I see pros do threshold intervals like 5x2k or 5x1k. Now, clearly I’m no pro.
So, while a 2k may take a pro 6:30, it would take my slowpoke self like 11:00.
Same thing with 1k taking a pro like 3:05. It would take me like 5:00.
So my question is, for an amateur like myself, should I be doing repeats off time or distance?
In other words, to achieve the same training effect, should I be running 5x11’ and 5x5’? Or should I be running 5x6’ and 5x3’?
Just do it by distance and stop over thinking it.
I am old school and simple (which still works btw)
Time on the trainer or treadmill.
Distance outside.
Break up your distances any way you want but for threshold make the minimum interval time 5 min and total work time up to 40 min.
It depends on what your goal is.
If you are doing a VO2Max training block, those VO2Max sessions should be ± 3 minute intervals and not distance based. The time of the interval and the recovery is critical.
For threshold, my recommendation is to do intervals of at least 12 minutes.
Now, for other specific training outcomes, I would use distance. For example if you are training for a marathon then there are a few useful distance based intervals that are useful. For example 2 x 5K, 3 x 5K, or 4 x 5K intervals at marathon pace are really useful for dialing in marathon pace, and are long enough to cause fatigue, but with the recovery in between, you are able to do more work overall in the session (eg 4 x 5K is much easier to execute at race pace that 20K straight, and you will recover much faster from the session, without sacrificing the adaptations.
A similar principle for one of my favorite workouts that I got from Rynard Tissink. Not sure if he created it but he used to do this a lot. In the final build to an Ironman, do 30 x 1K at marathon race pace (faster than IM race pace). Long recovery like 2 mins. It’s such a brutal session but you get a lot of high quality work done. In this case the duration doesn’t matter it’s the distance that is important, because the goal of the workout is to accumulate distance, but just break it up in some way so as to recover better and get more work done overall. Compare to the VO2 session, where time is critical is distance is irrelevant.
I just realized I am talking only about running. For the bike I always use time and never distance. For the swim I pretty much always use distance and not time.
It’s totally up to you. Don’t prescribe the same sessions as pros. Your body can’t handle that.
Threshold is based off of physiology metrics for how long of duration your body can hold a pace. So I would prescribe based on time. If you are practicing for a specific race then go by distance. It’s obviously going to take you longer to cover 13.1 miles than a pro so you would adjust your race pace accordingly.
I am old school and simple (which still works btw)
Time on the trainer or treadmill.
Distance outside.
Yes, if you know where your mile/km markets are outside, use them so you’re not constantly resetting your watch
On the TM, the clock is right there on the “dashboard”
Just to add.
I follow the guidance from Daniels Running Formula on Threshold work
Time always for me. Only sport I do distance in swimming.
Just do it by distance and stop over thinking it.Just do it by time and stop over thinking it. The distance doesn’t matter. Then as you get fitter/faster you run further, because you can.
Bonus is that it prevents useful comparison with others, which has no place in training.
And if training in a group, everyone runs the same time and everyone gets the same rest (between intervals) which is ‘good’ for all speeds.
This is my 35th year of training and racing and I have always done intervals by time and not distance on both the bike and run.
I always figured my heart cant tell distance but it can tell a certain level of exertion for a set period of time…
Do them off time because your body doesn’t know or care what distance you’ve traveled. It does know and very much cares how long you’ve been working at a given effort level.
If you do decide to use distance, which is more likely in a track workout than in the street or park, scale it to your ability level like they do in swim training plans (a 5-minute swim may be shown as 200 or 300 or 400 depending on your speed).
In your example, you’d be doing 1k or 1.2k run repeats instead of 2k. In fact 1.2k would be very easy to control on the track.
I see pros do threshold intervals like 5x2k or 5x1k. Now, clearly I’m no pro.
So, while a 2k may take a pro 6:30, it would take my slowpoke self like 11:00.
Same thing with 1k taking a pro like 3:05. It would take me like 5:00.
So my question is, for an amateur like myself, should I be doing repeats off time or distance?
In other words, to achieve the same training effect, should I be running 5x11’ and 5x5’? Or should I be running 5x6’ and 5x3’?
You are going to be racing the same distance as the Pros. If it takes them 50 minutes to complete a sprint triathlon and it takes you 95 minutes to complete the same race you should be training longer than they should so you could be doing the interval by distance.
I am not sure what am amateur like you means. If you started training for your first triathlon last week and have never done anything remotely athletic before then you should not be treating every interval like you are Usain Bolt trying to break the 200m world record. You have to slowly build a base first. Then you increase the intensity a little at a time. Pros go through the same process. Some of them take time off at the end of the season and if they come back and try to do super fast internals their first day back they are going to pull a hamstring just like the rest of us will if we don’t build up to what we are doing. If you are following a training plan it will start out with easy workouts and build from there. When your plan says to do 5x2k or 5x1k you will be ready for it because you will have completed the workouts that build up to it. Pros that are doing 5x2k or 5x1k have built up to that too.
Some plans will have both interval by distance and intervals by time. My last training plan did that. When the purpose of the intervals workout was to train at a specific speed it would be by distance and completed on the track. If the goal-run-race-pace for the 3.1 run in my sprint triathlon was a 7:00 min/mi pace it might have me do 10 x 400m at 6:55 to 7:00 pace to teach me how it felt to run at that pace and to do it over and over again until in was engrained into my system. If the purpose of the interval training was in increase endurance it might be done by time and the intervals might be done on the road. If my next race was going to have a 13.1 mile run with a goal race pace of 8:30 min/mi and at the point I was at in my training I could only hold pace comfortably for 20 minutes then I might have something like 3 x 10’ at 8:30 pace with 2 minutes easy jogging between intervals. That would extending the time I am in the race pace past 20 minutes but with rests so I could get through it. The week after that I might have a similar workout with 6 x 7’ @ 8:30 pace and the week after that 5 x 10’ at 8:30 pace. The training would get me so I can comfortable hold the race pace for longer and long periods of time to prepare for the actual race.
So, there should be a purpose to your interval workout. The length or time should be determined by that purpose. If you are following a training plan do the workouts as they are given. if you are just doing 5x2k or 5x1k because you saw a Pro doing that workout, then you will not get the same results as the Pro so it doesn’t really matter how you do them. So plan with a purpose. Where are you at? Where are you trying to get to?