Should ultra runners do speed sessions ?
It amazes me that anyone can think they shouldn’t to be honest.
Lets talk about the benefits of speed training
We can classify these into two categories
– the physiological changes that occur in the body and the changes in running performance
Physiological changes include
Increased glycogen storage capacity
Increased myoglobin production ( myoglobin transports O2 to the muscles and mitachondria )
Increased muscle fibre recruitment
Increased mitochondria content
Increased range of movement
Increased blood plasma volume
Increased stroke volume
Stronger muscles bones , tendons and ligaments
Changes in running performance include
Increased VO2 Max
Increased Lactate threshold
Increased running economy
Increased speed at all intensities
Increased fatigue resistance
Clearly all beneficial to any runner including ultra runners
The last two are the most important so I want to explain those in more detail
Increased speed at all intensities
What this means is if you increase your speed at 5-10km distances you increase the speed at all other distances from half marathon to 100+ miles . It does assume you have done the endurance work needed for the long distance.
What this means in practice is say for example you manage to increase your 5k time from 25 minutes to 22 minutes then your marathon pace has likely improved from 4 hours to 3:30 and of course your ultra pace would have similar improvements.
Increasing your speed at shorter distances brings up speed at all other distances
Increased fatigue resistance
How well you can run the back half of an ultra depends on many factors but a big one is fatigue resistance. We talked about this in the “Factors that influence Ultramarathon performance video”
Fatigue resistance can be increased in a number of ways including higher volume, eccentric downhill conditioning and speed work.
Speed work is a form of eccentric conditioning. There is eccentric loading in every step we take when we run. When our foot hits the ground our muscles elongate while at the same time work to resist that lengthening. This stretching and working at the same time does more damage to our muscles than concentric contractions ( where your muscles are contracting and working at the same time . This is why running hurts the legs way more than bike riding for example which consists primarily of concentric contractions.
Even running slowly for long periods will result in a significant eccentric load. This is why we experience sore legs after ultras even if they are flat . That eccentric load causes micro-tears in the muscles which mount up over time causing the soreness we are all familiar with and reducing our ability to run. Anything we can do to increase our muscle’s tolerance to that eccentric load and minimise micro-tears will increase our endurance in the back half of an ultra.
Run downhill and that load increases even more but we will talk about that in the downhill video.
The faster we run the more eccentric load on our legs. But here is a balance to be had here. The faster we run the less distance we cover and the more fast twitch fibres we recruit. We need to optimise the load relevant to ultras. Keeping the duration at intensity in the 10-80 minutes range rather than all out sprints ensures most of the work is done by our slow twitch fibres ( which is what we use in ultras) and gives them enough stimulus to drive training adaptions.
Speed work increases our ability to run for longer distances at slower paces by reducing the damage our muscles experience from those eccentric contractions.
But what is a speed session
In essence speed training is a method of taking a specific speed and duration and breaking that duration into smaller durations with recovery periods so one can cover a greater duration at the same speed or the same duration at a greater speed.
What does that mean ?
If we take an athlete that can run 5km in 20 minutes in a race with fresh legs ie 4 min k pace, then when we break that 20 minutes into 4-minute intervals with 90 seconds recovery, it’s likely they could run 6 reps at that pace in training without fresh legs.
Running 24 minutes at 4 min k pace with short recoveries gives a greater training benefit than running 20 minutes non stop at 4 min k pace.
Or they could run 5 x 4 minutes with 90 seconds recovery at a slightly faster pace than they could run 20 minutes non stop.
How fast are speed sessions ?
Speed is a very general word that could include anything from 40 yard dash to 10k or longer . What speeds are beneficial for ultra runners ?
Ultrarunners are slow twitch athletes so short sprints targeting fast twitch fibres are not beneficial. The highest intensity relevant for most ultrarunners is VO2 max which is the fastest pace you can hold for 5-10 minutes.
On the other end of the spectrum threshold workouts totalling 40-50 minutes and tempo workouts totalling 50-80 minutes should feature prominently in any ultra runners training plan.
How often should we run speed sessions ?
For most athletes, two higher-intensity sessions per week is the most that can be tolerated. A higher intensity session may be a speed session, hills session stairs session or even a hiking session. We need to give thought to how best to use those 2 harder sessions in terms of whats best for the athlete. ( see the program design video for more information ).
