One-Hour Workout: Anaerobic Endurance Boosters

This time of the season is often dedicated to logging slow and steady miles, but it’s a good idea to include some higher intensity work too. This workout trains your body to hold your speed for longer, which is critical when it comes to race-day success. You’ll see that the intervals increase in duration throughout the main set, forcing you to cope with the increased demand without any extra rest. It’s tough, but your body will thank you for it come race day!

Be sure to warm up well with an easy 10 minutes to begin with, before going into 10 minutes of accelerations or “pick ups.” These are simply 30 seconds of building pace/accelerating and then easing off/recovering for 30 seconds.

The main set is two rounds of: 45 seconds at 9/10 RPE (rate of perceived exertion) into 1 minute rest/easy run; 90 seconds at 9/10 RPE into 1 minute rest/easy run; 2.5 minutes at 9/10 RPE into 3.5 minutes easy run. You should aim to hold the same effort throughout all of these intervals – don’t go out too hard and blow up! Keep it consistent and learn to dial in your pace smoothly.

Wrap the session up with 10 minutes of easy, relaxed running, making sure to bring your heart rate and breathing rate right down.

Anaerobic endurance boosters

Warm-up

10 minutes easy

10 minutes of pick ups as 30-second building pace/accelerating into 30 seconds recovery

Main set

2 rounds of:

45 seconds at 9/10 RPE (rate of perceived exertion) into 1 minute rest/easy run

90 seconds at 9/10 RPE into 1 minute rest/easy run

2.5 minutes at 9/10 RPE into 3.5 minutes easy run.

Cool-down

10 minutes of easy, relaxed running

Need more workouts to try? See our complete collection of One-Hour Workouts.