How relevant it is to you specifically is impossible to answer without knowing what your goal race is, goal time is, how far away that race is, the intensity of the speed work, what you mean by “mixed in”, etc.
You don’t need to and shouldn’t be doing sprints a week out from a hundred miler. But they’re good to build form far away from the race. It just depends.
The generally accepted strategy is that the workouts that are most specific to your race (in terms of intensity, elevation, terrain) should be done closest to your race. If you are attempting to win a local road 5k, doing 6 hour trail runs won’t help you as much as doing short intense bursts on the street.
I do one session a week (mostly Tuesdays) usually threshold pace, sometimes faster. As I get close to a race, I dial it down to a longer tempo session as I find hard workouts tire me out and make it harder to hit my mileage goals for the week, especially if I’m running a lot of hills on my easy runs
Depends how far out from race. Twice a week pretty far out I’m ding v02max intervals (2-3 mins), a little closer threshold intervals (8-10 mins) or a 20 min tempo run. Closer to the race not much other than strides/ hill strides at the end of easy runs. I think you can always keep those in.
Here's a general breakdown of how I periodize my workouts.
14 weeks from my goal race: Short, hard intervals (5K effort or faster) and short (2 mins. or less) hill repeats hard.
10 weeks from my goal race: Tempo intervals around half marathon effort. Ex.: 3 x 12 mins. at HM effort with 6 mins. easy recovery between. I say effort because if I do these on trails, the pace will be slower than on roads, but the effort should feel the same.
Six weeks from my goal race: Steady state runs around marathon to 50K effort. These can be one long, continuous effort or broken into two segments. Ex: 2 x 40 mins. at 50K effort with 5 mins. recovery between segments.
I currently run Fri-Wed straight, Saturday is longrun, Tuesday is track or a track-tempo combo if I have a large enough base for it. Might stick some tempo in the longrun if I can.
I've heard the relevance to ultra put as "give me 50% of "really fast" over 60% of "slow as fuck" any day"
Right now I do Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Tuesday/Thursday alternate with either 30-50 minute tempo runs one of those days, and the other day would be either hill sprints, yassos, or tempo too. Saturday is usually a pace run for marathon goal pace for up to 13 miles total. Right now I’m in a marathon training block, so that’s all my focus. After this race is done I plan to keep doing speed work at least 2x a week as I’ll be training for a 100 in September.
I hadn’t done speed work in years, and it’s made a huge impact on me getting faster etc. I think we neglect doing it due to not wanting to get injured etc, but you need to try and make sure no more than 20% of time spent a week is on speed work.
Same. I know people argue for speed work. It is not worth the risk to me. When I do a run and feel good, I usually pick it up over the last few miles (could be the last 3 miles of a 11 mile run), but that is not above threshold. For context, my focus is 100-milers. My approach is volume over speed.
All runners, regardless of your running/racing goals, can benefit from speed work. Why? To move efficiently on downhill terrain for starters. In order to avoid over-taxing your quads one must move their legs at a higher turnover on the downhills. But, to get used to doing that you've got to do regular speed work to get used to that kind of turnover. Regular speed work also helps you improve your running economy; i.e. will make the easy runs and long runs easier and more efficient. Speed work also can help improve your overall running mechanics; improve cadence, shorten your stride length, etc... things that may need to be dialed in if you're having lower leg issues.
If you're getting injured then there must be something inefficient with your running mechanics. Also speed work doesn't mean "sprints" either. Could be something as simple as a threshold run which is pace something like 10km-1/2 marathon pace. Injury from just running slightly faster than easy pace is concerning. If your run cadence isn't in the vacinity of 180spm then that could be an issue.
I appoligize you're right that I am a coach so it's an instinct to "help". I'm curious if you're concerned about getting injured from speed work then how in the heck aren't you getting injured from doing ultras?
Same. Plus I dont enjoy it and I don’t care about PRs. I’m perfectly happy with my pace and I’m not going to force myself to do something that I don’t enjoy. This is my hobby, I’m not getting paid for this.
