Workouts

One-Hour Workout: Laura Siddall’s Tempo Interval Run

Check out this run workout from a pro who just ran her first sub-three hour marathon at a long-course race.

September 15, 2021 Emma-Kate Lidbury

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This week’s One-Hour Workout comes from pro athlete Laura Siddall, who finished second at Challenge Roth earlier this month where she posted her first sub-three hour marathon in a long-course race.

Siddall said: “This workout is one of my favorite run sessions—it gets the body moving with a little speed, but it’s still really controlled and leaves you knowing you have another gear.”

Begin with a 15-minute easy jog warm-up and then hit five 50m strides with a walk/jog back recovery. Siddall said she also likes to include some drills before the strides, which you can find on her Instagram highlights here. She said: “Both the drills and the strides help fire up the body and get you ready for the work that’s about to be done.”

The main set involves five sets of five minutes at tempo pace with two minutes easy jog or rest between each set. Siddall said: “For me, tempo pace is five to seven seconds per mile slower than 10K pace, which really means you are working hard, but it feels controlled. You should easily have another gear or two to lift to, if you had to. Be sure to let your heart rate come down between each set. When it comes to recovery, I normally carry on jogging to keep moving, but it’s totally fine to rest in between if you prefer.”

She said there are a number of ways to approach the session, for example, you could do the first two repeats at a controlled/build pace and then hit numbers three through five at tempo pace, or you can hit all five at tempo pace.

Siddall added: “When it comes time to progress the workout, after you’ve done it for a few weeks, try doing five sets of six minutes or four sets of eight minutes, so the total time spent working at a higher intensity goes up.”

Wrap it all up with a five to 10-minute easy jog cool-down.