Add Some Spice to Your Weekday Runs with These 5 Workouts

If you’re getting bored of the same old mid-week running routine, here is something to spice up your weekday runs! I took some of these from Training Peaks Coach Blog and added my own flare to a few as well. I hope you enjoy!

Texan at the Track

Warm up 800m easy, then do the following ladder:

1600 at half marathon pace (Z3) with 30 sec rest immediately followed by 800 tempo effort (Z4)

1200m at 10K race pace (Z3/Z4) with 30 sec rest immediately followed by 800 tempo effort (Z4)

800m FAST (Best Sustainable Effort) with 30 seconds rest immediately followed by 800 tempo effort (Z4)

Cool down last 5-10 min easy jog.

Penalty Laps (I took this from Training Peaks!)

Warm up 1 mile easy;

Main Set:

10X200 efforts in under 40 seconds each; (increase this number to 45 if 40 is not realistic)

For every 200 you miss the 40 second time, you must do one of the following:

20 burpees

20 pushups

20 tricep dips

20 squat jumps

These will add incentive to make that 40 second time on each interval.

Cool down last 5-10 min easy jog.

The Oreo Cookie Workout-a tempo sandwiched in between 2 sets of intervals.

Warm up 800 easy;

Main Set:

4X400’s (high Z3) with 1 min rest

Immediately followed by a 5K Tempo run then

4X400’s (high Z3) again.

This is challenging!

Cool down last 5 min easy jog.

Boot Camp Mailbox Fartlek (45 min)

Warm up 5-10 min easy jog.

Main Set:

Mailbox Fartlek (or telephone pole) Sprint to the first mailbox then do 10 burpees, 10 jump squats, 20 traveling lunges, 10 pushups. Slower paced jog to the next mailbox. Sprint to the next mailbox with same sequence of body weight exercises, then slow jog, etc.

Cool down easy jog last 5 minutes.

Coin Toss Intervals (from Training Peaks) All you need is a track and a quarter (coin)

Warm up-5-10 min easy jog.

Main Set:

8X400 repeats where you flip a coin over your shoulder as you take off for an interval. In advance of the workout, decide which was the “extra effort” side, heads or tails. If that side is facing up when you come around at end of the 400m, you must run an extra 200 meters at your current pace or faster. This adds a fun element of uncertainty to the workout and creates great camaraderie with teammates. Recover between sets for 90 seconds.

This fun workout will definitely challenge you to your limits!

Take these workouts and make them your own. They are guaranteed to add some fun to the mundane! Let me know how you like them.

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