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Building a Miler - Part 1
Rhythm and Economy

Takeaways:

  • Running Economy is a combination of how mechanically and metabolically efficient we are at a specific pace
  • Spending time running goal race pace builds running economy at that specific pace
  • Workouts like 20x200m at mile pace allow athletes to accumulate larger total volumes at race pace than workouts with longer reps that are more metabolically taxing

This is part one of a four part series that will address the different aspects of teaching athletes how to handle 1500m/mile race efforts and how to incorporate those workouts into training. Each part will follow the same emphasis as a previous article, How to Progress Tempo Runs, by following the idea that we need to:

  1. Have a good starting point for our first workout and;
  2. Find a way to take one step forward

Constructing a 1500m runner:

  1. Building rhythm and running economy
  2. Addressing the metabolic demands
  3. Incorporating other paces into mile work
  4. Creating a training plan and adding periodization

Building Rhythm and Running Economy

Running economy is what we use to describe how efficient an athlete is at a specific pace. This comes from how sound they are mechanically and how efficient we are metabolically at a given pace. Traditionally in labs, this is tested by measuring oxygen consumption while running at a prescribed pace. This is part of the puzzle to why runners with the same VO2max can have different times in races. 

To avoid the jargon, we’re just going to think of running economy as how comfortable someone is at a specific pace. It turns out, one of the easiest ways to improve running economy is to practice the pace you want to be better at. So…

What is a workout that we can use to get a lot of time running 1500m/mile pace?

The Workout

20x200m at goal 1500m/mile race pace with 200m jog recovery

This is a workout that my high school coach borrowed (stole) from his coach who in turn borrowed (stole) it from Run With The Best (By: Irv Ray and Tony Benson) but here it’s updated to have a more gradual progression that gives athletes more time to adapt while still introducing new challenges with each workout.

It gives athletes an opportunity to reach 2.5 miles at goal race pace without excessive fatigue or particularly high lactate concentrations because of the short reps and comparatively long 1:2 work to rest ratio if we assume someone is running about 35 and 70 seconds on the reps and rest respectively.

How to Progress 20x200m

Like any workout, there are a lot of ways to build up to this workout and also to adjust it to fit your athletes or situation.  For this workout, I first like seeing more distance being accumulated and then focus on extending reps to introduce a larger metabolic component and learn how to maintain efficiency as runners start to tire. 

We’ll assume everything below is at your end of season goal mile pace.

1) 2 sets 8x200m with 200m jog [3:00 between sets]

Step Forward: N/A, starting point

This is typically an easy first step for most high school athletes. If you’re coming off of a cross country season where athletes haven’t seen mile pace often, something like this is enough to provide a new stimulus without being overwhelming. With 2 miles of quality volume it’s typically less than what they’ve been seeing with their threshold/tempo sessions and being broken up into two sets gives athletes and coaches a good opportunity to make any adjustments if necessary. There’s a temptation with these workouts to push the pace, make sure you’re avoiding that. We’re trying to practice a goal pace to become more efficient at running it. Learning a pace that we can’t realistically hit by the end of the season is just going to teach them how to get in over their heads when they race.

2) 16x200m w/ 200m jog

Step Forward: No break in between sets

Realistically, this should feel like a very small adjustment for athletes, but if they’re just starting up with doing mile pace again for the first time in a while, this can be enough to reinforce the last workout so we aren’t progressing the season too quickly while they are still adjusting.

3) 2 sets 10x200m w/ 200m jog [3:00 between sets]

Step Forward: Increase volume from 16 reps to 20 (2 miles to 2.5 miles of quality volume)

This workout adds another 800m of mile pace within the workout. We’ve added the break in sets back in to control the workout, but athletes that are clearly handling things well can skip steps fairly easily within this progression.

4) 20x200m w/ 200m jog

Step Forward: No break between sets

Like in step 2, we’re taking away the rest between sets and are now doing the workout as written in Run With the Best. This is typically the maximum distance that I will have athletes run at mile pace within a workout. Past this I think there are better ways to utilize time especially for a workout that is as broken up as 200’s.

5) 2 sets (2x300m w/ 300m jog + 7x200m w/ 200m jog) [3:00 between sets]

Step Forward: Added four 300m reps while keeping the total volume the same

As much as I like 200’s to work on rhythm, there is a skill to maintaining a pace while fatigue builds up that doesn’t happen easily with reps that are near 30s or less. The last 100m of the longer reps is a very noticeable change that requires a lot more conscious effort to keep paces from dropping. 

I like maintaining the equal distance jog recovery because it helps make sure that the metabolic challenges aren’t the limiting factor. Ultimately, the next workout progression we talk about will address that side more.

My high school coach always liked going from 20x200m to 3 sets (4x300m w/ 100m jog) and while I love the workout, it’s an absurdly big jump to make in one workout. You’re increasing the rep distance by 50% and cutting down the recovery by 50% at the same time. I think I ran that workout well maybe once in high school. In hindsight, I think just having some 300’s even if the recovery was even longer than a 300m jog would have been enough to challenge me in a new way.

6) 2 sets (4x300m w/ 300m jog + 4x200m w/ 200m jog) [3:00 between sets]

Step Forward: Replaced two more 200m reps with 300m reps in each set

This continues the pattern to teach athletes how to maintain race pace for longer within a rep. Athletes will start to notice a larger fitness requirement than before now that there are several successive 300m reps in a row before going back to 200’s.

Alternate Ways Forward after 20x200m

  • 10x200m w/ 100m jog + 10x200m w/ 200m jog
    • Shortening the rest on the first half can help athletes learn how to deal with more fatigue while trying to run goal race pace
  • 600m w/ 600m jog + 17x200m w/ 200m jog
    • Having one long rep at the start of the workout when they’re fresh can let them practice stringing together reps at goal race pace before going back to something they are familiar with
  • 20x200m w/ 200m jog in 60s (or shorter)
    • A famous Prefontaine/Bowerman workout is the 30/40 workout where Pre would run 20x200m at 30s with a 200m jog in 40s to make a hard continuous workout that stressed the recovery as much as the reps. 
    • In my experience, most competitive runners at the high school and even college level tend to jog their recovery in about 65-75 seconds. 60 seconds is a comfortable challenge, 50 seconds is quite noticeable especially for athletes that tend to do the ol’ sprinter shuffle when they get tired between reps