Running intervals is an intensive form of training in which you run at a pace that is faster than your steady running pace for a set distance or time, walk or jog to recover, then repeat the faster interval and recovery for a set duration or number of times. Running intervals can help beginning runners improve their fitness quickly, compared with steady running. Experienced runners, from sprinters to long-distance athletes, use interval running to achieve specific training goals.
Fitness Faster
Running at a steady pace will improve your basic fitness. If you want to improve your fitness quickly, incorporate interval running in your weekly training program. A study of cyclists found that endurance capacity increased by 100 percent following a two–week period of intensive interval training, according to the “Journal of Applied Physiology.”
Lactate Tolerance
When you run hard in training or take part in a race, you are likely to feel the effects of lactic acid — including fatigue — on your muscles. Lactic acid is a by-product of intense activity when your body uses carbohydrates as an energy source. The more intense the exercise, the higher the level of lactic acid in the blood because the body cannot remove it as quickly as it accumulates. However, a study by Professor George Brooks at the University of California, Berkeley, found that interval running improved the body’s ability to remove lactic acid.
Specific Training
Improved lactate tolerance is one example of a specific benefit you can achieve through interval running. This factor will help you improve race times because excessive lactate, or lactic acid, in the blood will cause you to slow down later in a race. You can use training to improve your ability to recover from hard efforts by running sessions with a short recovery between hard intervals. As an example, you might begin by taking a one-minute walk to recover between intervals. Reduce the recovery period by five or 10 seconds each week.
Race Pace
Interval running can help you cope with the stresses of running at a harder pace for prolonged periods. If you plan to race over a mile, for example, running intervals of 880 yards or three-quarters of a mile will help you prepare for the experience of racing. Interval running can also help you develop pace judgment. If you aim to run at a pace of six minutes per mile in a race, run intervals on a track at a pace of 90 seconds per quarter-mile lap to get used to the effort and feel of that pace. The Finnish athlete Paavo Nurmi, world record holder for distances from 1,500 meters to 20,000 meters during the 1920s, ran intervals with a stop watch in his hand to perfect his pace judgment.
References
- “Journal of Applied Physiology”: Six Sessions of Sprint Interval Training Increases Muscle Oxidative Potential and Cycle Endurance Capacity in Humans; Kirsten A. Burgomaster, et al.; February 2005
- “UC Berkeley News”; If You "Feel the Burn," You Need to Bulk up Your Mitochondria; Robert Sanders; April 2006
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