Keep in mind some athletes might be better off with only one harder sessions and other more elite athletes may tolerate three.
When is my athlete ready for a speed session ?
Before giving your athletes speed sessions ensure they have a good aerobic base. Without the foundation of good aerobic development they wont derive the full benefit of speed sessions.
Fortunately most ultra runners have run enough slow easy miles to have that aerobic base but if your athlete is coming back after a break or injury it would wise to give them a minimum of 3-4 weeks of easy running building that aerobic engine before starting speed sessions.
Can we break down speed sessions into different categories or zones ?
One way to classify speed is via duration. Ie that maximum speed you can hold for a specific duration. If we look at a power duration curve ( and the curve would look same if we used pace ) you will see there is a gradual reduction in the pace/power one can hold for a specific duration . Ie the pace you can run for 5 minutes is faster than the pace you can maintain for 10 minutes.
You can also see that there are no real distinct changes throughout the curve with the exception of around 4 minutes and around 40 minutes, but even those aren’t dramatic changes. It’s a gradual decline; hence, any markers we used to classify intensity above threshold are arbitrary. Ie there are no defining physiological characteristics in different zones above threshold.
Also interesting is looking how the 3 zone model fits onto that curve. You can see how arbitrary the Z2/Z1 border is with basically no changes in the curve at all to demarcate the zones.
Having said that I feel it’s still useful to break the speed domain of intensity down into further subcategories to give a framework of periodising speed sessions throughout a training year. But keep in mind these categories are arbitrary and it’s really just a spectrum of intensity ie its not like once you go from 15 minutes to 25 minutes that anything significant has changed physiologically in the body.
The durations referred to below refer to the maximum speed/power one can hold for that duration in a one-off all-out effort.
\< 1 minutes – this is pretty much all in the anaerobic domain and has little value for the ultra runner
1-4 minutes is around 50/50 anaerobic / aerobic
5-10 minutes – this is around VO2 max intensity and is the top end of the intensity that is beneficial for ultra runners
10-20 minutes – 3-5km race pace
20-30 minutes 5-8km race pace
30-50 minutes – Threshold intensity for most runners equivalent to 8-12km race pace
50-80 minutes Tempo intensity
As discussed in the periodisation video for ultra runners starting at the higher intensities and progressing to the lower intensities and longer durations as the race approaches is usually the best strategy.
In the rest of this video we are going to be looking at
1) example sessions for each of the intensity durations
2) how to start someone with speed work if they havent run any recently
3) How to assess an athletes strengths and weaknesses and create speed sessions for that athlete
NOTE that I will be using time not distance to specify the intervals as obviously a 2:30 marathoner will cover a 1km or 1 mile rep a lot faster than a 4 hour marathoner.
You can of course covert these durations into distance relevant to your athlete
### Example Sessions
Lets look at some examples of different sessions working our way along the power/speed duration curve starting from highest intensity to tempo sessions
VO2 max range
For VO2 max workouts the total duration at intensity is around 10-20 minutes at an intensity the athlete could only maintain for 5-10 minutes. ( See the VO2max video for an in-depth discussion on what it is , why train it etc )
How is it possible to run at an intensity you can only hold for 5-8 minutes in a non-stop all-out effort for 10-20 minutes ?
Well that’s why you need long recovery periods . For Vo2 max sessions recovery period is usually same as the work period or greater
Eg 4 x 4 minutes with 4 minutes recovery
The 10 -20 minutes of work can be split into shorter intervals of anywhere from 1-7 minutes.
Eg 10-20 x 1 minutes with 1 minutes recovery
All the way up to
3 x 7 minutes with 7 minutes recovery
Most athletes will benefit most from intervals in the middle of that range with interval duration around 2-4 minutes range.
Some will do better in the shorter end of that range others the longer so get your athlete to try a few different sessions.
These are very hard sessions, if the athlete can utter more than a word or two they arent working hard enough . Because of this they are not recommended for beginners . The athlete needs to have a base of speed work in their legs before moving into VO2max reps.
The VO2 max video will go into why and when you should do VO2 workouts
3-5k range
At this level we are talking about doing 15-25 minutes of work at a pace one can maintain non stop for 10-20 minutes .
