Continuous Workouts (fast recovery intervals)

Mark Bomba was doing those kind of workouts about 10-15 years ago.

This is how you teach the body to burn lactate. The Great Michelle Ferarri mentions cycling workouts like this.

You can also run hard up a hill and then recover while running fast down the hill rather than the typical way.

I have limited experience doing this for 5k training, but quite a bit of experience when it comes to HM/Marathon training. My go to workout is 12 miles alternating between goal HM and goal Marathon pace. In fact, that is the only

workout that I have done in the last 2-3 years (not counting progressive long runs and occasional tempos when I am "feeling it"... those aren't really workouts though).

This plan took me from 1:17/2:50 down to 1:12/2:34 with only a 10 mpw bump in mileage (60 up to 70).

I used to do this alternating fast mile (about 4:40) with fast recovery (around 5:10 to 5:20). I really liked this workout but it was a toughie.

"My go to workout is 12 miles alternating between goal HM and goal Marathon pace. In fact, that is the only

workout that I have done in the last 2-3 years (not counting progressive long runs and occasional tempos when I am "feeling it"... those aren't really workouts though).

This plan took me from 1:17/2:50 down to 1:12/2:34 with only a 10 mpw bump in mileage (60 up to 70)."

How often do you do that go to workout?

Salazar was doing 10 miles of 4:30/5:00

Fred Maffletone wrote:

"My go to workout is 12 miles alternating between goal HM and goal Marathon pace. In fact, that is the only

workout that I have done in the last 2-3 years (not counting progressive long runs and occasional tempos when I am "feeling it"... those aren't really workouts though).

This plan took me from 1:17/2:50 down to 1:12/2:34 with only a 10 mpw bump in mileage (60 up to 70)."

How often do you do that go to workout?

Only 3-4 times per cycle at 12 miles. The general idea holds true for my weekly workouts during any race buildup though. 16 weeks out, I start doing this workout, only at 6 miles. I add 1 mile every week until I hit 12 (~10 weeks out from the race). Then, I do the 12 mile workout every other week for 6-8 weeks until taper time.

I do progressive long runs with the last 1/3 of the run at goal Marathon pace on the "off" weeks. Both the long runs and "12 mile" workouts are 18-22 miles when you factor in warmup and cool down mileage.

Thanks, that is great.

If I'm not mistaken Steve Magness is a proponent of this type of workout.

magfan? sort of wrote:

If I'm not mistaken Steve Magness is a proponent of this type of workout.

Correct. If you look at his book/blog, he refers to them as alternations.

I experimented with these a bit in my last 5K buildup (4-5 x 1200 at MP/400 at 5K pace, no rest). Getting through 5 made for a tough workout, but probably useful, since it was different than other things I was trying.

Look up anything by Renato Canova on training.

here you go wrote:

Look up anything by Renato Canova on training.

That is an interesting idea.

Renato Canova uses an alternating 1km workout for around 20 to 22km total (a 1:05 half marathon in training at altitude...alternating 4:40 mile pace/5:20 mile pace).

For example:

Here is Renato Canova's Moses Mosop training schedule with many interesting (and hard) workouts:

Another one for you... find a long, not-too-steep hill and do reps trying to hit the SAME TIME both going up and jogging back down. Max 2/3' worth of effort, 8-10x reps.

Basically as said above this stuff teaches the body how to burn lactate while under stress. Leave plenty of recovery the following days as this this type of workout is pretty stressful....

I like the workout alternating miles between marathon pace and half marathon pace. The most I go up to is 10 miles though. This is a very hard workout- For instance if you are alternating 5:40 and 6 minute miles you hit a 5:50 average for 10 miles (plus it's harder than just running continuous 5:50 pace). I only do this workout once per cycle, but I build up to it by starting with 6 miles of the same workout and then 8. The Canova alternating k's are cool too- I have only done those a few times, 16-20k... Recoveries a little slower so the average pace works out to about goal marathon pace