Training Tips - Intervals
By Tim Warn
This month I deal with the first of the three ways in which,
according to sports physiologists and coaches, runners can improve running
performance, namely increasing your maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max).
Your VO2max is the greatest amount of oxygen your
muscles can use while you are exercising as hard as you can. It is not just the
amount of oxygen that your heart and lungs can provide, it is about the
efficiency of your muscles (in the case of runners, leg muscles) in burning the
available oxygen.
So what is needed is a form of training that trains your
muscles to improve their efficiency in using the oxygen provided by your heart
and lungs. Research has shown that there is a fast pace (which they call your
VO2max pace) which is the right pace for increasing your oxygen
uptake. Regular training at this pace will make you fitter and faster, until
you reach your genetically pre-determined maximum.
There are sophisticated ways of finding out what your VO2max
pace is. You can use a heart monitor to establish your maximum heart rate and
then your VO2max pace is a pace which results in approximately 90%
of your maximum heart rate. However the experts have reduced this to a
calculation for us simple runners based upon our current 10k times – see table
below.
Your VO2max pace is not an eyeballs out sprint
pace - it is a pace that you could sustain for about 11 minutes. However most
coaches have converted that into a session of shorter distance repetitions with
recoveries in between which means that you can train for
longer than the 11 minutes. There
are lots of variations on interval sessions but the standard four-weekly cycle
which I like is:
week 1 - 12 x 400m,
week 2 – 6 x 800m,
week 3 – 3 x 1M,
week 4 – 400m, 800m, 1M, 800m, 400m
Some do’s and don’t’s:
- the
recovery between each effort should be the same time as the effort itself,
- don’t
do interval training more than once a week,
- if
you use the table to find your VO2max pace, don’t pick out a
10k time which you are hoping to attain. You should use your current 10k
time to find out your VO2max pace. Only when your 10k time
improves should you drop down to a faster training pace.
- No
doubt you will be able to run 400m/800m efforts faster than your VO2max
pace, but don’t be tempted to think that this will be better for you.
Training too fast leads to fatigue and breakdown. Training at your VO2max
pace is running at controlled speed and will give best results in raising
your oxygen uptake, which improves performance potential. Adaptation
without exhaustion is the foundation of all training programmes.
There are two variations to the standard four-weekly
intervals cycle, which are useful depending upon your racing programme.
If you are preparing for a marathon then you can reduce the
standard pace by about 3 seconds per 400m but increase the number of
repetitions (16 x 400m, 8 x 800m or 4 x 1M) and reduce the recovery to 1 minute
for 400m, 2 minutes for 800m and 3 minutes for 1M. In week 4 do a 5k time trial
consisting of 400m fast and 200m steady x 8, plus 200m fast. This should give
you a time quite close to your 5k best.
Alternatively if you are aiming
for a summer of 5k, 5M and 10k races then you can increase the standard
pace
by about 3 seconds per 400m,
but reduce the number of repetitions (8 x 400m, 4 x 800m or 3 x 1200m) and
increase the recovery to 3 minutes for 400m, 4-5 minutes for 800m and 5-6
minutes for 1200m. In week 4 do a
5k time trial consisting of 400m fast and 100m steady x 10. This might give you
a 5k pb! Hill repetitions of between
200m and 400m are also a good alternative.
These variations are well worth
trying if only to vary the training a bit.
So if you fancy improving your
speed try some interval training – these are the sort of sessions which we do
at Tuesday night efforts sessions at the club.