Episode 28.   Five Workouts That Are Really FUN (And Really HARD)

NERDS! Get excited because this one is a doozy! And by doozy I mean that this episode is straight fun. I'm going to tell you about 5 workouts that are super fun and really hard... or is it really fun and super hard? Maybe it's both. Whatever. Doesn't matter. What matters is that this episode will give you 5 workouts that you can use to mix up your training, challenge yourself, have a good time, and brag to your running buddies about after you do them.

I talk about the Michigan, Endless Fartlek, 40/30, Quarters Up & Down, Split Intervals, 

The Michigan: 2K Tempo, 1600m at ~10K Pace, 2K Tempo, 1200m at ~5K Pace, 2K Tempo, 800 @ ~3K Pace, 2K Tempo, 400M at 1500m/Mile Pace or faster. (2K Tempo can be shorter. As an example I've had athletes do 1K of Tempo instead of 2K.)

Endless Fartlek: Fartlek for unknown amount of time with unknown durations of hard and easy. You just don't know how long you got to go hard or can go easy.  (Try the Funky Fartlek in the Nike Run Club app.)

40/30: Continuous run (ideally on track) with pace changing every 200 meters. The workout is called 40/30 because the athletes at the University of Oregon would run a 40 second 200m and then go straight into a 30 second 200m. The workout continued until you can no longer successfully run 40/30. You can personalize this by making the 200m times based on YOUR Tempo Run pace and YOUR Mile/1500m Pace.

Quarters Down & Up: You can play with this workout in your own way. My example... Start with a 400 at your Tempo Run pace. Recover for same duration as that 400. Next interval is a 400m ONE SECOND FASTER. Recovery is same duration as that 400. Next interval is a 400m ONE SECOND FASTER. Recovery is same duration as that 400. You keep getting one second faster until you can't. Then you start running 400's ONE SECOND SLOWER. Recovery is same duration as that 400.  You keep slowing down by ONLY ONE SECOND until you can't and you slow down more than one second. That ends the workout.

Split Intervals: You simply split up an interval into different paces. For example... you do a 1000m interval and an 800m interval and a 400 Interval. The 1K could be split up as a 200m at 10K pace into 400m at 5K pa

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