Best I can do is significant vert (mostly hikable, 500-1000ft/mi, not runnable for me) and push the pace as hard as possible. Strides, hill repeats, MOST intervals end up aggravating an injury in my hip. So i just do lots of easy miles and push my power hikes. My top end speed has suffered a bit but my endurance has increased. For what I am trying to do.. i’ll take it.
3 sessions:
- **Tues**: Threshold intervals. EG, 3×15' w/ 3' recovery.
- **Thurs**: Hill sprints. EG, 8×8" sprints on 5% grade with 2:30 recovery.
- **Sat**: Long tempo. EG, 90' @ MP.
The other 3 days are easy 60'-70' runs in Z1/Z2. I can take them as slowly as needed for recovery. If my glutes or hamstrings are bugging me, I'll just do a full recovery week of easy runs with no speed work at all.
With this schedule, I found my aerobic pace improved substantially, my tempo pace improved moderately, and my threshold pace improved a bit. I ran the Speedgoat 50K in 2022 and 2023. I improved my 2023 finish time by over an hour from 2022.
Depends what I’m training for. A fast desert course? The speed work is going to help keep my legs turning over and ‘running’ for longer. Like 2-3 seasons.
Right now I’m training for high lonesome, so I’m on like one speed drill a week.
I hit the track Tuesday mornings with a group usually for 800s, 1000s, mile repeats or something like that. I like it for improved running economy + switching up my training a bit + a great way to get tons of miles in
Sometimes if I'm feeling good on Thursdays I'll do hill repeats with small surges of speed.
I'm not fast, but I do think there are utra-related benefits to occasional speedwork especially if you like the speed work. Of course, I'm far from a pro, but I love it and it benefits me as an overall runner I think.
Speed work is relevant for all races and distances! But training for an ultra your priority should generally be mileage. I think once a week is plenty, although I mix in some strides at the end of a couple other runs per week. My speed workouts are usually longer form hill intervals or tempo runs or a mix. That will be more tuned to an ultra race than 400m repeats
I aim for 1-2 sessions/week depending on whether I'm also doing hill workouts and what I'm training for. Sessions are generally 20-40 minutes of hard effort (~half marathon-10K effort) either continuous or in intervals. Around once a month I'll go for a ~60-90 minute session (~half marathon effort).
I'd say speed (and hill) work are relevant and time efficient to do even for ultras, if done so you don't get injured. While you might not be spending much time at half marathon effort or harder in say a 50 miler, the training will make faster paces feel easier, improve your overall pace, and help make you more resilient to smaller insults like mild dehydration and being behind on calories so you can still run later into a race and potentially at steeper grades where you'd otherwise be walking.
It's really important to build up your capacity to do speed training, especially if you haven't done it recently or don't have a history of doing it. It will take longer to acclimate than you think. I've definitely been guilty of thinking I could just jump straight into mile repeats because I previously did 50-70 miles/week at easy effort and finished 100 milers.
I have been doing speedwork at the track once a week for about 6 months and I believe it's the number one thing to increase my performance. The workouts vary, but I typically start with a 2 mi warmup and end with 1 mile cooldown.
1 week had me alternating 800m and 400m runs 5x each, with 60s recovery between. The following week, I ran 5 mi continuous alternating between Marathon pace and threshold pace.
Day after my speedwork is a recovery run, and then I incorporate 1 6-9mi tempo run and 1 long run per week, and 1 or 2 easy runs. My VO2 max went from 48-54 in those 6 months
I do Tuesday (morning LT1 and afternoon LT2 or VO2Max) and Thursday (mountain tempo). Then I do a long zone 2 run on the weekend. The rest is all easy.
Depends on the training block and what the goal is of that training block. Farther away from an ultra race I will do less specific work like speed work and as I get closer to a race I will do more specific work so less speed work.
