Good running workouts - 2023


Once you've established a baseline of run fitness with several months of consistent running, it's time to start running with purpose. Running comes down to a couple of basic principles: How long can an athlete run before tiring (aerobic improvement), and how long can an athlete run fast (Re: at x goal pace) before slowing down.

Given that the athlete is healthy and has no injuries, the first principle is addressed through workouts based on increasing endurance through improving physiological adaptation to running. In other words, by increasing the duration of long runs or frequency of total weekly runs at an easy to comfortable pace, an athlete's body will make physical adaptations that improve his or her ability to continue running at that pace and others while prolonging the onset of fatigue.

An important point here is that these runs should be done primarily at what is called ventilatory threshold 1 (VT1), which is the point at which a runner's breathing rate is increased but comfortable/steady. This point is higher in fit vs unfit individuals, but is lower than many people run their easy runs at. On a 1-10 effort scale it's around 3-4.

So, progressing the long run over by 10% or so every week and dropping back every 3rd or 4th week, while maintaining this effort level independent of pace is crucial to overall run development. These workouts are sometimes referred to as long slow distance (LSD). This is a keystone of long term runner health and progression. These workouts allow athlete's muscles to improve blood flow and strength, increase mitochondria density, tendons and ligaments to grow stronger, heart to improve circulation, and ability to clear (reabsorb) blood lactate improve.

An example here for a half-marathon athlete would be to do a long run structure (on each Saturday) of something like 8 miles, 9, 10, 9, 10, 11, 10, 11, 12. This would be in the earlier part of the season so all these runs could / should be done at VT1 or close to it.

The second principle is addressed through workouts that are under / at / over the second threshold, which is ventilatory threshold 2 (VT2). This value is usually very close or exact to the blood lactate threshold (LT), and while the terms can be used interchangeably, they're not exactly the same. At this point your body is producing more lactate than it can remove through absorption or exhalation, and it begins to accumulate. This point is higher in fit vs unfit individuals and fit individuals should be able to hold this effort level for up to 1 hour.

In the 7 heart rate zone model, for most athletes VT1 is the top of zone 1 to bottom-mid of zone 2, while VT2/LT is at the very top of zone 4.

Workouts that use intervals, fartlek or progression efforts into the VT2/LT range help an athlete to mentally withstand discomfort at pace, recruit additional muscle fiber types (type I and IIa), improve lactate clearance, and ultimately increase or push out the LT point, closer to V02max.

In other words, running fast is good! But it can't be done all the time and should be done with specific thought within a week's training structure.

A good example of this is 3 or 4 by 1 mile intervals after a good 20-30 minute warm up + plyometrics. This workout could vary in effort level from below VT2 to above VT2 depending on the athlete, overall goal, and point within the season. In the early season the miles could be run at 5-10 bpm below LT with 2-3 minutes jog in between - while fitness is improving and adapting to effort. Later season they could be run at or 5-10 bpm above LT with 1-2 minutes jog in between - when fitness is peaking before a goal event.

Back to the long run - at some point in the season some athletes will want to start spending some time within these runs at higher effort levels, especially our very fit athletes. At this point the assumption is that aerobic fitness is well developed and the athlete is able to do a couple VT1 workouts at other points within the week. Progression runs and longer fartlek runs are good.

A progression run starts easy and then builds the last 20-30 minutes to either a specific pace target or into a sub-threshold (VT2) range. A workout like this would then be maintaining the aerobic improvement principle while also challenging the 'running fast' principle.

Fartlek running would be going back and forth between the 2 ranges. For example, after warming up the athlete would run somewhere between 10-20 minutes at goal pace or some target below VT2, then 5-10 minutes at / near VT1. 3 or 4 rounds of this would make for an entertaining 2 hour run!

Note that well trained individuals can hold the VT1 effort for only about 2 hours. So if you're training for a marathon, most of us non-elite runners will benefit much more from just working on the endurance principle. Athletes training for 5k-10k distances will see more specific benefit from the lactate threshold workouts. That being said, doing more than 20-25% of your overall weekly run volume at high intensity increases the risk of injury or overtraining.

So if you increase your running mileage, chances are most of that increase should be on the easy/comfortable side. :)

Marty Gaal, CSCS, is a USA Triathlon coach who lives in the Triangle area of North Carolina. Marty has been coaching endurance athletes since 2002. You can read more about OSB coaching services at www.osbmultisport.com.