Perhaps one of the most important sessions that I have any of my athletes perform is a simple progression run. Anyone who has run for me, or has listened to me talk on training knows that I love progression runs.
I don’t believe that there is any session, outside of the long run, that is better for developing the aerobic capabilities of an athlete. The trick is to run the progression the right way. Unfortunately, too many times the athletes will run too hard too early, or too hard at the end.
The goal of the progression run is to naturally cut down and to never be running ‘hard’…you should always be in control and able to continue on if needed.
Typically the run should be progressed every 1/4th or 1/3rd with the last segment being run at around your marathon pace to just a tad faster…there are instances when we’ll have an athlete finish the last segment around half marathon pace, but that’s typically more of a specific session for us, versus the traditional progression run.
For my athletes we use these early in the training build up…and I like keeping them in the training throughout the build up as an aerobic refresh, especially when coming off of a race.
As usual, if you have any questions, please feel free to email me at thedailyrun@gmail.com.
Phillips Running 