Workout Wednesday: The road ladder

Now that conditions are starting to improve and spring is just days away, it’s time to venture out and return to running on the roads.

All-seasons athletes who are ready to take their training to the next level and incorporate more speed work know the roads are a great place to run repeats. With nothing but a distant time or measured interval to complete, the roads are an ideal place to practice running fast and mimic conditions of an upcoming race.

A ladder workout is one in which you perform intervals get progressively longer and before climbing back down to the distance of the first interval. The pace you run each interval will depend on the goal race you’re training for, but generally paces which correspond to races between 5K and half-marathon are good options.

A common ladder on the track might be 400m-800m-1,200m-1,600m-1,200m-800-400m at 10K pace with 400m of easy running or walking between repeats.

On the roads the distance does not need to be dictated by the length of a track. Longer intervals can be ideal. It’s a good idea to run on roads similar to the race you’re training for, be it rolling with hills, pancake flat or winding with turns.

A ladder workout is also mentally valuable. It teaches you how it will feel to get progressively more fatigued as the intervals lengthen, but once you finish the longest interval, the distances shorten and you can mentally convince yourself it’s almost finished.

Sample workouts:

Warm-up – 500m – 1K – 1.5K – 1K – 500m at 5K pace with 500m easy between – cooldown.

Warm-up – 1K – 1.5K -2K -1.5K – 1K at 10K pace with 500m easy between – cooldown.

Warm-up – 1K – 2K – 3K – 2K – 1K at half-marathon pace with 1K easy between – cooldown.