Foreword
Interval workouts is a training method that solicits a lot the heart, before you try, it is very strongly recommended to talk to your doctor and maybe schedule a visit to a cardiologist. Especially if you are over 40 years old.
Whether to lose weight, increase your capacities or improve your running capabilities, inverval training is indicated, but it's challenging and generates oxidative stress, to counter free radicals and discomfort that can create ischemia and reperfusion (digestive pain, diarrhea), it is essential to adapt your nutrition.
Headaches can happen sometimes during intense training and especially when it's hot and sunny within hours of the end of the session.
What is 200m interval workout ?
200m interval workout is considered as short interval workouts, either called short MAS interval training.
For a better improvement of your abilities, it's important to alternate short interval workouts with long interval workouts.
If you do one interval workouts a week, shift from short to long each week.
If you do 2 interval workouts a week, make a short session and a long one in the week.
The 200m interval workout is commonly used in preparation plans for 10k races.
Either way, it will bring you progression for your 10k, half-marathon or marathon competitions.
If you are a trail runner, split work such as fartleck, hill workout or 30sec/30sec workout will also be appropriate.
200m interval training serves as a basis for Bart Yasso's test to estimate your performance on 10 km run.
It is very important on trying efforts like the short interval workouts that the body is well prepared to endure the shocks associated with fast strides. Remember that kinetic energy is proportional to the square of the speed. In order for the body to withstand repeated shocks do some core workouts and drills.
Time's table depending on your MAS
With the table below, you will easily find the times to achieve for the 200m and corresponding rest times.
The table reads as follows: for a MAS of 19 km/h, you have to run the 200m in 37" with a rest of 35" between each fraction and this for all repetitions.
You cannot know your MAS with the time that you're able to do over the distance of 200 m.
So if you don't know your MAS, it would be good to make an estimate by a cooper's test or half cooper's test.
| MAS (km/h) | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 200m | 1'11" | 1'04" | 59" | 54" | 50" | 47" | 44" | 42" | 39" | 37" |
| rest | 1'05" | 1" | 55" | 50" | 45" | 45" | 40" | 40" | 35" | 35" |
To optimize the development of your capabilities as much as possible, do not hesitate to change the effort distances. To know the times to do according to the distance and your MAS, see the calculation page.
How to perform interval workout ?
First, you need to determine your pace, which will depend on your abilities, which means your MAS. If you're starting the interval training, you can start with 2 sets of 6 repetitions of 200 m before gradually increasing as shown in schedule example of training sessions.
Procedure :
| Step | Description | What to do | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Warm up | For warm up, jog for at least 15 min, or 20/25 min if it's very cold. The goal is to prepare the muscles to the efforts that will follow avoiding tears. | |
| 2 | Stretching / Drills | Depending on your habits, you can do some stretching or better, if you have extra time, do drills. | |
| 3 | 200m | 200m to run in a duration depending on your MAS, see table above | |
| Repeat 5 times | 4 | Rest | see table above |
| 5 | 200m | 200m to run in a duration depending on your MAS. | |
| 6 | rest 3 min | ||
| 7 | 200m | 200m to run in a duration depending on your MAS. | |
| Repeat 5 times | 8 | Rest | see table above |
| 9 | 200m | 200m to run in a duration depending on your MAS. | |
| 10 | Cool down | Cool down is a slow jogging, of approximately 10 min, which allows the heart to calm down and recover gradually a normal pulsation rythm. If you do the workouts on an athletic track, run in the opposite direction for calm down. |
The rest is done by trotting between each 200m. Avoid walking as much as possible. You should be able to maintain the same pace from the first to the last repetition. As a reminder, if you do the split on a 400m athletics track, 200 meters corresponds to half a lap. Do not neglect a recovery period of at least one day if you're not used to this effort.
Cardiac record example
Schedule example
With the schedule below, you will find an example to follow the principle of progressiveness, this example is given with the distance of 200m, but it's advisable to vary working distances from one session to another.
| Week | Workout | Amount of km | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | 2 x 6 x 200m | 2,4 km | |
| Week 2 | 2 x 7 x 200m | 2,8 km | |
| Week 3 | 2 x 8 x 200m | 3,2 km | |
| Week 4 | 12 x 200m | 2,4 km | week lightened even though long recovery between the series has disappeared. |
| Week 5 | 2 x 8 x 200m | 3,2 km | |
| Week 6 | 2 x 9 x 200m | 3,6 km | |
| Week 7 | 2 x 10 x 200m | 4 km | |
| Week 8 | 14 x 200m | 2,8 km | week lightened |