TAKE A FASTER CLASS IN TRAINING

It sounds risky, but recent research suggests that starting a workout ‘too fast’ could have more benefits than holding an even pace –

and may help you run a faster 5K

researchers at the Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences had 11 well-trained male Nordic skiers do interval workouts on four occasions. There were two workouts, each repeated on separate days, so the researchers could gather more data.

One of the roller-ski workouts (which mirror cross-country skiing) was straightforward: 5 x 5:00 bouts at 90 per cent of maximum aerobic speed (MAS) with three-minute recoveries between each. (MAS is the fastest pace a well-trained endurance athlete can sustain for about six minutes.) In running terms, this workout is analogous to something like five one-kilometre repeats at 5K race pace. A chief goal of such a workout is to boost your VO2 max, the maximum rate at which you can deliver oxygen for use by your exercising muscles.

The second workout also included 5 x 5:00 hard repeats, with three minutes’ easy in between, but with this twist: the skiers did the first 90 seconds of each repeat at 100 per cent of their MAS, then purposefully slowed to 85 per cent of their MAS for the final three and a half minutes.

Among the data the researchers collected was the amount of time spent at 90 per cent or more of VO2 max. In theory, the more time spent at that intensity, the more effective the workout was at increasing VO2 max. In the fast-start workout, the athletes spent almost 12 minutes at that intensity, compared with an average of 10:45 in the even-pace workout. The skiers also produced greater oxygen uptake, in both peak and average terms, during the faststart workout.

Despite this evidence that they were working harder, the skiers rated their perceived exertion as slightly lower in the fast-start workout than during the traditional session.

Is this workout for you?

Although this fast-start workout might sound novel, innovative runners and coaches use similar sessions, says Pete Magill, who holds three American age-group records and is the author of Fast 5K (Velopress).

Magill refers to them as ‘blended intervals’. In these workouts, you run a short repeat, such as 400m, at an intense pace, such as mile race pace; then you take a 30-60-second recovery, and do a longer repeat, such as a mile, at 15km to half-marathon pace, to be followed by a three-minute recovery to complete one set. A typical blend interval workout consists of three to five of these sets.

The reasoning behind these blend intervals and the new study’s faststart workout is the same. Producing a strong VO2-max stimulus requires running at a pace that you can’t sustain for more than a handful of minutes. To be able to hit that pace on your next repeat, you need to take a decent recovery period. So in a workout of five one-kilometre repeats at 5K race pace, you might take a 400m recovery jog between each.

But because of that recovery jog, you then spend the first minute or two of your next repeat getting back up to 90 per cent or more of your VO2 max. So while you’re no doubt working hard the whole time, if your goal is to max out your VO2 max, you might not be accomplishing as much as you thought. Remember, in the skiers’ traditional steady pace 5 x 5:00 workout, they spent less than 11 minutes at or above that 90 per cent threshold.

Blend intervals and this study’s fast-start workout get around that problem by immediately placing your cardiovascular system under more severe stress. The quicker initial pace means you’ll have to slow, but even once you do, you’ll still be working at the desired intensity. A study on middle-distance runners published 40 years ago in the Canadian Journal of Applied Sport Sciences supports this approach.

It’s important to remember that, in the most recent study, the pace on the fast-start intervals was just as prescribed as during the even-pace workout. The idea wasn’t to go all-out for the first part of each repeat and then simply to hang on as best as possible while getting slower and slower. In running terms, the study’s workout could be carried out as five-minute intervals, with the first 90 seconds at mile race pace and the final three and a half minutes at tempo pace. If you don’t have a good sense of what those paces feel like for you, a treadmill could be the perfect place for this workout.

It’s also important to remember why you might do this or any other workout. Aiming to spend as much time as possible at 90 per cent of VO2 max or higher makes the most sense early in a race season. As your most important races approach, workouts at goal race pace should take priority.