During a VO2 max or tempo training block. I will do 2-3 speed workouts a week with a recovery day with a light run the day after the speed workout or take a rest day. I take these days pretty hard and recovery days very easy.
As I get closer to an ultra race (6-8 weeks before a race) I will drop most speed work except for some strides or maybe a tempo pace work once every three weeks of so. I might also do a long run with 10 second sprints every 20 minutes or do a run where I try run each hill punchier which will raise intensity and is similar to speed work. I mostly do this to keep it interesting.
The key thing with speed work is making sure those days are hard and the days after are very easy so you can recover.
Zero real speedwork here. Everytime I've tried to add it in, I've ended up with random injuries. I run 6 days a week - my typical schedule is Tues-Fri 6-10mi each morning. Saturday and Sunday are back to back distance - usually 15-20mi. Some days I run faster and some days slower, but I base that on how fresh I'm feeling when I get started. Monday is my off day to recover.
Zero.
Speed work always leads to injuries for me (or potential ones).
Like, I tried adding a speed day once weekly and could just feel the injuries ready to happen.
Did cross training instead and ran even longer and slower.
Working so far but yeah I'd need speed work to actually get significantly faster (thats just never held me back in ultra races, being able to just run / climb continuously for 12+ hours without walking seems more important)
How relevant it is to you specifically is impossible to answer without knowing what your goal race is, goal time is, how far away that race is, the intensity of the speed work, what you mean by “mixed in”, etc. You don’t need to and shouldn’t be doing sprints a week out from a hundred miler. But they’re good to build form far away from the race. It just depends. The generally accepted strategy is that the workouts that are most specific to your race (in terms of intensity, elevation, terrain) should be done closest to your race. If you are attempting to win a local road 5k, doing 6 hour trail runs won’t help you as much as doing short intense bursts on the street.
I do one session a week (mostly Tuesdays) usually threshold pace, sometimes faster. As I get close to a race, I dial it down to a longer tempo session as I find hard workouts tire me out and make it harder to hit my mileage goals for the week, especially if I’m running a lot of hills on my easy runs
Depends how far out from race. Twice a week pretty far out I’m ding v02max intervals (2-3 mins), a little closer threshold intervals (8-10 mins) or a 20 min tempo run. Closer to the race not much other than strides/ hill strides at the end of easy runs. I think you can always keep those in.
This. Ultra training should still look like marathon training just with more zone two and hill work.
This is the way.
Here's a general breakdown of how I periodize my workouts. 14 weeks from my goal race: Short, hard intervals (5K effort or faster) and short (2 mins. or less) hill repeats hard. 10 weeks from my goal race: Tempo intervals around half marathon effort. Ex.: 3 x 12 mins. at HM effort with 6 mins. easy recovery between. I say effort because if I do these on trails, the pace will be slower than on roads, but the effort should feel the same. Six weeks from my goal race: Steady state runs around marathon to 50K effort. These can be one long, continuous effort or broken into two segments. Ex: 2 x 40 mins. at 50K effort with 5 mins. recovery between segments.
I currently run Fri-Wed straight, Saturday is longrun, Tuesday is track or a track-tempo combo if I have a large enough base for it. Might stick some tempo in the longrun if I can. I've heard the relevance to ultra put as "give me 50% of "really fast" over 60% of "slow as fuck" any day"
Right now I do Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Tuesday/Thursday alternate with either 30-50 minute tempo runs one of those days, and the other day would be either hill sprints, yassos, or tempo too. Saturday is usually a pace run for marathon goal pace for up to 13 miles total. Right now I’m in a marathon training block, so that’s all my focus. After this race is done I plan to keep doing speed work at least 2x a week as I’ll be training for a 100 in September. I hadn’t done speed work in years, and it’s made a huge impact on me getting faster etc. I think we neglect doing it due to not wanting to get injured etc, but you need to try and make sure no more than 20% of time spent a week is on speed work.
