Rest between workout reps: Standing vs. Jogging

Reading about training among the Kenyan and Ethiopian groups, walk/shuffle recovery seems to be favored, but they don't worry too much about it either way. For them, the focus is on the rep, they don't think about the recovery, mainly because they aren't using it to pump up volume the way western runners do. But they would also distinguish between the fartlek sessions and rep sessions.

sub1430at30 wrote:

What do you guys do/prefer and do you believe there's an advantage or disadvantage to one over the other? During HS and college, I would just walk/prance jog (12-14min pace) between reps and continued this until my mid-20's. 3yrs ago, a running friend convinced me that I was making the workouts too easy bc of the slow jog recoveries. Since then, I've adopted 8min pace as the rest, which really helps in planning out mileage for workouts (1min rest = 200m, 2min rest = 400m, etc.). I do this from tempo repeats to reps at 1500 pace. Do you believe it's more advantageous to maybe walk/prance the rest in order to get more quality in the reps, or does the fartlek-like workout style seem to be better? Thought?

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

sub1430at30 wrote:

What do you guys do/prefer and do you believe there's an advantage or disadvantage to one over the other? During HS and college, I would just walk/prance jog (12-14min pace) between reps and continued this until my mid-20's. 3yrs ago, a running friend convinced me that I was making the workouts too easy bc of the slow jog recoveries. Since then, I've adopted 8min pace as the rest, which really helps in planning out mileage for workouts (1min rest = 200m, 2min rest = 400m, etc.). I do this from tempo repeats to reps at 1500 pace. Do you believe it's more advantageous to maybe walk/prance the rest in order to get more quality in the reps, or does the fartlek-like workout style seem to be better? Thought?

From what I can tell, it's not a matter of "better" or not, but more a matter of what you're trying to accomplish with your workout. If you're just trying to work on blistering fast top-speed for shorter races, then more complete rest, might be better. More complete rest allows you to hit higher speeds during the running portion, without necessarily training you to stay at those speeds for very long.

If you're training for longer races and need to build speed that you can hold for longer distances, a running/jogging recovery might work better. That forces your body to deal with some fatigue and lactic acid, while converting it to useable energy to keep going, as opposed to crashing. You're not going to sprint full speed then stop during a marathon, so there's less to be gained by training that way. But you will go through points in the marathon where you're running slower, without totally resting, due to fatigue. You want to train your body how to deal with that and be able to gather yourself and get back up to marathon (not sprint, mile or 5K) pace.

Always standing rest unless doing a fartlek.

Walking easy or jogging between reps are equal in not allowing the lactate level to be too low in the recovery phase. When it comes to stimulate the stroke volume. the power of the heart, the walking rest is superior.