We introduced, earlier, the 1-2-3 Program for beginners, with a brief description of the three workouts per week, and tips on how to progress through the first and second Cycle.

But why these three types of run? What’s special about them?

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Steady

This run is your solid, steady, could-run-more-but-choose-not-to workout. It should be run on a known route, at a fairly constant heart rate, at a easy-moderate effort. It’s meant to help you improve your endurance without wearing you down, but it’s also great to improve your form and learn to run steadily, at a fixed pace (assuming no elevation).

If you train with HR Zones, try to stay in middle to upper Z2 zone. This will, with time, increase your first ventilatory threshold (also called aerobic threshold), teaching your body to use fats as fuel without overtaxing it. This kind of run is also commonly called Easy (different from recovery) or Foundation run.

After you have completed a few cycles, this can become your Tempo run (also called a Sandwich run). Start slow, in Z1/Z2, and after a few minutes change gear and settle into your upper Z3 zone. Finally, cool down in Z1/Z2.

In a Tempo run, it’s important that you push for the higher part of Zone 3, just below your so-called lactate threshold. This provides a stronger training stimulus to your aerobic system, by helping raise your lactate threshold (and thus raising the speed you can run at before you feel like your legs are made of lead). It also improves your mental endurance, which is no less important than your fitness, in a race.

You could run both Steady and Tempo runs as negative splits, implementing a so called Progression run. A negative split happens when you run faster than your previous split. You would start at a very easy pace, and speed up at specific times.

You could start in Z1 for several minutes, move onto lower Z2, then upper Z2, lower Z3 and finally upper Z3. A lower Z4 finish, when you become more experienced, could be acceptable. This kind of run is great to learn to pace yourself during a race, because it’s much better to finish strong, rather than crawling.

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Speedy

This should your hardest workout of the week, but it can also be a lot of fun! It’s short, so you can push a bit more. You could end up covering HR zones from Z1 to Z5, in different quantities.

This workout is meant to predominantly improve your VO2Max and anaerobic energetic systems, your neuromuscular fitness as well as your running economy. This helps a lot in shorter race, but it’s important for any distance.

It’s likely you’ll see many of your training-time PBs, or “personal best”, during your Speedy workout. But don’t try that on purpose – races are where you aim for a PB. Training is where you prepare your body and mind for the next race.

In the introductory post, I described the Speedy like this:

1 KM without walking, but with some speedy bits. Run a bit faster from one lamp post to another, or from this car to that car. Go by feeling. It should be fun, not hell, so don’t overdo it.

This is called a Fartlek, Swedish for “speed play”. It’s unstructured, which usually suits beginners much better than repeats. Go by feeling. It works and it surely is fun.

Unless it doesn’t work for you. As alternatives, you could do track repeats, short and fast Tempo, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) or something similar. Change week by week if need be, until you find an intense workout that you like.

As a general rule, if you aim for faster intervals (in Z5) you should make them short (one or two minutes). If you do them in middle/high Z4, they can be longer (up to about 5 minutes). You can either recover with a few minutes in Z1, or jog longer in Z2, or even mix it up with longer (eg, 10 minutes) Z3 intervals (also called cruise intervals).

Make your own workout, but make sure challenge yourself on your Speedy day.

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Recovery

Sometimes you arrive at the day of the Speedy workout that you are tired, your legs hurt, it’s too hot, you are dehydrated. A lot of things can affect your day-to-day condition.

It may just be that you pushed too much in the previous workout, or in the previous week. Did you forget to take a cutback week in the last few cycles?

Well, Recoveries are there for you. Run for the same short length of your Speedy, but with the pace of your Long. Keep your HR in Z1, or lower part of Z2 . You’ll get better, and you should find your next workouts much easier to complete.

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Long

Long runs are the core of pretty much all decent training plans. They build endurance (physical and mental), improve your aerobic fitness, force you to learn your limits. You should start your Long in Z1/Z2, but might occasionally finish in Z3 (a “fast finish” in upper Z3 is a great workout, but do it sparingly!). Take walk or shuffle breaks if needed. Not required, but advised: find new routes, enjoy the scenery 🙂

Thanks to your Long, you’ll learn whether you are eating and drinking too much or too little in the hours before the run. You’ll know whether you must go to the bathroom before this run, or if you can “keep it”. You’ll find out whether you pushed too hard in the previous week, and therefore need a cutback week. You’ll know if it’s time to change your shoes, from the little pains in your joints – it’s more likely to be an issue on a Long run.

These are all important lessons as you move from short to long races. Also, the Long run helps you improve on all energy systems of your body. So it’s an essential workout whether you like racing 5Ks or Marathons.

Feel free to slow it down even to a walk, if you need, but don’t skip or shorten it – unless you feel really tired from the week’s work. In that case, you should really make your next week a cutback week.

As you complete more Cycles and become a stronger runner, you could include strides in your Long (short segments at slightly faster pace), and you could learn to finish strong – in fact, your could run the whole length with negative splits if you wish (see the Steady run for details on negative splits).