if you are extremely strong aerobically it is possible to actually be slower on your reps when you take standing breaks, because you stiffen up a bit. This is why in some close to maximal speed sessions you’ll see athletes doing a odd walk/shuffle/jog thing- see flotracks wow vid with maggie vessey from last week where she jogs 100m rests in about an hour."