I’m away this week up in the Outer Banks, and where better to work on my beach intervals. If you haven’t heard before, intervals are one of the best ways to work on your speed and performance, while getting a great workout. Intervals are really timed bursts of intensity, followed by a slower pace to recover. Simple intervals could be just sprinting to the next tree, post, bench, followed by a slower jog to the next tree, post, bench. This type of workout works on confusing your body so it doesn’t built up a level of resistance to the workout, so you constantly see gains. Often when you set out to run 3 miles a day, at the same pace, your body will not get much out of the workout after a few weeks. Essentially your body builds up the muscles and cardio, so you gain less and less over time doing the same workout.
This is why intervals are key to building up endurance and improving performance.
In Shape Magazine there was an awesome interval training guide which I’ve pasted below.
1. Cardio Blaster
This is one of the best interval training workouts you can do to improve fitness. It burns lots of calories in a short amount of time.
How to do it:
•Warm up for 15 minutes.
•Then run, bike, or row for 3 minutes at 90 to 95 percent of your maximum heart rate (should feel like 8.5 or 9 on a scale of 1 to 10). Take 3 minutes active recovery (you’re still moving, but at an easy pace) and repeat the 3 on/3 off pattern 3 to 4 more times.
•Finish with a 10-minute cooldown.
Bonus benefit: This workout is like weight training for your heart—it strengthens your cardiovascular system, which improves your overall health.2. Speedplay
Sprinting is great for tightening and toning your legs, glutes, and core. It increases your muscle power, which helps you push harder and makes your non-interval training workouts feel easier so you can challenge yourself and burn even more calories.
How to do it:
•Warm up for 15 minutes, adding a few 20-second bursts at the end to prepare for the workout.
•Run, bike, or row for 30 seconds at a nearly all-out effort. Take 3 minutes active recovery and repeat the 30 on/3 off pattern 5 or 6 more times.
•Finish with a 10-minute cooldown.
Bonus benefit: Because of its very high intensity, this workout is very short.3. Cardio-Sprint Pyramid
This adds sprint interval training for a fast and fun workout. Here, after each burst of hard work, you’ll recover for the same amount of time.
How to do it:
•Warm up for 15 minutes, adding a few 20-second bursts at the end to prepare for the workout.
•Run, bike, or row: During the work periods, you should have a rate of perceived exertion (RPEof 8 to 10, followed by 30 seconds of active recovery.Build and taper the workout like this:
30 seconds sprint/30 seconds recover
1 minute sprint/1 minute recover
2 minutes sprint/2 minutes recover
4 minutes sprint/4 minutes recover
2 minutes sprint/2 minutes recover
1 minute sprint/1 minute recover
30 seconds sprint/30 seconds recover•Finish with a 10-minute cooldown.
Bonus benefit: This major calorie-burning interval training plan gives you the best of both worlds—high-octane cardio and muscle-sculpting sprints.
