4 x (5 x 200m)
4 x (5 x 200m)
Intensity — 1500m pace
Recovery — Starting at 60” and decreasing to 45”, 30”,15” in each set. With 3’ - 4’ between sets.
Exertion — 7/10
Context & Details
There are only 5 core biomotor abilities runners need to upgrade to improve:
Stamina (which some mislabel as endurance)
Speed
Strength
Skill
Suppleness
This session address improves all those core biomotor abilities as well as fatigue resistance, VO2 Max, vVO2 Max, aerobic power, and running economy.
You can use this workout all year with a miler to great effect.
The workout progression is simple:
In the General, early season, Period run the 200m reps at a runner’s Date Pace for 1500m. After roughly 3 - 5 sessions, advance the final 200m rep in each set to the runner’s Goal Pace for 1500m.
When you transition to the Fundamental, mid-season, Period then perform the first 2 sets at Date Pace and the final 2 sets at Goal Pace.
And finally in the Specific Period, or racing season, all the 200m reps, in all sets, are performed at Goal Pace.
What makes this session so effective is the decreasing recovery intervals in each set. Shortening the interval period spikes lactate production and accustoms the miler to running at 1500m speed in the presence of sharply accelerating fatigue. This is exactly the race conditions the miler meets halfway into their event and so it specifically preps them both physiologically and psychologically for race day.
If you do the math, for a 4:08 miler (32”/200m) an entire set takes just over 5 minutes (2:30 for all the rest intervals combined, and 2:40 for the 5 repetitions at 32”). However, since the recovery periods are incomplete, the stimulus to the body is very, very close to that of a mile race. But the overall fatigue is not as high as a race since there are mini-breaks, so recovery between sets is pretty rapid which allows for performing a higher volume of work.
Each session totals 4,000m of work parceled in a very manageable yet highly specific package. I think it is a great Monday workout option for most high school or college milers (if you are on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday/Saturday hard/easy training rhythm). I’ve found the fatigue residuals from this session to last about 24 - 36 hours. Provided the day following this session is easy, an adequately trained miler is usually ready to workout again in 2 days.
With more experienced milers, after the 4th set is finished (and after a 3’ - 4’ rest period), I sometimes add a final 400m rep at A.U.G. (all you got) effort as a vehicle to help prepare and callous them for realties of the bell lap on race day.