12 x 300m Hammer Intervals

Designed for XC runners

Intensity

300m reps at 3K pace

Recovery

2.5 minutes easy jogging after reps 1 - 6, walk/jog after reps 8, 10
2.5 minutes “Too Fast” after reps 7, 9, 11

Exertion

9/10

Periodization

Specific Period

Context & Details

How bad do you want it? That’s the question every runner must face in the final stages on race day.

It doesn’t matter how fit you get, in order to run your best you have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

The best runners trick you. They make the difficult look easy. The hard, look effortless.

Don’t be fooled. There is nothing easy about running fast for a sustained period. The lead pack runners are suffering just as much as midpack runners. They’re just more familiar and tolerant of the sensation. They learned to live with the discomfort, embrace it, knowing it won’t kill them but is a signal they’re on the right track.

One of the hardest jobs as a coach is getting runners comfortable with being uncomfortable. We’re hardwired for pleasure, not pain. But to take the lead, win the race, or run a new personal best comes at a cost. There are no free lunches on race day.

To get what you want, you must be ready and willing to pay the price of enduring discomfort on race day.

Training that does not address this truth fails the runner. It’s easy to think of fitness as solely a measure of physical and physiological capabilities. That’s only part of the story.

The other part was told to us by Steve Prefontaine, “A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more.”

And this is what Hammer Intervals teach runners, how to run at an exhausting pace and keep going.

If you want to get better results by learning more about Hammer style workouts for runners, Join the Running Scholar Program for only $29 to get unlimited access to courses on this topic plus real-world examples from 100+ training logs of elite runners.

Hammer Intervals comes from Scott Simmons in Take the Lead, his out-of-print (and very good) book on cross country training.

They’re brilliant because they train two vital qualities which impact running performance:

Lactate tolerance and clearance (physiological)
How to suffer and keep going (mental)

The result of hammer interval training is it provides the runner with a clear mind and body map of how to successfully increase effort over time as fatigue increases.

A Hammer Interval is one or more intervals (the period of activity between faster reps) in the second part of the workout, which corresponds to the point in the target race where significant fatigue is expected to manifest. During a Hammer Interval, the runner keeps running at an elevated running pace between reps, they slow does the least amount possible. Doing this keeps lactate concentrations sky high, not allowing sufficient clearance, which makes running the forthcoming rep at the target pace very difficult — exactly like the later stages of a race.

What’s the right pace on a Hammer Interval? Whatever feels “too fast” to the runner. That means it’s run more by effort than a predetermined time.

Here’s an example using today’s workout construction:

A runner with a 10:00 3K PR from last track season, targets running 12 x 300m at 60”. They keep a light, easy jog for 2.5-minutes after the first 6 reps, allowing for near-complete recovery so they can focus on ingraining the 60”/300m pace. Then the Hammer Interval series starts. After the 7th, 9th, and 11th 300m rep at 60” the runner “hammers” the 2.5-minute interval between the 300m reps at roughly 6:20/mile pace (95”/400m), then on the following 300m rep they’re forced to hammer even more to achieve 60” for 300m. This 300m rep is then followed by 2.5’ rest/walk to allow lactate levels to drop so they can repeat this Hammer Interval sequence again.

The use and number of hammer intervals is dependant on the developmental level of the runner. Younger, inexperienced runners, may only benefit from one to two hammer intervals, while older, more seasoned runners may be able to handle several.

The key to this workout is for a runner to self-select the “too fast” pace for the 2.5 hammer interval. The goal is to teach them how to suffer, running fast in the face of fatigue, not breaking them down to point of no return.

The hammer interval pace should be an honest, not corrosive, pace which makes running each successive 300m rep at 3K pace really, really hard, but still achievable. It should be the fastest possible pace the runner can go without blowing up.

It’s a fine line. But a line every runner must comfort on race day.

Any questions? Direct Message me on twitter.
Thx. | jm

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3 Good Books on XC / Mental training

Run Strong by Kevin Beck
How Bad to You Wan it? by Matt Fitzgerald
The Physiology of Training for High Performance by Duncan Macdougall & Digby Sale