Workout in Focus: Alternations 6x800m

With the South African road running season in full swing in the lead up to both Two Oceans and Comrades we thought we would kick off with a workout that could fit in with your half or full marathon preparation.

This workout was inspired by Jon Marcus and Steve Magness and is a good way to blend some specific half marathon or marathon pace work with a dose of V02 max (5k pace). Of course, like most workouts we can manipulate the variables in a multitude of ways but in this case, we will focus on how one might use it in preparing for a half or full marathon. The idea behind the session is that the faster paced segments build lactate while the steady or moderate paced segments teach the body to utilise and clear that lactate while still moving relatively quickly. This can also be a useful session for moderately hilly courses where there is a natural flux of higher intensity when going up the hills and then needing to get back on pace on the flatter sections.

Like any new training stimulus, one needs to build up to a session like this in a measured way and ensure the building blocks are in place so that the session feels like a natural progression from where your current capacity is.

15 – 20 min easy running to warm up

5 x 100m strides with a walk back after each

6 x 800m alternating 100m at 5k pace / 300m at 21k (or marathon) pace / 100m at 5k pace / 300m at 21k (or marathon) pace with 2 min standing rest between reps

5 – 10 min easy cool down

One can then progress this workout in a few different ways:

1.       Increase the number of reps

2.       Increase the distance of each rep

E.g. 5 x 1,200m alternating 200m at 5k /400m at 21k (42k) /  200m at 5k / 400m at 21k (42k)

3.       Shorten the recovery period between reps

Typically, we will look at what total volume we want to progress this session to over the course of a 6 - 8 week training block and then work towards that using a combination of increasing the reps and increasing the distance of each rep. Keeping in mind that if we are working towards a half or full marathon the volume of work can increase quite significantly from the example we have given above for elite level athletes.