Other Types of Running...

These are the range of different running styles which you can do, each ranging in difficulty and how you want to achieve it all, for example fartlek is a sprint based style of jogging. this is created through short quick runs which really challenge and help to shred weight and create bigger muscles. this is a difficult style of running which will really tire you out fast and make you feel worn out... There is others in the list below, which are all worth looking at and trying out.

Recovery Run

A recovery run is a relatively short run performed at a steady, slow pace. Recovery runs serve to add a little mileage to a runner’s training without taking away from performance in the harder, more important workouts that precede and follow them. Recovery runs are best done as the next run after a hard workout such as an interval run. Do your recovery runs as slowly as necessary to feel relatively comfortable despite lingering fatigue from your previous run.

Example: 4 miles easy

Base Run

A base run is a relatively short to moderate-length run undertaken at a runner’s natural pace. While individual base runs are not meant to be challenging, they are meant to be done frequently, and in the aggregate they stimulate big improvements in aerobic capacity, endurance, and running economy.

Example: 6 miles at natural pace

Long Run

Generally, a long run is simply a base run that lasts long enough to leave a runner moderately to severely fatigued.  The function of a long run is to increase raw endurance. The distance or duration required to achieve this effect depends, of course, on your current level of endurance. As a general rule, your longest run should be long enough to give you confidence that raw endurance will not limit you in races.

Example: 15 miles at natural pace

Progression Run

A progression run is a run that begins at a runner’s natural pace and ends with a faster segment at anywhere from marathon to 10K pace.  These runs are generally intended to be moderately challenging—harder than base runs but easier than most threshold and interval runs.

Example: 5 miles at natural pace + 1 mile at half-marathon pace

Fartlek Run

A fartlek run is a base run sprinkled with short, fast intervals. You can think of a fartlek run as a gentle interval session.  It’s a good way to begin the process of developing efficiency and fatigue resistance at faster speeds in the early phases of the training cycle, or to get a moderate dose of fast running later in the training cycle in addition to the larger doses provided by tempo/threshold and interval workouts.

Example: 6 miles at natural pace with 6 x 30 seconds at 5K race pace scattered throughout

Hill Repetitions

Hill repetitions are repeated short segments of hard uphill running. They increase aerobic power, high-intensity fatigue resistance, pain tolerance, and run-specific strength. The ideal hill on which to run hill repetitions features a steady, moderate gradient (4-6 percent). Hill repetitions are typically done at the end of the base-building period as a relatively safe way to introduce harder high-intensity training into the program.

Example: 2 miles of easy jogging (warm-up) + 10 x 1 minute uphill at roughly 1500m race effort with 2.5-minute jogging recoveries + 2 miles easy jogging (cool-down)

Tempo Run

A tempo run is a workout that features one or two sustained efforts somewhere in the range of lactate threshold intensity, which is the fastest pace that can be sustained for one hour in highly fit runners and the fastest pace that can be sustained for 20 minutes in less fit runners.  Tempo/threshold runs serve to increase the speed you can sustain for a prolonged period of time and to increase the time you can sustain a relatively fast pace.

Example: 1 mile of easy jogging (warm-up) + 4 miles at lactate threshold pace + 1 mile of easy jogging (cool-down)

There is a special type of tempo run that is known as a marathon-pace run. A prolonged run at marathon pace is a good workout to perform at a very challenging level in the final weeks of preparation for a marathon, after you’ve established adequate raw endurance with long runs and longer progression runs featuring smaller amounts of marathon-pace running.

Example: 2 miles at natural pace + 13.1 miles at marathon pace

Intervals

Interval workouts consist of repeated shorter segments of fast running separated by slow jogging “recoveries”. This format enables a runner to pack more fast running into a single workout than he or she could with a single prolonged fast effort to exhaustion.

Interval workouts are typically sub categorised as short intervals and long intervals. Long intervals are 600-1200m segments run in the range of 5K race pace with easy jogging recoveries between them.  They’re an excellent means of progressively developing efficiency and fatigue resistance at fast running speeds.

Example: 1 mile of easy jogging (warm-up) + 5 x 1 km at 5K race pace with 400m jogging recoveries + 1 mile of easy jogging (cool-down)