Intervals: four workouts to run faster

Interval training alternates fast running with recovery. It lets you spend more time at a high pace than you could running continuously. One session a week is enough, on top of your easy runs.

First, warm up

Ten to fifteen minutes of easy jogging, some drills and two or three progressive strides. Without a warm-up, intervals are harder and riskier.

Four classic sessions

• 30/30: 30 seconds fast, 30 seconds easy, repeated 10 to 20 times. Perfect to start with.
• 400s: 6 to 10 reps of 400 m at a strong pace, with 90 seconds of easy jogging in between.
• 1Ks: 4 to 6 reps at your 10K pace, with 2 minutes of recovery.
• The pyramid: 200, 400, 600, 800 m and back down, resting half as long as each effort.

Getting the pace right

You should be able to run the last rep as fast as the first. If you fade a lot at the end, you started too fast. A steady session beats a heroic one.

Finding your paces without a watch

• Easy pace: you can talk in full sentences.
• 10K pace: a few words at a time, strong but controlled.
• 5K pace: talking gets hard, the effort is genuinely tough.
• Short sprint: no talking at all, held for a few seconds only.

Where to do intervals

A track is ideal for measuring distances, but a flat road, a park or a familiar loop work just fine. Your phone's GPS measures the distance for you.

Fitting them into the week

Intervals are a hard session: leave at least one easy day before and after, and avoid doing them the day after heavy leg work in the gym.

In Volta, interval workouts are shown step by step. Recovery counts down on its own, a beep tells you when to go again, and the 1 to 5 level changes the number of reps.