Workout Of The Week: The Mixed Bag
- By Mario Fraioli
- Published Sep. 26, 2012
Can’t decide between hill repeats, an interval session, or a tempo run? Try rolling them all into one workout!
Variety, it’s said, is the spice of life. It’s also the key to spicing up the same old boring workouts you do week in and week out.
Runners are creatures of habit: track workout on Tuesday, hill repeats on Thursday and maybe a tempo run or race on the weekend. I don’t know about you, but after a month or two of cycling through the same set of sessions, I’m more motivated to plop my ass on the couch and watch cartoons on Saturday morning rather than head out for yet another 5-mile tempo run around the neighborhood.
So how do you break out of this workout rut? Get creative by combining a few of your favorite sessions into one cover-all-your-bases butt-kicker of a workout. I like to call it the Mixed Bag. This session will do wonders for 5K runners, marathoners and everyone in between.
Not only will the Mixed Bag help you beat the boredom, it will engage all the different energy systems involved in performing your best and stimulate fitness gains that you didn’t even realize were stuck in stagnation. Give it a shot next time you’re tempted to do the same old stale session yet again!
Warmup
- * 15-20 minutes of easy running, dynamic stretching, 6 x 20-second strides.
Mixed Bag Workout
- * Option 1: 5 x [1:00 "on"/1:00 "off"] at 5K effort followed by 3:00 recovery jog; 10-20:00 tempo run at half marathon pace followed by a 5:00 recovery jog; 6-8 x [30-second hill repeats @ 90% effort w/jog down recovery]
- * Option 2: 4 x [30-second hill repeats @ 90% effort w/jog down recovery] followed by 2:00 recovery jog; 5-10 minute tempo run at 10K race pace followed by 2:00 recovery jog; 4 x [30-second hill repeats @ 90% effort w/jog down recovery] followed by 2:00 recovery jog; 5-10 minute tempo run at 10K race pace followed by 2:00 recovery jog; 4 x [30-second hill repeats @ 90% effort w/jog down recovery]
- * Option 3: 15-20:00 tempo run at half-marathon race pace followed by a 4:00 recovery jog; 5 x 1:00 hill repeats @ 85% effort w/jog down recovery; 5:00 run @ 5K-10K race pace.
Cooldown
- * 15-20 minutes of easy running, static stretching.
The beauty of this workout is that the possibilities are essentially endless. You can substitute intervals for hills, mess around with the duration of the tempo run, or eliminate an element altogether depending on what system(s) you’re trying to tap into. Just have fun with it!
FILED UNDER: Training / workout of the week TAGS: Hill Repeats / interval workouts / speed workouts / Tempo Runs
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.