The Road Runner: A Brutal VO2 Max Workout To Boost Speed
WHAT THE ROAD RUNNER WORKOUT IS
The Road Runner is a track session built around one simple rule: every 200 metres, you get faster. You run 600 metres, split into three 200 metre segments. The first 200 is at your 3k pace. The second 200 steps up to your 1k pace. The last 200 is flat out. Then you float 400 metres to recover and go again. Five reps in total.
Five reps does not sound like much. It is plenty. This session pushes your lactate tolerance hard, but it tests you mentally as well, because the moment you reach that final 200 and have to dig even deeper is the moment most runners want to back off. That is exactly the point. You are teaching your body and your head to find another gear when everything is already hurting.
WARM UP PROPERLY BEFORE THE FIRST REP
Start with 15 minutes of easy running, as slow as you need to go. Let everything warm up. By the end you should be starting to feel hot and ready to take a layer off. That is the sign you are ready to start.
The first set is usually the hardest, because everything still has to activate. If your watch gives you a pace window, run the first rep at the slower end of that window. By the second rep you are switched on, and you can work towards the faster end if you need to. Going out too hard on rep one is how this session falls apart by rep three.
THE MENTAL SHIFT AT EVERY 200 METRES
Here is the key to this workout. When your watch beeps at the 200, mentally spin your legs a little faster, then hold it. The effort is about holding the new pace, not about constantly getting faster through the whole segment. That makes each step up manageable.
When you hit the last 200, treat it like a 200 metre race and see what you can hold onto. As an example, the runner in this session started at 4:10 per km, stepped to 4:00, then 3:50 for the final 200. On the last rep the targets dropped to 3:50 and 3:40, then everything left for the finish. Your paces will be different. The structure is what matters.
Keep the 400 metre floats genuinely slow. Run at whatever pace lets you recover. This is about teaching your body to recover while it is still running.
KNOW WHEN TO PULL BACK, AND HOW TO SET YOUR PACES
Speed work this hard is not something to force through a niggle. If a niggle stays at one point, hold your pace. If it starts to get worse, pull out. That is the call I made in this session, coming back from the Lonely Mountain 100K only about a week earlier. Dropping back on the last 200 costs you nothing. Making a niggle worse can cost you weeks.
If you are not sure what paces to run, use the free calculators on the Run The Race website. The race time predictor takes a recent hard effort over 3k, 5k or a mile and predicts your race pace, and the race weather calculator adjusts your pace for heat. Plug in a recent result and you have a starting point for the Road Runner.
If you want your paces set for you and a plan built around sessions like this, have a look at personalised coaching with Run The Race.