by GRP skier Michaela Keller-Miller

As a cross country skier who spends their winters skiing, and not running, I enjoy using the spring as a chance to ease back into running. With that comes the occasional spring interval session to remember what it’s like to run fast. One of my favorite workouts is 800-meter repeats on the track (or a dirt road) followed by a couple of faster 200-meter “speeds.”

The versatility of this workout is one of the reasons I like it so much. Not only is it great for reacquainting oneself with leg speed after cross training through an injury, a winter of skiing, or a period focused predominately on easy running, but it can also be a tune-up workout for an upcoming race. Last fall, this was the perfect interval session to prepare for my first road or cross country running race in over five years. The stakes were high, as this 5-kilometer road race was to be the first time I’d raced my dad in 10 years. Spoiler alert: my dad won by two seconds. I guess we’ll have to rematch again next year.

Back to the workout. Start with a 15 to 30 minute warmup. I like to include a 1x6 minute comfortably fast piece in the warmup to prime my body for slightly faster 800s. The six-minute interval should be in your low Level 3 heart rate zone, which is about 78 to 85% of your max heart rate (or low tempo pace for runners). After some dynamic stretching, I move into the meat of the workout, which is 4-8x800-meter repeats at your 5-kilometer goal race pace (check out this chart for pacing). This should be in your high Level 3 to low Level 4 heart rate zone, which is 85 to 93% of your max heart rate (or tempo pace).

These should feel hard, especially if this is your first running workout in a while, but the pace should be maintainable. The goal is consistency from one interval to the next; it’s okay for the times to speed up slightly as the workout progresses, but ideally each interval time will be close to the same. If you’re easing back into running or intervals, shoot for the 4x800m side of the prescribed workout. If you feel like you can maintain your pace for 8x800m without slowing down, go for the full 8x800m.

Once you’ve conquered the 800s, follow this up with 2x200-meter speeds. These should not be an all-out sprint. Instead, try to run smoothly and relaxed at a slightly faster pace than your 800-meter repeats.

In summary, here’s the workout:

15-30 minute easy warmup

Include 1x6 minute in your low Level 3 heart rate zone

4-8x 800-meter repeats in your high Level 3 to low Level 4 heart rate zone
2x 200-meter speeds at a slightly faster pace than your 800-meter repeats
15 minute easy cooldown

Enjoy, and good luck in the search for speed!

Favorite workout: Re-Finding Speed