3 workouts to rev up any race pace

Whether you’re hoping to maximize your mile pace or prepping for a fall marathon, these speedwork sessions are for you. Dr. Andrew Reheisse, a Salt Lake City-based chiropractor and running coach, suggests adding one of these speed-boosting sessions to your training regime once a week. These workouts are based around your mile pace for your goal race distance—if you calculate your running pace in kilometres, just multiply it by 1.6. For these workouts, you’ll be gearing up to 30 seconds to one minute faster than goal mile pace.

Reheisse explains that as you progress, you can extend the intervals so that you’re comfortably covering longer distances at tempo pace.

200m repeats

For these intervals, you’re aiming to run a minute or faster than your goal (mile) race pace for the interval. Tweak the number of sets to prep for any distance: for a 5-10K race, run 2-3 sets, for a half-marathon, aim for 3-4 and for a marathon, bump it up to 5 or 6. This workout is easiest on a track, where 4 laps equal 1 mile.

Warm up with a mile of easy jogging and some dynamic drills, like these.

Run 4 x 200m with a 200m jog between reps; take a 400m jog between sets.

Cool down with a mile of easy running.

Speedy fartlek fun

“In this workout we play around with our speed at different intervals of time, says Reheisse. “I outlined a common workout I do, but it can really be any amount of short bursts.”

Warm up with 1 mile of easy running and 5 minutes of dynamic drills. Start with 3 sets of this workout at 1 minute faster than race pace to get a feel for it—add more sets when you feel ready.

Run 3 sets of 40 seconds, 30 seconds and 20 seconds, with recovery time equalling interval time (40 seconds of speed work followed by 40 seconds of recovery, 30 seconds fast running followed by 30 seconds recovery, etc.).
Take 2 minutes of easy recovery running.
Run 1 minute, 1 minute 30 seconds, 1 minute, with recovery time equalling interval time (1 minute interval followed by 1 minute of easy running).
Take 2 minutes of very easy running to recover.
Run 3 sets of 40 seconds, 30 seconds and 20 seconds, with recovery time equalling interval time.

Cool down with a mile of easy running.

Yo-yo intervals

“These are necessary to turn your newfound speed into a sustainable pace during a race, explains Reheisse. “Performing repeat miles or 800s, or yo-yo-ing back and forth in this workout, you will still be running faster than your goal pace.” Reheisse suggests aiming for 15-30 seconds faster than goal pace on the mile repeats, and 45 seconds to 1 minute faster in the 800s. “As you progress, it will be the rest period that gets shorter, so that it becomes more race-like.

Warm up with a one-mile jog and 5 minutes of dynamic drills. This example workout is designed for a 8:00/mile goal race pace. Take 2-3 minutes of recovery running between each interval to start; lower to 1-1.5 minutes as your fitness progresses.

Run 800m with a goal time of 3:30.
Run 1 mile with a goal time of 7:30-7:40.
Run 800m with a goal time of 3:30.
Run 1 mile with a goal time of 7:30-7:40.
Run 800m with a goal time of 3:30.
Cool down with an easy one-mile run.

Remember to hydrate well during speedwork sessions (and all training sessions) and follow a harder training day with a day of very easy running or complete rest.