Add Variety to Your Running

Have you been running for a while?

Have you switched up your training?

The body can become accustomed to training and begin to plateau when the same training is executed day after day.

Consider adding some variety to your training. You could add:

Tempo runs are steady paced runs that you can do for 8 to 16 weeks, which could be done at a little less than 5K pace.

Suggestion: Start by running or even walking the distance you decide on. You can start with 3.1 miles (5K).

Don’t add distance but keep track of your time. Pick some landmarks along the way if you are running on the street, and note the time as you pass each one.

Each week try to arrive at each landmark a little sooner than last, but avoid straining to do it. Try to keep your heart rate at 75 to 80 percent of the max.

If you are training for a 10K you could do tempo runs of 4 to 6 miles.

Remember to train moderately and keep an even pace throughout on these runs. This will help your endurance in 5Ks or whatever distance you are training for.

Fartlek is a Swedish term for speed play or unstructured speed work.

You start with a warm up and go for a run of a specified length. Within the run you add short bursts of higher speed running, perhaps to the next telephone pole, or you could decide how many short bursts you will put into your run and add them in randomly when you feel like it.

Recover will happen between bursts with slower running or even walking.

Remember to keep it fun. This will help when you suddenly want to pick up the pace in a race.

Hill training is a form of strength training for runners. Pick a hill and run repeats. If you are not used to hills just do repeats at any pace.

If you really want to build strength and technique on hills pick a set number of repeats and run them aggressively. You can jog slowly down the hill or walk down. Intervals on the track. You set the rules. You could decide to run 400 meters twice with a recovery time equal to the time it takes you to run the lap.

Over a couple of months, you could add laps until you are doing 400 meters 8 time, at faster than race pace.

Start with your slowest 400 meters time and run each one a little faster. You could also experiment with 200 meters and 800 meters.

There are many other types of workouts that you could incorporate when you are running. A very, very important point is to just try one of these for a few weeks. Do not try adding several of these to your weekly schedule at once.

Keep up the steady base training you have been doing, have fun and remember to recover fully before you attempt the next workout. Always listen to your body. And have fun!