Vancouver FIT Training Schedule

Monday through Friday workouts are expressed in minutes.

Speed Work
"8x30-30" means "30 seconds fast, 30 seconds slow, eight times in a row."

After a thorough warm-up, run for 30 seconds at about 90-95% intensity, then do a 30-second recovery jog. Make sure that you don't slow down during the workout, so you are running your last 30 seconds about as fast or even a little faster than your first 30 seconds. Run on a soft surface if you can, rather than on concrete or asphalt. When you are done, jog or walk slowly for a while to cool-down. Both the number of repeats, and the duration of the fast and slow intervals, will change from week to week.

Tempo
After a warm up for about 5 - 10 minutes, maintain a pace about 10 to 15 seconds per mile slower than 10-K race pace. The last 5 to 10 minutes should be a cool down period. Another way to gauge the pace of tempo runs: a pace about midway between short-interval training speed and your easy running pace.

Easy (e)
A slow run done at a conversational pace.

Active Recovery or Active Rest (AR)
Active Recovery can be any activity outside of your running or walking sessions, that helps facilitate recovery and any lactic acid flushing of the sore muscles. If after a hard effort, you're still feeling the lingering effects on the next training day, don't go out and try to push through the workout. You're better off doing an AR workout, which could include stretching, light yoga, steady state cycling, a leisurely walk, swimming or foam rolling. The key is to move at a low to moderate intensity in an effort to give your muscles the chance to repair and become stronger. AR is not a failure in your training. Your body is asking you to listen to it.

Hillwork
Hills prepare the muscles for faster running without going anaerobic. Hill training will enable you to run better on all types of terrain. Find a hill with a moderate grade, about 10-15%. Run at about 85% effort and jog slowly down to recover. Start with about 4 hills and increase by 1 a week until you can run 8-12 hills.