Your guide to interval training

A little bit of background:
Interval training has been around for more than a century. It emerged in 1910, when Finnish athletes were the first to practise it in the lead-up to the World Games. No one else was doing it at the time, and the practice likely helped them take home several gold medals. Today, you can easily find a whole range of different interval training workouts.
Interval training, defined:
As the name implies, interval training consists of dividing your workout into two intensities: high-intensity running followed by low-intensity running known as active recovery. For example, you'll run 30 seconds very fast, then run (or even walk) for 30 seconds slowly, repeating for a total of 10 times.
Benefits of interval training:
• Become a better runner: Your body has untapped resources, no matter what your running level is. Interval training can help you achieve this potential.
• Run faster: Breaking up the intensity can give you more energy for a shorter period of time.
• Run longer:  At the end of the workout, if you add up all the numbers, you'll have run faster and farther than usual.
• Strengthen your muscles
• Increase your respiratory capacity

 💡Explanations:
The recovery intervals let you break up your effort into several parts, which makes it feel more achievable mentally. The recovery periods also give you a chance to catch your breath and rest your muscles before the next high-intensity interval.
In the end, since you're working harder during the high-intensity intervals and keep running/walking during your recovery periods, you'll be able to run faster and longer. The result is more effort but less fatigue than if you were to run continuously.

Anyone can do interval training, whether you're a beginner or an advanced runner. You can add interval workouts to your training once you're comfortable with your basic endurance, which means being able to run slowly while having a conversation without being out of breath.
Trainers generally recommend doing one or two basic endurance workouts a week before starting interval training. Interval training is also especially effective for beginner runners, who have a larger margin of improvement. It's also "easy" to do.

You don't need to have a particular level, but it is recommended to have at least a month of regular running behind you to ensure your muscles have had some time to get ready for the next stage. If you've got this base already, let's get down to the details of interval training!

Interval training has become widely known since 1910, and today is considered a key part of any serious training program. From short and long intervals to threshold pacing, hillwork, pyramid intervals, fartlek (speed play) and more, it can be difficult to know what type of training to do among all the choices out there. How do you choose the right workout?

The most common workouts:
• Medium-long intervals (400 m – 3 km) is the most effective workout in terms of stimuli, which makes it the best for becoming a better overall runner.

• Short intervals (30 seconds/30 seconds), which can be combined with strength training exercises such as jumps, etc.

Other workouts are also useful. We'll tell you more below.

Become a better runner without it feeling like a slog. Fartlek, which is Swedish for "speed play", is a basic training workout that consists of more random running intervals – changing pace at landmarks or music – rather than strict, timed plans. There are a range of fartlek options, some structured and some less so.

Benefits: Improving at your own pace, well suited to beginners.
Unstructured fartlek: unstructured fartlek involves running by feel and choosing distances for fast and recovery intervals. At the end of the workout, you should feel the effects without being completely spent, and should be able to do your basic endurance run the next day or after a day off.
➡ You can add strength training exercises depending on what you have around you.
For example: 10 press-ups on a bench, choose a point in the distance and run fast to it, go up and down stairs, etc.
Structured fartlek: If you want a more structured workout, you can set a time for the fast and recovery intervals. Run by feel during the fast intervals, remembering to increase your speed based on how fast you run during your basic endurance runs.

💡Tips:
• Start your structured fartlek with fast intervals of 15 to 30 seconds. As you improve, you can increase the intervals to one minute.
• Recover as long as you need to. The recovery periods will get shorter as you get better.

Long intervals are when you run at high intensity for a distance from 400 metres to 3 km. This exercise is often used in training programs for long-distance races.
Benefits: improve your "endurance index," or your ability to maintain a faster pace for a longer period of time.

Depending on the distance, your vVO2max will be:
➡ If you run between 400 m and 500 m, you should be at 85% to 95% vVO2max. This will be more or less your 10K race pace.
➡ If you run farther, you should be at around 80% to 85% of your vVO2max, i.e. your half-marathon pace.
Duration: 75 min
Long interval training session (8 x 500 m):
➡ 20-minute warm-up basic endurance run (60%-65% vVO2max).
➡ Strength training exercises.
➡ 4 “straight lines” of 50-80 m, gradual acceleration then gradual deceleration, walk back.
➡ 500 m fast running (90%-95% vVO2max).
➡ 200 m very slow jogging to recover (<50% VVO2max).

➡ Repeat 8 times in all

➡ End the session with a 10-minute, basic endurance run to cool down (60% to 65% vVO2max) to let your muscles relax and aid recovery. 

Improve your endurance and/or know your pace before a race (do this workout 10 days before your race).
This workout, which is halfway between a basic endurance run and a short interval workout, consists of running to your threshold point, i.e. where you are breathing hard but can keep going.
💡 If you run faster than your threshold, you'll soon feel it in your legs.
Benefits: get your body used to running faster for longer periods of time.
A threshold workout is very similar to a long interval workout – you'll run long distances with fewer recovery periods. The threshold pace is the speed at which you would run a half-marathon (80%-85% vVO2max).
Duration: between 30 and 60 minutes.

Threshold session: 2 x 15 minutes to start
➡ 20-minute warm-up basic endurance run (60%-65% vVO2max).
➡ Strength training exercises.
➡ 4 “straight lines” of 50-80 m, gradual acceleration then gradual deceleration, walk back.
➡ 15 minutes of fast running (80%-85% vVO2max).
➡ 5 minutes of very slow jogging to recover (<60%-65% VVO2max).

➡ Repeat 2 times in all.

➡ End the session with a 10-minute, basic endurance run to cool down (60% to 65% vVO2max) to let your muscles relax and aid recovery.

Increase your endurance and better manage a race.
The aim of this session is to adapt your pacing to the distance you have to run. This is an opportunity to train under race conditions by reproducing the same pace changes: start fast, stabilise your pace, end fast.
Benefits: Improve your cardio fitness
Pyramid session for beginners:
For these types of workouts, you're focusing on minutes rather than distance.
➡ 20-minute basic endurance warm-up (60%-65% vVO2max)
➡ 4 “straight lines” of 50-80 m, gradual acceleration then gradual deceleration, walk back
➡ 1 minute at 98% vVO2max
➡ 2 minutes at 95% vVO2max
➡ 3 minutes at 92% vVO2max
➡ 4 minutes at 90% vVO2max
➡ 3 minutes at 92% vVO2max
➡ 2 minutes at 95% vVO2max
➡ 1 minute at 98% vVO2max

You can now see why this is called a pyramid.
💡Be sure to not start off too fast for the first few intervals. That way, you'll still have enough left in the tank to finish your last interval at a good clip!