Running workout library
32 named sessions, each with a full step list, the reasoning behind it, and the coaching source it comes from. Sessions are shown at a 4:00 marathon reference — near the median big-city finish — and the workout generator rebuilds any of them at your own paces from a recent race time. Every session exports to .fit for a Garmin watch.
Threshold and tempo
Sessions that raise the pace you can hold before lactate runs away from you.
- Tempo run — One unbroken block at threshold pace — the effort you could hold for about an hour in a race.
- Cruise intervals — Threshold pace broken into repeats with short jogs, so you accumulate far more time at the ceiling than one continuous block allows.
- Threshold alternations — Alternating threshold and marathon pace with no standing rest, training the body to clear lactate while still running fast.
- Tempo sandwich — A threshold block, a marathon-pace middle, then a second threshold block on tired legs.
- Progression run — A run split into thirds, each faster than the last, finishing at or near threshold.
VO₂max intervals
Hard aerobic intervals near the pace you could hold for about ten minutes flat out.
- VO₂max intervals — Repeats of two to five minutes at around the pace you could hold flat out for ten minutes, with equal or slightly shorter recoveries.
- Cutdown intervals — Intervals that get shorter and faster as the session goes on.
- Pyramid intervals — Reps that climb in length to a peak and then come back down.
- 30/30 intervals — Thirty seconds hard, thirty seconds easy, repeated — accumulating time near VO₂max without the strain of long reps.
- Hill repeats — VO₂max-effort intervals run uphill, with the gradient supplying the resistance and capping the impact.
Marathon-pace work
Race-specific rhythm: the pace you actually intend to run on the day.
- Marathon-pace run — A continuous block at goal marathon pace.
- Marathon-pace blocks — Goal marathon pace in several long blocks separated by short easy floats.
- Marathon-pace waves — Marathon pace with regular surges slightly faster, then settling back without slowing down.
- Marathon-pace cutdown — Marathon-pace work that tightens to half-marathon effort over the closing blocks.
Long runs
The aerobic base of a marathon build, in several flavours.
- Long run — Sustained easy running to build the aerobic base a marathon sits on.
- Progressive long run — A long run that gradually accelerates, finishing at or near marathon pace.
- Long run with marathon-pace inserts — Blocks of goal marathon pace embedded inside a long easy run.
- Long run with surges — A long easy run broken up by short faster efforts.
- Steady-state run — Sustained running between easy and marathon pace — harder than a recovery run, easier than a workout.
Speed and mechanics
Short, fast, fully recovered work for turnover and running form.
- Track repetitions — Short, fast repeats with full recovery — for mechanics and speed, not lactate.
- 200 m repeats — Sets of very short, fast reps with generous recovery between them.
- Hill sprints — Maximal 8–15 second efforts up a steep hill with full recovery — strength work disguised as running.
- Speed ladder — Reps that step up and back down in length at repetition pace.
- Strides — Easy running with short controlled accelerations — 15–20 seconds building to fast, relaxed running.
Fartlek and combination
Sessions that mix intensities inside one run.
- Fartlek — Varied faster efforts inside a continuous run, with no track and no fixed structure.
- Mona fartlek — A fixed 20-minute sequence of hard efforts with equal float recoveries, descending in length.
- 10-20-30 workout — Repeated cycles of 30 seconds easy, 20 seconds moderate and 10 seconds near-sprint.
- Combination workout — Threshold, then interval, then repetition work in a single session — three gears in one run.
- Cutdown blocks — Long blocks that shorten and speed up through the session.
Recovery runs
Easy running that helps you absorb the hard days rather than adding to them.
- Recovery run — Short, genuinely easy running to promote recovery rather than add training stress.
- Recovery run with strides — An easy recovery run finished with a few short controlled accelerations.
- Shakeout run — A very short, very easy run the day before or the morning of a race.