Workout of the Day: 4 x 15 Minutes
4 x 15 Minutes
Intensity — Cutdown from slightly faster than Marathon to slightly faster than 10K effort
Recovery — 1minute recoveries
Exertion — 8/10
Context & Details
There is a time to run workouts for pace and a time to run them based on effort — it all depends on what period of training a runner is currently in.
Almost any online service will claim they provide the “smarter way to train.” But what exactly does “train smarter” mean?
I take it to mean have a plan. Which means periodize your training. But not all periodization schemes are equal. This is where the math can get tricky.
As a coach, one of the most important choices you make is how to set up training and why.
The most common and easiest path is to be a simple mileage and pace accountant. Do X amount at miles, at X pace. The promise is if the athlete dutifully fulfills this prescription, they’ll get better and meet their running goals. People like this approach because it is neat and orderly. Improvements in fitness are easily measured by paces getting faster and/or increases in mileage run. This approach works fine with the total novice runner (training age of less than 1-2 years) because any mileage or pace is a brand new stimulus of high intensity. But eventually, this approach stalls out as the stimulus stagnates.
Let’s now jump to the opposite end of the periodization spectrum for the elite runner (8+ years of training).
We can’t simply increase paces and miles of all runs indefinitely. There comes a breaking point. So periodization becomes very focused on a macro scale (month-to-month, block-to-block) but typically looks chaotic on a micro-scale (day-to-day and week-to-week).
Why?
There are two main reasons. At the elite level, 1) I’m focused on eliciting the biggest training stimulus possible, and 2) Ensuring there is enough recovery between these big efforts to make a series of them possible and sustainable.
For years I chased “The Perfect Method” or system/cycle of training. It’s a fool’s errand. It doesn’t exist. Runners are not robots. They cannot be programmed in an orderly manner on command.
Runners are humans and unique biological organisms subject to unpredictable and chaotic responses to stimuli. Scientific principles give us an idea of how runners, in general, should respond to a given set of stressors, but it cannot predict how each specific individual will respond. This is what makes all training ultimately an N of 1 experiment.
But principles do guide us. They’re our map. However, the map is not the territory. This is why I think every runner needs a guide, or coach, to help navigate their journey.
The principles of training and periodization or “coaching philosophy” of a coach is critical. Those with a highly cultivated philosophy are better coaches because they “train smarter.” As a coach, your education never stops. Books, lectures, podcasts, courses, certifications, conventions, chatting with other coaches, etc. all are opportunities to get better. Seek them out. Be a lifelong learner. It will make you better.
OK, back to periodization schemes and the workout.
I call my four periods in my periodization scheme: Offseason, Early season, Heart of season, and Championship season.
By contrast, Canova calls his periods: Transition/Regeneration, General, Fundamental, and Specific. Sometimes he adds a Special period after the Fundamental.
For both Canova and myself, the length of each period can differ depending on the athlete and context. The period duration is not rigid, but adaptable to the athlete and situation.
These are just 2 examples. It really doesn’t matter what you call your periods, so long as you know what the general themes and training stimuli of focus are in each.
As I’ve written it, this workout falls in my “heart of season” period or Canova’s "fundamental period.”
What matters in this period is the internal load or the perceived effort of the athlete. The pace on watch matters little in this period. All we want with workouts in this period is to get the biggest perceived stimulus to elect desired adaptations. The precision of pace matters a lot in the Special and Specific periods, but not so much before.
The aim of this session is to raise the runner’s resistance to fatigue, running economy, and lactate threshold velocity. So the first 15-minute block is at an effort that feels faster than Marathon tempo, the next slightly harder than 1/2 marathon speed, and then a bit better than 15K. The final rep is the hardest and where all the gains are had.
The runner may not be able to run their exact 10K pace on the final 15-minute segment. It doesn’t matter. They just need to try. By putting forth the effort, they will create the conditions for a very strong stimulus which will elicit the adaptations we’re after. In a lot of ways, this session is a long, disciplined fartlek.
If the runner has a healthy training background I would expect them to be recovered from the session within 2-3 days. But that might not happen. And that’s OK. We adjust and wait if needed.
This session might be performed 2 - 3 times, at most, in the heart of season period, each rerun about 3 weeks apart. You can adjust the session for your needs by shortening the length of the faster segments and/or expanding the recovery interval — by knowing the stimulus you're after you can remix this session as makes sense for your situation.
I’ll end with a Fun Fact:
In the spring of 2016, when I was coaching Tara Welling, she didn’t complete many workouts in the “heart of season” period before she won the USATF 1/2 Marathon Championships in 70 minutes. All the sessions were really hard. But during that period, I wasn’t too concerned about her finishing workouts, my focus what subjecting her to a big enough stimulus to make her a championship-caliber runner — and thankfully, it worked.