Example sessions range from
10 x 90 seconds with 45-90 seconds recovery
to
5 x 5 minutes with 1-2 minutes recovery
The recovery periods should be designed to ensure the athlete can maintain the desired intensity so one might start with longer recovery and over time reduce recovery periods to increase the difficulty of the session
5-8k range
At this level we are talking about doing 25-40 minutes of work at a pace one can maintain non stop for 20-30 minutes .
For many athletes this is just above threshold with elites able to do closer to 40 minutes of intervals at this intensity and slower runners more like 25-30 minutes
Examples include
5 x 5 minutes with 60-90 seconds recovery
10 x 4 minutes with 45-90 seconds recovery
Threshold
For threshold sessions we typically spend 30-50 minutes at intensity broken up into anywhere from 2 minutes to 20 minutes intervals
Eg
20 x 2 minutes with 30-60 seconds recovery
2 x 20 minutes with 2-3 minutes recovery
Most athletes prefer the middle of this range eg 5-10 minutes intervals as there are not as many reps and the reps arent super long but there is no reason one cant go to the extremes of this range IF the athlete can keep the intensity up
Tempo
Tempo is a poorly defined term that has many meanings depending on which coach you talk to . For this course I define tempo as an intensity lower than threshold but quicker than marathon pace . Its more like Half marathon pace for 1:10-1:30 Half marathoners or a little quicker than half marathon for slower runners
For speed sessions it usually means longer sustained efforts eg 3-4 x 15-20 minutes with a few minutes recovery
How to progress speed sessions
Progressing your way through the different durations is actually easy from a programming point of view
Here is an example to illustrate the point
10 x 90 seconds / 90 seconds recovery
8 x 2 minutes / 90 seconds recovery
6 x 3 minutes / 2 minutes recovery
8 x 2:30/ 90 seconds recovery
5 x 4 minutes / 90 seconds recovery
12 x 2 minutes / 60 seconds recovery
8 x 3 minutes / 90 seconds recovery
5 x 5 minutes / 90 seconds recovery
7 x 4 minutes / 90 seconds recovery
5 x 6 minutes / 2 minutes recovery
8 x 4 minutes / 90 seconds recovery
7 x 5 minutes / 90 seconds recovery
12 x 3 minutes / 60 seconds recovery
10 x 4 minutes / 90 seconds recovery
5 x 8 minutes / 2 minutes recovery
4 x 10 minutes / 1 minutes recovery
7 x 6 minutes / 1 minutes recovery
9 x 5 minutes / 1 minutes recovery
3 x 15 minutes / 2 minutes recovery
4 x 12 minutes / 90 seconds recovery
5 x 10 minutes / 90 seconds recovery
3 x 20 minutes / 2 minutes recovery
5 x 15 minutes / 2 minutes recovery
In this example I have started them off at 15 minutes of work and progressed it to 75 minutes work over a 23 week period.
This is just only one of many ways to do. There are endless possibilities.
That progression took 23 weeks – you can take longer or shorter to progress your athlete to doing Tempo / Threshold sessions all depending on the athlete and how long you have before their next race.
You might decide the athlete will benefit more spending more time in the 20-30 minutes range developing speed before increasing duration or they might have great shorter duration speed but struggle in longer sets so you move them into Threshold work sooner rather than later.
In the progression above I didnt include any VO2 max workouts as the athlete needs a good level of conditioning before doing VO2 max workouts . Hence if you wanted to have your athlete do a block of VO2 work you would likely insert it somewhere in the middle of that progression – see the VO2 max video for more information
In the progression above as the duration changes very gradually over time the changes in speed/power for each session also change gradually.
The advantage of a gradual change in duration at intensity is once the athlete has dialled in the pacing for one session the changes in pace in subsequent sessions are very small. This means the athlete is far more likely to pace sessions optimally.
Compare that to say doing 6 x 3 minutes one week and then 8 x 5 minutes the next week – those sessions would be run at very different paces which makes it much harder for the athlete to dial in optimal pacing.
Variety in speed sessions
Interval Duration
The above examples used the same interval duration throughout a session. It is of course possible to change the interval duration.
