Workout Of The Week: Special Ks
- By Mario Fraioli
- Published Sep. 19, 2012
- Updated Sep. 24, 2012 at 10:51 AM UTC
Here’s a few new twists on 1,000-meter repeats.
Every week, runners from Boulder to Budapest and everywhere in between head to the track in search of speed. Workouts consisting of repeats ranging anywhere from 200 meters to 2 miles are commonplace amongst elite athletes and age-group runners alike. More often than not, however, these sessions follow a predictably bland format: 10 x 400 meters at 85 seconds per lap, 6 x 800 meters at 3:00, 3 x 1 mile at 6:10, etc. You get the picture.
Don’t get me wrong — these standard track sessions are all great workouts, but they’re rather monotonous, and more often than not they’re not very race-specific, either, as many age-groupers head to the track and start hammering out intervals as hard as they can from the get-go.
One of my favorite, not-so-boring, keep-yourself-in-check workouts I like to assign to my athletes is repeat kilometers, or Ks. Depending on the training focus of the athlete and where he or she is at in the training cycle, Ks can take many different forms:
* Cruise Ks: A close cousin of the tempo run, cruise intervals are essentially a sustained effort broken into smaller chunks with a short recovery period between repetitions. A bunch of one thousand meter reps (2-1/2 laps of the track) are a great way to get in some lactate threshold work without totally destroying yourself. Cruise intervals are an effective early-season strength workout for 5K-10K runners and an excellent alternative to the tempo run for half marathoners and marathoners. A sample cruise interval workout using Ks is 10 x 1K @ half-marathon pace w/30-60 seconds recovery.
* Race-pace Ks: Exactly as the name implies, these Ks are runs at goal race-pace with 1:00 recovery between reps. This is a great workout to run about 10 days out from a goal 5K or 10K to give you the confidence that you’re ready to roll on race day. An example of a race-specific workout using Ks is 5 x 1K @ 5K race pace w/1:00 recovery between reps, or 8 x 1K at 10K race pace w/1:00 recovery between reps.
* Alternating Ks: These Ks will keep you on your toes! Performing a session of 1-kilometer repeats alternating between two to to three different paces is a great (and fun!) way to stress a few systems in the same workout. For example, rather than doing a standard session of 8 x 1K @ 10K pace with 2:00 recovery between reps (still a great workout!), perform 8 x 1K, alternating between 5K pace and half marathon pace with 2:00 recovery after the 5K-pace intervals and 1:00 after the half-marathon-pace efforts. Or, try three sets of 3 x 1K with the first rep at half-marathon pace (followed by 1:00 recovery), the second at 10K pace (2:00 recovery), and the last at 5K pace. For marathoners and half marathoners, 12-16 x 1K alternating between marathon pace and half-marathon pace with a short rest (30-60 seconds) is a great way to improve your fatigue resistance and develop a sense of race rhythm.
* Sit-n-Kick Ks: Perhaps my favorite variation (and manipulation) of 1-kilometer repeats, sit-n-kick Ks are designed for 5K and 10K runners in order to help improve their finishing kick at the end of races. Take a standard set of repeat Ks, say 5 x 1K at 5K pace, and run the first 800 meters (2 laps of the track) at 5K race pace before changing gears for the final half lap and kicking home the final 200 meters. Or, for 10K runners doing 8-10 x 1K, run 600 meters at 10K pace and kick hard over the final 400. If you would normally take 2:00 rest between reps when running a workout of 1K reps at a consistent pace, add another 30 to 60 seconds if you add the gear-changing element into the mix.
Remember, variety is the spice of life. It’s also the key to a sound training plan.
FILED UNDER: Training / workout of the week TAGS: interval workouts / speed workouts / track workouts
Mario Fraioli
Mario Fraioli is a senior editor at Competitor magazine. A cross-country All-American at Stonehill College in 2003, he now coaches the Prado Women's Racing Team in San Diego and was the men's marathon coach for Costa Rica's 2012 Olympic team. His first book, The Official Rock 'n' Roll Guide To Marathon & Half-Marathon Training (VeloPress, 2013) is available in bookstores, running shops and online.