Races from 5K-10K are most common this time of year and as we have a flat and fast 5K coming up this weekend, here’s a challenging speed-based workout to get you ready. The idea is to complete about 5K worth of distance in your work intervals in a combined time that is faster than your target 5K race pace. How do you do that? You take a little bit of rest in between work intervals. After a 10 minute warmup, run a descending ladder, increasing the pace and decreasing the rest interval as you go. Start with a mile and then descend through the ladder as written below. The total volume of this workout is about 10K so it’s best to do this with rest days on both sides or at least 5 days before a target race. For those who aren’t up to the volume yet, start at the first sequence of 800’s and skip the opening mile and a half. After the workout, add up the times of the work intervals. You’ve just set a 5K PR in the middle of a 10K run! Now go race that 5K.

Session

Warmup: 10 minutes, include arm circles, reaches and upper body warmup as well as running

Session: 1x1600x800, 1x800x800, 1x800x400, 1x400x400, 2x400x200, 1x200x200, 1x200x100, 2x100x100.

Cooldown: 10 minutes followed by some basic running drills – butt kicks, high knees, skipping, heel slides, crossovers – no more than 100m each. Follow with 4 50m strides.