Training Lessons from an Olympic Runner: Intensity and Recovery
The hardest workout I ever did was 5x 150m all-out.
The total volume was a mere 750m - less than half a mile of work! But I ran those 750m as fast as possible. As an Olympic 1500m runner (miler) I did a wide range of workouts ranging from fast hard 13 mile long runs to all-out sprints and everything in between, with lots of easy to moderate distance running. Most of my interval workouts would total a minimum of 3 miles of work so in terms of volume, 5x 150m was a very short workout. But it was the intensity that took so much out of me.
Read more about Training For The Mile
Max Effort requires Max Recovery
After 5x 150m I would need 5 days (or more!) of easy running or recovery before feeling physically ready to attempt an even moderately hard effort. I ran this workout only a handful of times in my entire career because it required so much recovery time.
While 5x 150m was a valuable workout for an elite miler, I simply could not afford to put that effort out regularly because of the other valuable training it caused me to miss out on. I had to sacrifice volume (on the workout day and on the subsequent recovery days) as well as my usual second weekly workout to properly recover.
A Delicate Balance
The point of this story is that there’s a delicate balance between volume and intensity in training. Runners can’t run a lot at a high effort without risking injury or burnout, so it’s important to consider the purpose behind each workout to make sure it is a priority for your goals.
For example, marathoners have a high training priority on volume. They don’t run 5x 150m “all out” and in fact they hardly run any intense workouts because that would compromise their ability to run lots of miles. Sprinters do a lot of intense fast running, but hardly any volume.
Taking Calculated Risks
As an athlete and now as a coach, I consider high intensity and high effort training to be risky. As intensity is increased, so do the chances of injury and/or burnout. The safest way to run is easy and occasionally - but that’s hardly the way to make progress! I strongly believe that the greatest training tool is the ability to tap into different effort levels and so to make progress, we need to sometimes run at higher effort levels.
When adding any higher intensity running to your training program, remember that interval workouts, tempo runs and even harder regular runs always require more easy days and days off to recover than easy runs. Consider how the hard effort fits into your bigger goals and whether or not the workout is “worth” the recovery time it will demand.
Read more about different effort levels and perceived effort
Getting Started
For runners who want to start incorporating faster running and harder efforts into their training, the best way to start is by running strides. Strides are very short intervals of fast running, with gradual acceleration and deceleration. They are a gentle first step to some faster running and will give the body a little dose of the increased force and range of motion associated with faster speeds.
Read more about Strides
Max Effort: A Word of Caution
The 5x150m at max effort is not a workout I recommend for recreational runners. (When I retired from professional running I stopped doing max efforts.) In fact, I do not recommend any “all out” workouts for recreational runners - they are too risky and ultimately not necessary to make training gains. It is possible to get faster and stronger without pushing our bodies to the limit.
Effort level in training should top out at around E8 “very hard” on the scale of perceived effort, with very few exceptions. This is a relatively safe way to train and teaches runners to learn control and always have another gear to finish strong. Maximum efforts should be reserved for the finish of races only, and for some runners I discourage maximum effort even in races (depending on age, injury history, and lifestyle factors).
Nicole Sifuentes is a full-time Running Coach for adults of all ages and abilities. She is a former professional runner and 2-time Olympian, and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. Read more about her services, and schedule your free coaching consultation.