Beginners' Speed Workout: Get Fit with Less Commitment
Photo by Marques Jackson Photography.
By Marnie Kunz
Whether you’re new to speed training or have been having a hard time sticking to any consistent training plan during covid-19, the Pandemic Speed Workout will get you on track. Short yet effective, this interval workout will have you making great strides in your running performance and boost your overall fitness level. And what makes it great for pandemic life is it’s less commitment than most speed workouts — you don’t have to run a lot of miles or suffer through long, grueling intervals at high speeds. Instead, you run for short, intense bursts of speed with plenty of rest periods. This interval workout is also great for beginning runners, as it’s not too intimidating and easy to follow the plan. This running workout is also great for people who get bored easily or have short attention spans such as myself.
Without further ado, here is how to do the Pandemic Speed Workout, for all levels of runners:
Pandemic Speed Workout for Runners
Warm Up: 5 minutes running at a slow, relaxed pace. You should feel very comfortable and be able to carry on a conversation at this pace.
Speed Intervals: Run 8 x 200-meter intervals, with 45 seconds of rest between each interval. For each 200-meter speed interval (equal to .125 of a mile on your running watch or tracking app), run at your goal 5K pace. If you don’t know your goal 5K pace, you can check out 5K average paces based on age for a good starting point, or go by feel and give about 85 percent effort level.
Rest Intervals: For your 45-second rest intervals, run slowly at recovery pace for active recovery.
Cool Down: 5 minutes running at a slow, relaxed pace. You should feel very comfortable and be able to carry on a conversation at this pace.
Total Workout Time: About 25 minutes or about 2.5 miles, depending on your exact pace.
For the Pandemic Speed Workout, your goal is to get your body and mind used to running at faster speeds, which will improve your overall running pace. The short, intense speed bursts will also step up your calorie-burning power and boost your fitness level.
Pandemic Speed Workout Tips:
Aim for consistency. It is better to run the intervals at a slightly slower pace and maintain that pace for each interval than to start very fast and burn out to a slow jog by the final intervals.
Run on a track if you can, as this makes it easy to measure your 200-meter speed intervals. 200 meters is half of a lap around a standard, 1/4-mile track. I have done this workout on roads using my Strava app easily as well, however, so if you don’t have access to a track or time to go to one, just watch your watch so each .125 of a mile is 200 meters or one interval.
Do this speed workout once a week. If you are really trying to step up your fitness or pace quickly, you can also supplement your running program by adding one other speed workout per week, such as Tabata running, another great, short speed workout. Give yourself at least one rest or easy day between speed workouts.
Run the Pandemic Speed Workout every week and after a few weeks, you will see your running times start to get faster. As you improve your pace, you will also notice you are faster in some of your regular running workouts as well, and you will be faster for 5K races.
As the workout gets easier, challenge yourself to run at a faster pace. You can run the intervals at your goal mile pace for an advanced speed workout.
Have you tried this workout? Let me know how your run went, comment below.
Related Posts: How to Do Tabata Running Workouts, Interval Training for Beginners, Improve Your Running with Progressive Overload, Lose Quarantine Weight with These 12 Tips
Marnie Kunz is a NASM-certified personal trainer, USATF, and RRCA-certified running coach and the creator of Runstreet Art Runs, which bring together communities through running and street art. She is a Brooklyn resident, trainer, Akita mom, and writer. She enjoys running coaching, traveling, art, and eating messily. You can follow her running and events at @Runstreet Instagram and Runstreet Facebook and follow her on Twitter for more on her running adventures.
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