The Stryd power-based training plans offer a dynamic range of workout types designed to target specific elements of your fitness that will best prepare you for your race goal. Below is an overview of the run types you may encounter along the way to your new personal best, and how each of these workouts will help to get you there.
Warm-up: The warm-up is the zone 1 easy run that you do to gear up for a big workout or race.
The goal is to gently ramp your body up to reduce the risk of injury before you do the harder work of the main set.
Cooldown: The cooldown is the easy zone 1 run after a hard session.
This run is intended to help kick start the recovery process by enhancing blood flow to the working muscle groups, but without stressing them further.
"Recovery run" or "Easy run": These runs will be steady efforts will be in Zones 1-2 for short to moderate durations.
Easy runs are designed to maintain or build upon your aerobic base, sometimes while your body is recovering from harder sessions on days prior. The goal will be to find a power you can maintain for a long time and to stop well before fatigue begins to set in.
Long Run: The long run is your longest run for the week. Typically, this run falls on Saturday or Sunday and will be no higher than Zone 2.
Similar in the level of effort to Easy runs, the long run will be a high duration and low intensity, with the goal of improving your aerobic endurance. These runs will start feeling easy, but will end with some considerable fatigue and stress due to the longer duration.
Run Walk: The run-walk is when you balance the run portions with walking sections.
Run-walks are designed to provide the same sort of training stimulus as Easy or Recovery runs.
Fartlek: A Fartlek is Swedish for "speed play," and that is exactly what this run is all about. Unlike tempo and interval work, fartlek is unstructured and alternates between moderate to hard efforts with easy efforts throughout.
Fartlek workouts are great for tuning into how your body is feeling and getting you comfortable at a higher turnover rate without straining yourself enough to require a multi-day recovery.
Intervals: Structured workouts typically involving many repetitions of a short-to-moderate duration at a high intensity.
Intervals are useful for improving aerobic threshold or "speed endurance". They will also improve your muscular strength and your comfort at higher power outputs.
Hill Repeats: Typically many repetitions of running up and down a hill with 1:1 or greater ratio of work: recovery. These will be one of the highest intensity and shortest duration workout types you'll encounter in your training.
Hill repeats are focused on building speed and strength as you push your maximum power output to new heights with adequate recovery time to perform well repeat after repeat.
Tempo Run: A tempo run is a sustained effort run executed at the lower percentages of CP. You will find yourself in lower zone 3 for a tempo run, 90-95% of CP.
Tempo runs are excellent for raising your aerobic threshold so that you are able to maintain a higher power output even on your future easy days when you are running in Zone 1-2.
Threshold Run: A threshold run is a sustained effort running at 95-100% of CP. You will be in upper zone 3 for this type of effort.
Threshold runs provide a similar training stress to tempo runs, but typically at a higher intensity and lower duration. Raising your threshold is one of the greatest ways of improving your personal best in endurance running events.
Cruise intervals: The cruise intervals are typically 200 to 400m repeats at a higher intensity with more rest.
Similar in training stress to hill repeats, cruise intervals will sharpen your strength and maximum power output, with enough rest in between to perform at a high level interval after interval.
Brick Workout: Are two or more sessions done back to back, typically being bike to run.
Strides: Strides are short sprints of 15 to 20 seconds without any structured rest or breaks.
Strides are focused on muscle activation-- remind your body how to recruit working muscle for the race or hard workout that is coming up. For beginner runners, Strides are an excellent introduction to more structured speed work.
Progression run: The progression run is a cut down run. Starting off at a comfortable power and slowly adding more intensity over the run. You should finish at a higher power than when you started the run.
Progression runs are great for teaching your body fatigue resistance in the latter stages of a race as well as providing a little bit of threshold training effect.
Pace Run: A pace run is a run where you aim to hold specific power.
If you have other questions, please reach out by emailing us at support@stryd.com.
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