Encourage Them NOT to Cheat

MUSINGS FROM A COACH - 17 SEPTEMBER '24

"For this session, I want them coming in at or below race pace, not faster. So I reduced the rest interval to 'encourage' them not to cheat!"

The above quote was said to me last year by a National Team Coach from another country at a camp we were both at. We were at the track, and he had a group of athletes similar in ability doing 800 repeats.

Now, I've always played with interval rest to either appropriately match with the intensity or adjust the interval quality and/or focus of the entire set. For example, and we'll use 800 repeats at the track as our model, here are two different sets:

Example 1: Higher intensity, MORE rest.

18:00min 5K'er

6 x 800 come in at 2:35, go on 5min

*In the above example, I want high-quality 800 above race pace, so I'm giving a 1:1 work-rest ratio

Example 2: Lower intensity, LESS rest.

18:00min 5K'er

6 x 800 come in at 2:45, go on 4min

*In this example, I have the athlete go slightly below race pace but give them less rest.

Example 1 will be a very challenging set as the athlete will be running faster than they have before for six intervals. However, they will get almost a full recovery to help them achieve each interval.

For example 2 we're going a bit slower than the athlete can run, but we're also giving them less time to recover. This is also challenging as fatigue starts to accumulate over the six intervals. Example 1 focuses on increasing speed while example two focuses on strength endurance - both are challenging and both achieve different objectives.

Back to the quote that started all this. That Coach was using example two, most likely for the same reasons I listed above. However, I LOVED how he also used it to keep the athletes honest and not let them go too fast. For those of you "hammers" out there who tend to always want to go faster and think that's always better, this is the set for you.

And for strong runners, we can put each of these in once, each week, and progress them week after week.

Just a peak into a Coach's mind....hahahaha. Enjoy your week!

Gratefully,

Mark CEO Team MPI