5 Running Workouts You Need To Be Doing
When people think of running, often their first reaction is, “boring” but it doesn’t have to be that way! In BUF classes we use intervals, hills and sprints, shuttles and obstacle-style runs to make sure it never gets boring, with various programs in place throughout the year to help girls wanting to find their “run legs” experience longer, more endurance-based runs – the next one launches in just a few weeks’ time!With the 2014 run season fast approaching, we wanted to give you a few examples of different types of run training you can incorporate into your own sessions, to speed track your fitness and make sure your body never plateaus. Pick a different kind of run each session and watch the results roll in.Here are our top 5 must-do runs…
1. The long run
For these sessions, simply run at a steady pace for a little longer than you are generally comfortable for, without any long pauses, or changes in tempo. These sessions are great for those wanting to work towards racing a long distance, such as a 10km or half marathon, because they prepare your body to work at an efficient rate of energy expenditure for a long duration. Try increasing your distance by 10% each week (e.g. 3km, 3.3km, etc) and see how far you can get!
2. Hills
Once you’ve built up a little endurance, hills are the perfect way to add strength work to your training. I like to think of hill sessions as lifting weights for runners — you’re fighting gravity to lift your bodyweight with your legs. Try doing hill repeats — run up a hill, then coast back down it and repeat, or when going for a longer run, simply focus on sprinting the uphill parts and coasting the flats. Hills are not only a great as a form of resistance training, they also help improve technique as you are forced to lift your knees, activate your glutes and engage your core a lot more actively, to propel yourself up that hill.
3. Fartlek
Fartlek means “speed play” in Swedish and this kind of session is my all-time favourite, as it torches fat and fast-tracks fitness. Here’s how it works: after warming up, start a series of varied intervals with speed and recovery periods. These can be extremely varied, so you could do shorter sprint intervals, followed by longer slow and steady jog intervals, or throw in some light, cruisy hills before a sprint on the flat, and so on. We often use this style of training in class for long-ish run sets, to keep things interesting and maximise results.
4. Tempo run
This kind of run is a key part of intermediate and advanced runners’ programs. Basically, it’s a sustained run where you build up in pace and then hold that “just below race pace” tempo for a sustained period of time. It should feel a little uncomfortable. The tempo run improves your running pace and performance overall, making your running more efficient. Aim to run between 3-6km and as a guide, try to run slower than a 5K or 10K race pace, but faster than half marathon pace.
5. HIIT
Short for High-Intensity Interval Training, HIIT is all the rage because of its capacity to burn a lot of calories and increase cardio capacity within a short period of time. Basically it’s a series of near-maximum intensity sprints, with less-intense recovery intervals, or complete rest (after a warm up of course). The whole session can be as short as 10-20 minutes (not counting warm up and cool down). HIIT can be very tough on the body, so start off with shorter intervals of 30s (or around 100-150m) and longer run periods, building up in distance or sprint time as you progress. We use HIIT in our Tough BUF classes to help build explosive power, work on speed performance and torch calories.