Change up your track workouts with this simple hack

It’s easy to get stuck in a rut with our training plans, and many runners tend to repeat the same workouts over and over. If you’re starting to get bored with your usual routine, this one small change will help you get excited about your workout again–and maybe even make it a little more challenging.

The hack is simple: if you have a set of straight intervals, like 10 400m repeats, six 800m repeats, etc., try breaking them up into sets of two, and adjusting the rest so that it’s shorter during the set and longer between sets. It’s basically taking the principles from this speed workout and combining them with this classic track workout.

For example, if your workout is 10 x 400m with 2 minutes’ rest between intervals, you can change it to this:

5 sets of (400m/1 min rest/400m/2:30 min rest).

With less recovery within each set, doing the workout in this way challenges your speed endurance more than it would if you were to do them in straight sets, but the longer rest after each set still allows you to run them with some speed. 

You can do the same for 800s. If the workout is 6 x  800m with 2-3 minutes’ rest, you can change it to this:

3 sets of (800m/1:30 rest/800m/3 min rest)

Of course, straight interval workouts are still valuable and have their place in anyone’s training program, but if you’re becoming bored with the same workouts all the time, consider talking to your coach about applying a change like this to your next session. It may be just what you need to get excited about your training again.