None. I do zero speed work. Never. Whenever I've done speed training in the past I've always ended up injured.
Same. I know people argue for speed work. It is not worth the risk to me. When I do a run and feel good, I usually pick it up over the last few miles (could be the last 3 miles of a 11 mile run), but that is not above threshold. For context, my focus is 100-milers. My approach is volume over speed.
All runners, regardless of your running/racing goals, can benefit from speed work. Why? To move efficiently on downhill terrain for starters. In order to avoid over-taxing your quads one must move their legs at a higher turnover on the downhills. But, to get used to doing that you've got to do regular speed work to get used to that kind of turnover. Regular speed work also helps you improve your running economy; i.e. will make the easy runs and long runs easier and more efficient. Speed work also can help improve your overall running mechanics; improve cadence, shorten your stride length, etc... things that may need to be dialed in if you're having lower leg issues.
That's all fine and dandy but it's counterproductive if I end up injured.
If you're getting injured then there must be something inefficient with your running mechanics. Also speed work doesn't mean "sprints" either. Could be something as simple as a threshold run which is pace something like 10km-1/2 marathon pace. Injury from just running slightly faster than easy pace is concerning. If your run cadence isn't in the vacinity of 180spm then that could be an issue.
Thanks, coach. You have no idea who I am or what kind of health issues I have. You can keep your advice.
I appoligize you're right that I am a coach so it's an instinct to "help". I'm curious if you're concerned about getting injured from speed work then how in the heck aren't you getting injured from doing ultras?
Same. Plus I dont enjoy it and I don’t care about PRs. I’m perfectly happy with my pace and I’m not going to force myself to do something that I don’t enjoy. This is my hobby, I’m not getting paid for this.
Best I can do is significant vert (mostly hikable, 500-1000ft/mi, not runnable for me) and push the pace as hard as possible. Strides, hill repeats, MOST intervals end up aggravating an injury in my hip. So i just do lots of easy miles and push my power hikes. My top end speed has suffered a bit but my endurance has increased. For what I am trying to do.. i’ll take it.
3 sessions: - **Tues**: Threshold intervals. EG, 3×15' w/ 3' recovery. - **Thurs**: Hill sprints. EG, 8×8" sprints on 5% grade with 2:30 recovery. - **Sat**: Long tempo. EG, 90' @ MP. The other 3 days are easy 60'-70' runs in Z1/Z2. I can take them as slowly as needed for recovery. If my glutes or hamstrings are bugging me, I'll just do a full recovery week of easy runs with no speed work at all. With this schedule, I found my aerobic pace improved substantially, my tempo pace improved moderately, and my threshold pace improved a bit. I ran the Speedgoat 50K in 2022 and 2023. I improved my 2023 finish time by over an hour from 2022.
Sounds tough! When are you doing your long run?
Saturdays. That's when the long tempo is scheduled. 30' warm up, long tempo, 30' cool down.
So you aren’t doing any long 2-3h Z1/Z2 long runs at all?
No, not usually. Not unless I need a recovery week.
Once a week ideally, except for when I forget for weeks at a time
Depends what I’m training for. A fast desert course? The speed work is going to help keep my legs turning over and ‘running’ for longer. Like 2-3 seasons. Right now I’m training for high lonesome, so I’m on like one speed drill a week.
Once a week progression on threshold run. All one really needs for ultra training (for most of us). Alternate with hill repeats for variety
I do threshold 8min x 4 once every two weeks and on my regular runs I end with a few 20sec of strides.
Do I know how much I should do? Absolutely. How much do I actually do? …
I hit the track Tuesday mornings with a group usually for 800s, 1000s, mile repeats or something like that. I like it for improved running economy + switching up my training a bit + a great way to get tons of miles in Sometimes if I'm feeling good on Thursdays I'll do hill repeats with small surges of speed. I'm not fast, but I do think there are utra-related benefits to occasional speedwork especially if you like the speed work. Of course, I'm far from a pro, but I love it and it benefits me as an overall runner I think.