Eg instead of 8 x 3 minutes = 24 minutes of work , you can do 2 x 6 minutes , 2 x 4 minutes , 2 x 2 minutes – still equals 24 minutes of work.
Breaking it up like this adds variety for those athletes who like to mix their training up.
Interval Intensity
You can also mix up intensity so for example using the 2 x 6 , 2 x 4 , 2 x 2 session above you ask the athlete to get slightly quicker as the duration decreases. There are infinite ways to do this and you are only limited to your imagination as to what kind of sessions you can come up with BUT dont fall into the trap of just adding variety for variety’s sake. If you are mixing up intensities there needs to be a rationale behind it.
A common way to mix intensities is mixing above threshold with threshold pace in same workout.
For example
8 x 90 seconds @ 105% of threshold, 90 seconds recovery then 2 x 8 minutes @ Threshold , 90 seconds recovery
In this case the 2 x 8 threshold will feel harder than if they had 4 x 8 @ threshold. The athlete would start the 2 x 8 with more lactate in their legs compared to if they were doing a 4 x 8 @ threshold session.
Is that a good thing ? Well depends on what you are trying to do with your athlete – there are both mental and physiological reasons for using different intensities in a speed session. However making it harder just for the sake of it is rarely a good strategy.
In the above example of doing 8 x 90seconds + 2 x 8 minutes , doing the 8 x 90 first means the 2 x 8 threshold intervals are run with higher than usual levels of lactate , which effectively makes them a higher than threshold intensity. The associated fatigue levels with this session would be higher than a 4 x 8 session at threshold. It would be better suited to athletes trying to increase the pace they can run at in shorter than threshold durations – eg 5k pace.
You could reverse that workout and do the 2 x 8 first then 6 x 90 and it would have a slightly different training effect. Lactate levels in the first 2 x 8 would be lower than before but the 8 x 90 would feel harder as you already have some fatigue in the legs. A potentially useful session for athletes who tend to fatigue towards the end of speed sessions. By decreasing the interval duration it allows the athlete to slightly increase the intensity and finish the session strong.
If however we wanted to target increasing duration at threshold then keeping the intensity at or just below threshold would be advised.
Time spent well above threshold will help increase speed but have less effect on increasing duration one can hold threshold for. Spending more time at threshold or just below threshold will increase the duration one can sustain at threshold but have less effect in increasing speed above threshold.
Let me say that again
– time above threshold increases speed at threshold
– time at or just below threshold increases duration at threshold
Let me give a practical example.
Lets say an athletes threshold is 4min ks and they can hold that for 40 minutes ( remember the duration one can hold threshold for varies from 30 to 70 minutes)
A session working at say 3:50 min k pace ( eg 10 x 3 minutes @ 3:50 ) would help increase the speed one can run at threshold so after a block of training their threshold pace improves to 3:58 pace for 40 minutes.
A session working at 4 min k pace ( eg 9 x 5 minutes ) would help increase the duration they can hold that pace so after a block of training they can maintain 4 min ks for 45 minutes.
Note these are not binary conditions there will be some improvement in both at either intensity.
The point is if you start mixing up intensities have a clear idea of what the goal for mixing up the intensities is
Athlete Variability
You may start to think that why dont I just take the example progression I gave above and use that for all your athletes ?
This is where it’s important to understand your athlete and their speed/ power duration profile. Targeting areas that are under performing and not spending much time in areas they re overperforming in will bring out the best in your athlete.
What does that even mean ?
Well let’s go back to our power duration curves to get an understanding of where I am coming from.
In this curve modelled power is the shaded section and the purple line is what the athlete has actually done in training. Don’t get confused by power , you could just as easily use pace on the Y axis.
What its showing is the fastest pace or highest power for every duration from 1 second to 4 hours over the last 90 days.
You can see in a few places what the athlete has exceeded the model – eg around 20 seconds and between 1 minutes to 7 minutes.
Whereas from 20 minutes to around 2 hours they are under modelled power.
In this chart I highlight that with red being below modelled and green above.
Now theoretically this means you would see more performance gains spending time in the red areas of the chart. In this case doing some 30-60 seconds sprints and 20-60mins efforts.
