Variety is the spice of running

Do you have a goal for your running? Perhaps you want to be able to run further, to run faster or just to ensure that you stick at it. Whatever the goal, you are more likely to achieve it if you vary your training sessions as monotony can be the undoing of your targets.

If you were to go out and run the same session everyday not only would you become bored with your running but you would only improve to a certain extent. To get better you need to increase your training load over time but you should not attempt to increase the training load every time you go out as this could lead to overtraining. Hard days and easy days should be factored into your weekly plan.

First off you could decide on an area of focus over several weeks, monitor how it has gone and then move onto something else. For example, you may decide to increase the distance you can cover over a six week period and then move on to running it faster. To be able to run further you should gradually increase the volume of your training and then gradually increase the intensity to run faster. It is important that you measure these increases and check that you are not moving things forward too quickly. You should also concentrate on just one of them at a time. Slowly and gradually is the key so that your body can adapt to the training over time. You must also plan recovery sessions and rest so that your body can adapt to the training stimulus. A rule of thumb could be: if you are running further you should keep the pace to what is normal for you. If you are running faster you should keep the distance to what is normal for you.

In order to keep a check on all of this it is important to record your training and progress. In your training log you should note:

Duration of your training session

• Distance covered
• Intensity
• Recovery
• How you felt
• The duration and the intensity multiplied together will give you the overall training load.
• Intensity + Volume = Training Load

To arrive at a figure for the volume could be relatively straight forward, such as the number of minutes you were running for. If it was a long, continuous run this may be, for example, 80 (minutes). To arrive at a figure for intensity could need more thought. You could use PRE (Perceived Rate of Exertion) and give yourself a number 1 – 10: 1 being a very slow and easy recovery pace and 10 being as hard as you can go on a short effort. Or you may use a heart rate monitor and devise a formula from there, for example, 80% of maximum heart rate = 8, 50% of maximum heart rate = 5.

To work out your heart rate training zones you need to know your HRR (Heart rate reserve) and to work this out you need to know your maximum and resting heart rates.

Maximum heart rate = approximately 220 minus your age. This is a rough estimate. To get a better indication you could consider physiological testing or do 4 X 400m fast running with a reduction in recovery between each one. Have 3 minutes after the first one, then 2 minutes and then 1 minute. You should get your heart rate to its maximum with this session.

Subtract your resting heart rate (should be taken on waking up) and this is your HRR.

For example, if your maximum HR is 180 and your resting is 60 then your HRR is 120.

Training zones are very individual and the best way to find yours is by physiological testing but a rule of thumb is:

Interval training – 90%+

Threshold training – 80 – 90%

Steady State – 70 – 80 %

Easy, recovery running 60 – 70%

If you were aiming to run at a high intensity of 95% you would need to know what  95% of maximum heart rate is:

220 - 40 = 180

180 - 60 = 120

95% of 120 = 114

114 + 60 = 174

174 - pace for this session.

Recovery is until the heart rate drops to 60% - 70%.

If you were to use PRE to measure intensity you may record training load in a typical week as such:

Sunday - a long run of 60 minutes at an intensity of 5 = 300

Monday – 30 minutes easy, intensity 4 = 120

Tuesday – 30 minutes of interval work, intensity  9 = 270

Wednesday – REST = 0

Thursday – 40 minutes of threshold, intensity 6 = 240

Friday – 30 minutes easy, intensity 4 = 120

Saturday – 60 minutes very easy on the bike, intensity 3 = 180

If you were to use heart rate your week may look like this:

Sunday - a long run of 60 minutes at an intensity of 6 = 360

Monday – 30 minutes easy, intensity  6 = 180

Tuesday – 30 minutes of interval work, intensity  9 = 270

Wednesday – REST = 0

Thursday – 40 minutes of threshold, intensity 8 = 320

Friday – 30 minutes easy, intensity 6 = 180

Saturday – 60 minutes very easy on the bike, intensity 5 = 300

Whichever way you use, once you plot this graph you will see a good level of variety with some days heavy on load and others easy. There should be some sort of pattern alternating hard and easy days. You can then keep a check of how you increase your training load over the weeks by adding the numbers together for the overall weekly load.