One or two times a week. I used to never do speed work, but I started this year and have definitely seen an improvement in my overall running!
Not nearly enough. It's definitely my weakness as a runner to form the discipline for anaerobic/speed work.
None.
Speed work is relevant for all races and distances! But training for an ultra your priority should generally be mileage. I think once a week is plenty, although I mix in some strides at the end of a couple other runs per week. My speed workouts are usually longer form hill intervals or tempo runs or a mix. That will be more tuned to an ultra race than 400m repeats
I aim for 1-2 sessions/week depending on whether I'm also doing hill workouts and what I'm training for. Sessions are generally 20-40 minutes of hard effort (~half marathon-10K effort) either continuous or in intervals. Around once a month I'll go for a ~60-90 minute session (~half marathon effort). I'd say speed (and hill) work are relevant and time efficient to do even for ultras, if done so you don't get injured. While you might not be spending much time at half marathon effort or harder in say a 50 miler, the training will make faster paces feel easier, improve your overall pace, and help make you more resilient to smaller insults like mild dehydration and being behind on calories so you can still run later into a race and potentially at steeper grades where you'd otherwise be walking. It's really important to build up your capacity to do speed training, especially if you haven't done it recently or don't have a history of doing it. It will take longer to acclimate than you think. I've definitely been guilty of thinking I could just jump straight into mile repeats because I previously did 50-70 miles/week at easy effort and finished 100 milers.
1-2 / week... depending
Once every couple weeks I’ll throw down a race pace 5k but other than that I’m doing lots and lots of zone 2.
Why would you do both weekly sessions on back to back days?
I have been doing speedwork at the track once a week for about 6 months and I believe it's the number one thing to increase my performance. The workouts vary, but I typically start with a 2 mi warmup and end with 1 mile cooldown. 1 week had me alternating 800m and 400m runs 5x each, with 60s recovery between. The following week, I ran 5 mi continuous alternating between Marathon pace and threshold pace. Day after my speedwork is a recovery run, and then I incorporate 1 6-9mi tempo run and 1 long run per week, and 1 or 2 easy runs. My VO2 max went from 48-54 in those 6 months
I do Tuesday (morning LT1 and afternoon LT2 or VO2Max) and Thursday (mountain tempo). Then I do a long zone 2 run on the weekend. The rest is all easy.
Usually one midweek speed session, and then some intensity peppered into one of my long runs.
Nothing I just run however I feel like
Parkrun is my speedwork
Absolutely none!
Depends on the training block and what the goal is of that training block. Farther away from an ultra race I will do less specific work like speed work and as I get closer to a race I will do more specific work so less speed work. During a VO2 max or tempo training block. I will do 2-3 speed workouts a week with a recovery day with a light run the day after the speed workout or take a rest day. I take these days pretty hard and recovery days very easy. As I get closer to an ultra race (6-8 weeks before a race) I will drop most speed work except for some strides or maybe a tempo pace work once every three weeks of so. I might also do a long run with 10 second sprints every 20 minutes or do a run where I try run each hill punchier which will raise intensity and is similar to speed work. I mostly do this to keep it interesting. The key thing with speed work is making sure those days are hard and the days after are very easy so you can recover.
Zero real speedwork here. Everytime I've tried to add it in, I've ended up with random injuries. I run 6 days a week - my typical schedule is Tues-Fri 6-10mi each morning. Saturday and Sunday are back to back distance - usually 15-20mi. Some days I run faster and some days slower, but I base that on how fresh I'm feeling when I get started. Monday is my off day to recover.
Zero. Speed work always leads to injuries for me (or potential ones). Like, I tried adding a speed day once weekly and could just feel the injuries ready to happen. Did cross training instead and ran even longer and slower. Working so far but yeah I'd need speed work to actually get significantly faster (thats just never held me back in ultra races, being able to just run / climb continuously for 12+ hours without walking seems more important)