Anerobics - Two Universal Workouts
By
Woody Green
of
RUNNERS NICHE
Through the last few months this series of articles has stressed the
importance of anaerobic workouts for all runners, regardless of the distance
they most commonly race. Last month we looked at hill training, which is a
great strength and speed building workout. This month we will talk about a
couple of simple workouts that can be used by 1 milers and marathon runners
alike.
Many people have an aversion to running on the track. They prefer trails and
roads that wind through the countryside. The idea of running around and around
a track seems too confining or just too boring. Since interval training has
been traditionally tied to the track, there are those who don't do much
anaerobic training since they can't force themselves onto the track. There is
an easy fix to this problem.
One of the best anaerobic workouts you can do is two minute surges. This is a
way of doing interval training off the track. All you need is a trail, park or
road without traffic and a watch. After a good warm-up, run hard surges
lasting two minutes, and follow these with a period of light jogging before
repeating the next hard surge. The amount of rest you take can vary according
to what shape you are in and how fast you run the surges. If you are planning
on running 1 mile or 5 K, you will want to run the surges faster than if you
are running a marathon, and you will want to take a bit more rest between.
I recommend starting off with 3 or 4 of these surges the first time out. After
you feel comfortable you can increase the number to 6 to 10. I would start
with 2 minutes of rest between surges. If you are running shorter races, you
may want to keep the intensity of the surges high and leave the rest at 2
minutes or perhaps 90 seconds. Those interested in longer races will want to
work down to 90 seconds or 1 minute rest.
If you have a watch with a built-in timer, you can set it so your watch beeps
at you after each 2 minute surge. If you don't carry a high tech watch around
on your wrist, not to worry. Come close to two minutes. The exact time isn't
so critical, but running a hard anaerobic effort is.
Some runners prefer to run their intervals on the track. Assuming you have a
watch, running on the track has the advantage of giving feedback with each
interval. You can see exactly how fast you ran over a measured distance. This
helps in developing a sense of pace and there is no way to trick yourself into
thinking you are running faster than you really are. You can tell when you are
slowing down or speeding up. Perhaps the most important aspect is that average
times from one workout to the next will tell you a lot about how you have
progressed.
A simple bread and butter track workout that will help every runner is repeat
400's. 400 meters is one lap around an outdoor track. This distance is long
enough to put a runner into oxygen debt, and short enough to permit work on
strength and speed.
A traditional 400 workout would be 10 times 400 with 200 meters easy jogging
between. Don't try that many the first time out, though. Start with 4 to 6 and
work up. You might want to start with a full 400 meter jog between
repetitions, also. You can play around with the number of 400s and the amount
of rest to best suit your needs. Always remember to do a good warm-up before
starting your track workout.
There are any number of other interval schemes you might use, but these two
simple workouts will provide for most runners basic needs. As one elite runner
once told me, the more money you pay your coach, the more complicated your
workouts become.