Keep in mind the goal is NOT to have a perfectly matched power/duration curve, it’s to improve performance in ultras. Short 30 second sprints may improve the athletes power duration curve they wont help them run faster in an ultra . Improving speed / power in the 20-60 minutes range will likely have some significant increases in potential ultra performance.
I will go into more detail on power duration charts in another video for those of you that have access to data like this. But the key point I wanted to make is different athletes have different abilities at different speeds. Working out where they are relatively slower and spending time at that speed/duration is likely to result in bigger performance gains.
Let me go through some practical examples to see how this works.
I have an athlete who whether you give them 8 x 5 minutes or 4 x 5 minutes ( with the same recovery ) they run it at pretty much the same pace. No matter how I broke up the sessions whether it was 10 x 2 minutes or 5 x 4 minutes they couldn’t run any faster than if I gave them 4 x 10 minutes.
So obviously there is some improvement to be gained. The athlete is lacking in some top end speed and without improving that it’s very unlikely they will improve their threshold speed much at all.
Knowing this I changed the speed sessions into a) shorter intervals and b) shorter duration at intensity. They started doing 15 x 1 minutes or 10 x 90 seconds and all of a sudden the pace dropped 20-30 seconds per k ( well it took a few weeks )
Now they have somewhere to go to in terms of speed. There is a gap of 20-30 seconds per k ( between the 15 x 1 speed and the 10 x 4 speed ) which we could work on reducing in longer durations.
A few months later not only are those 5 x 4 min sessions 20 seconds per k faster , the 4 x 10 minutes sessions are 10 seconds or so per k faster and the easy and long run pace have also quickened
By targeting the 10-15 minutes range of intensity we managed to increase speed of all durations from 15 minutes to 1+ hours.
Another example
Reviewing an athletes data that I had just started with I saw he did a set of 8 x 800 with the last 800 significantly quicker than the rest. Looking back further I saw this was a pattern repeated frequently . The athlete had good speed in the 2-5 minutes duration but when durations increased speed dropped away quickly.
Imagine being able to run a 1km race at 3 min ks but your 5k time was 20 minutes and 10km time 45 minutes. Great speed, poor speed endurance.
For this athlete we need to target longer durations of intervals and not let him tap into those fast twitch fibres that give him that boost over shorter distances . Sessions like 10 x 90 seconds that I gave the first athlete would be counter productive to this athlete . Instead longer intervals and longer duration at intensity are needed.
How to determine your athletes speed duration strengths and weaknesses?
Unless a) your athlete has a history of speed sessions and b) you have access to the data you will most probably not have any idea of what your athlete is capable of in terms of speed and duration.
So how do you determine what kind of speed sessions best suit your athlete ?
Here is the thought process I use for my athletes
How long till the athletes race ?
Threshold and tempo sessions have more impact on fatigue resistance and endurance so if limited time I will focus more on the longer duration intervals.
Do they have any recent 5, 10, half, marathon race data ?
If they do you may be able to gauge from looking at the relative performance of one to another. There are a number of online calculators that will predict performance in one distance based on performance in another – eg [https://www.goandrace.com/en/race-time-predictor.php](https://www.goandrace.com/en/race-time-predictor.php)
If their 5km time predicts a time much faster than what they actually did in a marathon then one starts to wonder re endurance not speed , if vice versa then working on 5k speed would likely help the athlete more
Do they have any recent speed training data ?
Performance at different distances / durations in speed sessions over time can help give an idea of the athletes relative strengths and weaknesses. You might see they have great speed in 10 x 400 put slow down a lot when they do 5 x 1600.
Do they have a history in other sports ?
If they have no data then an understanding of the athletes background can help. For example they may have played high level football or tennis when they were younger which would suggest they may have more fast twitch fibres than most endurance athletes so working on longer durations would be better than short.
How old are they ?
The older the athlete the more they lose speed , so older athletes will usually benefit from tapping into short duration speed work ( eg a block of 10-15 minutes duration at intensity ) a few times a year to minimise the age related slow down.
What injuries do they have or have they had ?
If the athlete has a history of achilles , calf, hamstring type injuries then I would almost always start their speed work off at the tempo end of the spectrum and gradually increase as opposed to starting faster speeds and shorter duration.
