Spicing Up Your Running Workout To Stay Motivated
You know the feeling--running the same run in the same loop at the same time day after day
. It does not take long for you to completely lose motivation all together.
However, you can change things up and make them interesting again with just a little bit of effort. The first fun thing to try has an even funnier name: the fartlek.
The funny name literally means "speed play" in Swedish. It is actually a great starter workout for those who are not used to speed or interval training.
Instead of hitting the track, take to your usual course on the road (or trail or wherever). Here's how it works: warm up for five to ten minutes, then start a series of varied intervals with speed and rest periods.
Choose a landmark and run hard to it, and then jog to recover, and then choose another landmark and run hard to that, and so on. Fartleks can be extremely varied, so you could do shorter sprint intervals, followed by longer hard and steady intervals, throw in some hills, and so on.
Run hard for as long as you want, then rest for a short while, then run hard again. As you do these fartlek workouts, you will get stronger and faster, and your intervals will get harder and longer as you go on.
Next, try a tempo run.This is a staple of many intermediate and advanced runner's training plans, and if you don't know this run yet, you should get to know it.
Basically, it is a sustained run at a hard, controlled pace (usually for no more than forty minutes). Beginners should start with a tempo run of about five minutes and work up to about twenty minutes.
Always start and end a tempo run with five to ten minutes of warmup and then cool down. So a tempo run of twenty minutes, for example, would be five to ten minutes warmup, twenty minutes of steady, hard and controlled running, and another five to ten minutes to cool down, for thirty to forty minutes total.
The tempo run improves your running pace and performance and makes your running more efficient. A variation is the tempo interval, which is two or more shorter tempo runs separated by a few minutes of easy pace.
Track intervals are another way to mix things up. There are track intervals and there are road intervals, and both types of intervals come in a variety of flavors.
Basically, it is a five to ten minute warm up, a series of harder intervals (with rest intervals in between, where you can either jog at easy pace or walk at fast pace), and then another five to ten minute cool down. It is a great way to add intensity to your jog.
High-Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT, is a great way to kick your body into gear if it has hit a fitness plateau. HIIT is all the rage in many exercise circles, because of studies showing that it's good for fat-burning and you can get a good workout in less time.
Basically it's a series of near-maximum intensity sprints with less-intense recovery intervals (after a warm up of course) and usually lasts between ten to twenty minutes (not counting warm up and cool down). HIIT, because of the intensity of the intervals, can be very tough.
Build up to it with medium-distance track intervals two hundred to eight hundred meter repeats. Last but not least, try some Yasso eight hundreds.
Basically, it is a form of speed training for marathoners, but you could adapt it for other training. How it works, is you do ten repeats of eight hundred meters (on the track), working up to a certain goal time.
The goal time is figured by taking your goal marathon time, and turning it from hours and minutes to minutes and seconds. So according to this theory, if you can do ten repeats of 3:30, with 3:30 jogging rest intervals in between, you can do a 3:30 marathon.
Once you have found something you like, don't just stick with that. Continue to try new things, and challenge yourself--it doesn't even matter if you are on the street or a treadmill.
by: Ronald Pedactor
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