Why Run Track? Here’s Why!
Benefits of Track Workouts:
Whether you love or hate the track, training on it can improve your running by leaps and bounds, if you know what you’re doing. While it is possible to train effectively without ever visiting your local high school or college oval, there is no environment that is better suited to the high-intensity interval workouts that are an indispensable part of every runner’s training. A little interval training goes a long way. Just one visit to the track per week during periods of focused training for one or more races will do the trick. So, if you don’t like track workouts now, perhaps you can learn to like them, and if you can’t learn to like them, surely you can still suck it up and suffer through them once a week!
There is a difference between enjoying track workouts and doing them effectively. Even some runners who love running on the track don’t do it right. The purpose is to show you how to get the greatest possible benefit from running in circles. First, I will explain the structure and benefits of the four basic types of interval sessions: short, middle-distance, long and mixed. Then I will share some guidelines for incorporating track workouts into your training for each of four race distances: 5K, 10K, half-marathon and marathon.
Short Intervals:
The purpose of short interval workouts (100 to 400 meters) is to increase raw speed, stride power and running economy. Exactly how fast should you run short intervals? Generally, you should run as fast as you can without slowing down before the end of the workout. So your last interval should be as fast as your first, and you should be good and tired by the time you complete it. You will likely need to get one or two short interval workouts in your legs before you master the pacing aspect.
Middle-Distance Intervals:
Intervals of 600 to 1200 meters in length are typically classified as middle-distance intervals. They are run at paces corresponding to 3000-meter to 5000-meter race pace. Middle-distance intervals stress your capacity to consume oxygen, recycle lactate and resist the major physiological causes of muscle fatigue at high running speeds. The resulting increase in aerobic capacity, lactate recycling capacity and fatigue resistance will enable you to sustain faster speeds for longer periods of time. After completing each interval in a middle-distance interval session, recover by jogging slowly for roughly 3 minutes. That’s about how long it takes for your body to restore itself sufficiently to run the next interval at the same speed.
Long Intervals:
Long intervals range from 1600 meters (one mile) to 3000 meters in distance. Because they are longer than middle-distance intervals, long intervals are necessarily run more slowly, but they are not intended to be slow. Typically, they are run at the individual runner’s approximate 10K race pace. This pace is close to lactate threshold pace for many runners, or the speed above which blood lactate levels increase rapidly.
What has not changed is that lactate threshold pace is a very good predictor of race performance, and training at or near lactate threshold intensity is a very effective way to increase lactate threshold pace. This is largely because training at this intensity increases the body’s capacity to recycle lactate for muscle fuel.
Because of their length and intensity, it only takes a handful of long intervals to stimulate a strong training effect. Even advanced runners should seldom do more than a total of 10K of fast running in these workouts.
Mixed Intervals:
As their name suggests, mixed interval workouts consist in a mixture of two or more of the three interval lengths. They are very useful for maintaining fitness in each of the components addressed by the three interval lengths.
[Thanks to Matt Fitzgerald for his insights]