For example a 30 year old athlete with no history of speed work I might start at 10 x 90 seconds at a pace above threshold whereas a 45 year old with a history of achilles issues I might start with 2 x 10 minutes at tempo intensity ( just below threshold ). The 2 x 10 is a minimal training load (given one should be able to run 50-80 minutes at tempo ) but it’s a way of easing into it speed work and minimising risk of injury.
What if there is no data to go by?
If I have no data and no sporting history to help guide my prescription of speed work then it’s very much a case of test and review.
Let’s say you have a new athlete with no history of speed work and nothing else to help guide you. This is how I would approach it.
1. Establish easy run pace / power .
Get a sense of how fast they run on the flat during their easy runs . Make sure you have them run these at full conversation pace.
2. Use this to work out an approximate threshold pace.
A good rule of thumb to use is easy runs at conversation pace are usually around 80% of threshold. So if their easy runs are at 6 min k pace then it means threshold is 0.80% x 6:00min ks = 4:48 min k pace
3. Calculate a 5 and 10k pace
Assume they can hold threshold for 40 minutes ( good starting point unless athlete is more elite – in which case they will likely have some data to review anyway ! If they are more a beginner then use 30 minutes ).
Now we can work out a 10km pace using a run calculator I mentioned earlier
In this example we are assuming the athlete can hold 4:48min k pace for 40 minutes
which is 8.33km
Plugging that into the calculator ( ie telling the calculator they ran a race 8.33km long in 40 minutes ) it spits out the following
5k – 23:20 ( 4:40 pace )
10k 48:25 ( 4:50 pace )
4. Test the above in speed sessions
You could give a session targeting 5 k speed – eg 5 x 5 minutes with 90 seconds recovery at 4:40 min k pace.
Once the athlete reports back on this session and you see the data you can make some conclusions that guide speed training prescriptions from now on.
For example if they started at 4:40 pace and increased to 4:20 pace by the end my starting assumption would be they had good speed and we need to work on endurance.
if they started at 4:40 pace but got slower then it suggest some time working on speed would be beneficial
5. Review over time.
As you gather more data from speed work and races it will give greater clarity on where the athlete will benefit the most
Affect of heat and humidity on speed sessions
Heat and humidity reduce the speed / power we can sustain so you will need to adjust speed sessions in the summer months.
You have a number of choices
1. Increase recovery period keep pace the same
2. Decrease pace keep recovery the same
3. Decrease pace and increase recovery
4. Decrease interval duration
5. Decrease Duration at intensity
Lets work through an example
The athlete in winter may be able to perform a session of 6 x 4 minutes with 90 seconds recovery at 4min k pace.
Some options for the same workout in summer include
1. 6 x 4 minutes @ 4 min ks with 2 minutes recovery
( increased recovery )
2. 6 x 4 minutes @ 4:10 min ks with 90 seconds recovery
( slower speed )
3. 6 x 4 minutes @ 4:10 min ks with 2 minutes recovery
( Slower speed and increased recovery )
4. 12 x 2 minutes @ 4 min ks with 90 seconds recovery
( shorter intervals )
5. 5 x 4 minutes @ 4 min ks with 90 seconds recovery
( reduced duration at intensity )
All of these make the session easier on paper but will likely result in the same training load and adaptions when performed in hot humid conditoins as the 6 x 4 session in cool conditions.
Which is best depends on your goals and the athlete.
Some athletes will need slower targets as no matter the change in recovery and interval duration they just cant run as fast, others may be able to manage the same speed but need longer recovery or shorter intervals.
What terrain is best for speed sessions ?
For most athletes performing speed sessions on a 400m track is optimal as it allows for easier and more accurate pacing ( you can check your splits easily every 200/400m) . However not everyone has access to a 400m track.
The next best thing is any flat route that is uninterrupted by traffic. That could be a grass oval, a bike path or straight stretch of footpath with minimal traffic.
Once you start getting to Threshold and Tempo sessions there is an argument for doing some of these on undulating terrain to develop better sense of pacing both up and downhills. For athletes with a more road running background you can even do these on trails to help develop the athletes trail skills at higher intensities – but be aware ones skill may be the limiting factor factor rather than fitness so I would only do this with athletes whose trail speed is slower than what their road speed suggests they should be able to do.
