6K, 5K, 4K, 3K, 2K, 1K
6K, 5K, 4K, 3K, 2K, 1K
Designed for Marathoners
Intensity
6K@ Date Marathon
5K @ Goal Marathon
4K @ Date 1/2 Marathon
3K @ Goal 1/2 Marathon
2K @ 15K
1K @ 10K
Recovery
1K “Steady” @ 75% of Goal Marathon Pace
Exertion
9/10
Periodization
Foundation Period, Intensification Block
Context & Details
This session comes from the workout catalog of famed elite marathon Coach Renato Canova. It’s one of his go-to sessions for his marathoners in the Foundation Period of training. His runners will revisit this session about every 2 weeks over an 8 week period, making for 4 runnings of this session. Progress is measured by the 1K steady time quickening, not the rep times.
Why is that?
Marathon fitness is determined primarily by 5 Key Physiological Attributes. This session is designed to facilitate upgrades to all 5 of these key attributes, with the biggest impact being on elevating Lactate Threshold.
A high lactate threshold may be the most important physiological variable for marathon runners. Lactate can be friend and foe to runners. There are a lot of myths about lactate and lactic acid. Effective marathon training centers around creating situations that force the body to adapt to using a higher amount of lactate as fuel to sustain aerobic energy production over demanding endurance activities, like marathon running.
There are several energy substrates the body uses to power aerobic activity. The preferred type is glycogen and it’s the primary fuel used when racing the marathon. But there is a limited supply of glycogen available in the body (within the muscles and liver). When you “hit the wall” that means you’ve exhausted the majority of available glycogen to power your running. In a low on glycogen state, our body turns to fatty acids to power activity, but this forces a slow down in running speed because fat metabolism uses oxygen less efficiently. Therefore, the marathoner wants to conserve their glycogen as best they can by enhancing their ability to use other types of fuel, lactate, as well as fat, to power their running.
With that in mind, the genius of this workout lies in the treatment of the 1K steady between each rep.
Keeping the 1K reps at a manageable, yet steady tempo (in this example 75% of Goal Marathon Pace) doesn’t look too demanding, but it is. The recovery experienced by the runner between reps won’t be complete. What will happen is the amount of lactate present in the body will steadily increase as the workout progresses. With an increasing lactate concentration in the body and a diminishing glycogen supply, the body will be conditioned to consume more and more lactate to fuel the runner’s effort in the latter stages of the workout.
Ultimately, when this situation is repeated multiple times over a training cycle, the body alters how it fuels prolonged running efforts to include higher amounts of lactate. In the marathon, this results in “the wall” moving closer and closer to the finish line, and for some runners, eventually disappearing altogether.
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