An entry-level speed workout

To give you a taste or get you started.

As you grow into your running passion at some point you’ll ask the question “How do I get faster?”.  When you ask this question some experienced veteran like me will respond “Speedwork!”  And you will have no idea what we are talking about.

If pressed I’ll gladly start regaling you with some of my favorite speed workouts.  I’ll tell you about 200’s and 400’s and 800’s and maybe even 1600’s! I’ll talk about strength and form and cadence.  I might even get into ladder workouts and other run-to-exhaustion routines that the hardcore among us like to brag about like masochistic, smiling coaches.

If you are still paying attention you might go out to the local track and try to run one of these speed workouts.  You’ll soon realize that this is a foreign experience for your body.  You might persevere and pull something.

We are doing you a disservice.  The part we never deign to inform you about is how to prepare your body (and mind) for these speed workouts.

This all occurred to me recently as I try to climb back into race fitness after a long absence from any quality speed or temp work.  As part of this journey my coach gave me some brilliant beginner speed work outs that I’m going to share with you.

It’s unfair for us to think that you can just jump into a full blown tempo or speed workout.  The mechanics of speed are different from your normal form and you need to learn them.  The stresses of speedwork and tempo on your legs are different and your need to build into them.  It’s easier for me because I have 35 years of racing to fall back on and know what to expect.

How does a runner new to speedwork ease into it?

I’ll step you through the workout.  Some of this is from the devious mind of my coach Jeff at PRSfit and some of it is from my own devious mind and experie3nce.

First, find a flat-ish piece of road where you can do your workout.  You can go to the track if you want but it’s not mandatory.  I did this workout in my neighborhood.  On a scale of 1-10 it’s about a 3-4 in terms of difficulty.

Warm up

In the warm up phase of this workout I want you to run no less than 10 minutes at an easy pace with good form. Piece of cake, right?  Just amble around to get your muscles firing and your blood flowing.

Stretch

When you come out of your warm up I want you to stop and stretch.  Your muscles should be warm and relaxed and open to a little stretching.  Speedwrok stresses the connective tissue and you want to take a few minutes to stretch.

Like I said, I did this in my neighborhood so I was able to leave a water bottle and take a drink when I stopped to stretch.  You may have additional trouble spots that you need to stretch but here is my routine:

• Lean against a wall hamstring stretch
• Anterior Achilles stretch (google it if you don’t know what it is)
• Hurdler hamstring stretch
• Quadriceps stretch
• Hip flexor stretch
• Inductor/abductor ‘butterfly’ stretch

I do about a minute on each of these and self massage while I’m doing them.

Strength and form exercises

Speed work uses different form and muscles and you need to work those.  Next is a series of exercise to build strength and form.  You can do these in any order but focus on form, not effort.

• Butt kicks
• Skipping
• Bounding
• Sideways run left
• Sideways run right
• Backwards run

Do each exercise for a count of 50 steps or reps.  Run 50 easy steps between each.  It sounds like a lot but I will take you less than a kilometer to do all of these.

Now you are ready for your introductory speed session.

You will do ten (or whatever feels comfortable) of these sets.  Run at 5K pace for 20 seconds, then recover for 60 seconds.  This is continuous for all 10 intervals.  If you do the math this is only an 11 minute workout.  Piece of cake.

This workout lends itself very nicely to being programmed into your Garmin or other device so you don’t have to waste time and focus looking at your watch.  Accelerate into the 20 seconds of speed with strength and form.  Before you know it the watch will beep and you can recover for a full minute.  Focus on strength and form.  Play with your stride and form during these 20 second intervals to get comfortable with the mechanics of speed.

Form and strength drills part two

When you finish the 10 speed intervals ease into the same form and strength drills you did before.

• Butt kicks
• Skipping
• Bounding
• Sideways run left
• Sideways run right
• Backwards run

When you get through these do the same stretching routine you did before.

• Lean against a wall hamstring stretch
• Anterior Achilles stretch (google it if you don’t know what it is)
• Hurdler hamstring stretch
• Quadriceps stretch
• Hip flexor stretch
• Inductor/abductor ‘butterfly’ stretch

Then cool down with a final 10 minute easy cruise with good form.

Doing this workout once or twice a week for 2 or three weeks will prepare you for entering into the fun world of speed and tempo work.  You’ll have a good taste of the form and strength required to run those 1600’s and ladders and step up runs without hurting yourself and getting discouraged.

There you go.  I can sleep well now that I have closed a loop and removed a barrier preventing thousands of new runners form going down to the local track and testing themselves against the great darkness that is speedwork.