Affect of wind on speed sessions
If running speed sessions on a track then in the space of 400m you will get wind from all directions and will even out the average speed. If however you are running them on a bike path then speeds may be affected by wind. It’s important to cue the athlete that the goal is not to run the same speed into the wind vs with the wind. Instead run the same intensity . For those that have a Stryd power meter it will take into account the extra work required to overcome the wind so you can run the same W into or with the wind and the intensity will be the same.
Cool downs after speed sessions – yes or no ?
Conventional wisdom says you must do a cool down as it helps prevent injury, clears lactic acid , reduces post-exercise soreness and helps bring your heart rate down to start the recovery process.
However what the research shows is that
– it does not reduce injury risk
– not only is there no such thing as lactic acid , the H+ ions associated with lactate that are produced in intense exercise are buffered whether you cool down or not
– a there is no reduction in post run soreness if you do a warm down
– your heart rate will come down anyway and provided you dont stop after the last rep and collapse in your couch for the next hour, the act of walking to the car or home is enough to help the body start the recovery process.
Thats not to say a cool down is not needed.
There are some benefits to doing them including
1. Increased volume – an extra mile or 2 after hard sessions adds to your weekly volume
2. Running at a slow pace when our legs are tired is very relevant for ultrarunners. Our pace in the back half of ultras is usually slower than our easy run pace. Doing a cool down after a hard session can help us mentally become accustomed to running at a slow pace on tired legs. I will often increase the cool down component of intervals sessions as a race approaches for this very reason.
3. It helps to reduce the cortisol production that comes with a hard session and switch the body into recovery mode.
Note if recovery is the primary goal then a short walk to return heart rate and breathing to base line levels followed some relaxation activities such as a meditation or even just socialising with fellow athletes helps switch the body into recovery mode would be optimal.
Common Mistakes athletes make in Speed sessions
1. Giving 100%
The belief that one should finish speed sessions 100% spent is widespread but incorrect. It is much better to finish a speed session feeling like you have something left in the tank than completely exhausted.
The extra training adaptions gained by giving 100% are minimal at best compared to giving 95% and finishing feeling like you have more to give. It is almost always better to finish in control. This helps maintain good running form and minimises the risk of injury.
2. Not knowing when to abort a session
Many athletes will struggle on through a session despite not getting anywhere near their targets in the belief it’s better than nothing . Whilst there is always a range of speeds we can hit on any one day, some days for whatever reason it’s better just to pull the pin.
There are two main signs to watch for
1. You start at target pace but then get slower as you go
2. You cant get within approx 10% of target pace
Either of these suggest you are better off pulling the pin and running easy, saving the legs for another day. There are many reasons why an athlete may struggle on a particular day including poor nutrition, lack of sleep, increased stress, fighting off an illness etc and sometimes you cant put your finger on any reason.
3. Not warming up properly
Warm up should include a 10-15 minutes easy run and then some shorter accelerations to bring you up to target pace . See the video on strides for more details on this but it can be as simple as 5 x 30 second efforts getting faster each one with the last one at or slightly above target pace for the session
4. Not Fuelling properly
Speed sessions use up glycogen rapidly and if you are attempting to run them first thing in the morning on an empty stomach you will likely suffer. For most of us it’s better to either have some calories before we head out the door and or take some calories with us to have during the session.
5. Randomising speed sessions
Speed sessions that change from one extreme to another on a weekly basis without any clear progression will slow down your progress. For someone who has no history of speed work you will still see improvement but after a while progressions will stagnate. Ensure your speed work has a systematic progression to it.
6. Inconsistent speed
Speed sessions should ideally be run at the same speed or with a slight increase in the last few reps. Too often I see runners starting too fast then slowing down towards the end. You are almost always better starting more conservatively and building into the session especially if you are new to speed sessions. More experienced athletes should be able to nail the desired pace form rep 1 and hold it there with minimal variation.
7. Running recovery periods to fast
We discussed this in the constructing speed sessions video but in summary recovery intervals are for recovery in majority of sessions. A walk or very slow jog is optimal.
Key Take homes
Speed sessions should be an integral part of an ultra runner training plan.
Ensure you periodise your athletes speed work and work on any specific weaknesses they have.
Make sure your speed sessions have a specific goal and arent just random for the sake of it.