Run Sessions: How To Manage Your Effort Levels
Run
, by Nick Bester
If you want to see real progression in your run training - and race times - it’s important to manage the intensity of your training sessions.
You often hear the saying, ‘Train smarter, not harder’. Ideally, you want to train slightly less hard, yet get better results. Being a coach and athlete myself, I’ve gone through phases where I have red-lined training, pushing myself to my breaking point, week in and week out, putting in more effort than ever before, and yet race results weren’t improving as quickly as I would have liked.
To get the most out of your training program, the effort should be relevant to that session. Throughout this article, I’ll focus on just how hard you should be working within your training, so you can keep things productive.
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Track/Interval sessions: Effort levels 8-9.5 out of 10
This is the session where you should be working yourself the hardest in a week - really pushing those VO2 max levels - mainly in training zone 4 and going into zone 5 towards the end of the session. Your heart rate high for these sessions should peak at around 95% of your heart rate max, working hard, very hard, but you can always find an extra percent on race day. A lot of your training within the session should be faster than your goal race pace, getting the legs turning over quickly and conditioning the body to cope with speed.
A typical interval session:
For a 5k runner: 6 x 2 minutes (75s recovery) / 6 x 1 minute (60s recovery)
For a marathoner: 8 x 1km (90s recovery)
Tempo/hill sessions: Effort levels 7-8 out of 10
These runs should feel comfortably tough, like you’re working but fully in control. As a guide, you can say a few words during the session, but not a full sentence. These efforts are most likely to be between your 10k - marathon effort. When running at your threshold, you’re able to hold it for anywhere between 30 - 60 minutes depending on the type of runner you are. It’s a very important zone of running that should be incorporated into your weekly training - somewhere between heart rate zones 3 - 4. If you’re feeling strong, remain disciplined and don’t get carried away in that racing zone. If you push too hard on these days, it takes a lot longer to recover, which is not ideal.
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A typical tempo session:
For a 5k runner: 3 x 6 minutes (2 minutes jog between)
For a marathoner: 10 x 2 mins on/1 min off
A typical hill session:
For a 5k runner: 10 x 20 sec hill sprints
For a marathoner: 8 x 50 sec hill repeats
Quality long run/weekend workout: Effort levels 8-9 out of 10
If you’re targeting races such as a half marathon or marathon, then this is your most important run of the week. Big chunks of this run should be done at your target race pace, giving your body a really good idea of exactly how your target race pace feels like. Once again, you’re working hard in the session but the difference between this run and race day is that you have breaks to allow the body to recover and the heart rate to drop. Start in Zone 3, but mainly work within your Zone 4 heart rate. But remember: you mustn’t fully empty the tank - save that for race day. At the same time, you must remind your body that it’s hard work and you need to snap out of your comfort zone to achieve your goals.
A typical quality long run session:
For a 5k runner: 10/8/6/4/2 minutes (2 minutes jog between)
For a marathoner: 4 x 5k (1k recovery jog between)
Remember, progression training is always a productive way to train. What this means is that you start off at a certain pace and get faster throughout. Once you teach your body and mind how to do this regularly, then you give yourself the best chance of hitting an equal or negative split when it comes to race day. You want to avoid going too hard from the start and risk hitting a wall, resulting in you slowing down for the remainder of the run and making life tough for yourself. Remember: Start cautiously, finish strong.
The magic is made in the second half of these sessions and the same goes for racing. All the other runs in the week should be easy, everyday, maintenance recovery runs (effort levels 3-5 out of 10). You should feel like you can hold a conversation during the entire run. Aim for heart rate Zone 2, and try to not go above an average of 72% of what your heart rate max is. These recovery runs should make up as much as 70-80% of your weekly training as they are vital for building that aerobic base.
I hope you found this helpful in informing you as to how hard you should be working within your weekly training schedule. Remember, training is like motivation levels. Sometimes you feel amazing and the pace comes easy. Sometimes you feel awful, and the pace feels tough. But as long as you’re being honest with yourself, listening to your body, and training within the correct efforts for the relative session, then you’re being as productive as possible and getting the most out of your training.
Written by
Nick Bester
