If you enjoyed last month’s Intro to the Track workout, you will love this Track Pyramid workout! In this workout, you will cover 4.5 miles total with 2.5 miles of those running at a hard pace.
The Workout
- Warm up with 800 meters (2 laps) easy running.
- Run hard for 200 meters (½ lap), easy for 200 meters (½ lap).
- Run hard for 400 meters (1 lap), easy for 200 meters (½ lap).
- Run hard for 800 meters (2 laps), easy for 400 meters (1 lap).
- Run hard for 1200 meters (3 laps), easy for 400 meters (1 lap).
- Run hard for 800 meters (2 laps), easy for 400 meters (1 lap).
- Run hard for 400 meters (1 lap), easy for 200 meters (½ lap).
- Run hard for 200 meters (½ lap), easy for 200 meters (½ lap).
- Cool down with 400 meters (1 lap) easy running.
400 meters is one lap around a standard track. For this workout, you will run hard halfway around the track, then easy for halfway around the track. The next repeat is a full lap hard, followed by half a lap easy. Then you run two laps hard, follow by a lap easy. You reach the top of the pyramid with 3 laps hard, followed by a lap easy, and then work back down the pyramid with two laps hard, one lap easy, one lap hard, ½ lap easy, ½ lap hard, and ½ lap easy. Then you cool down and celebrate accomplishing hard workout!
Since the track makes it easy to calculate pace, aim for a pace that’s roughly 90 seconds to 2 minutes per mile faster than your easy run pace. So if you run at a 9:30/mile for an easy run on the roads, aim to run a 7:30-8:00/mile pace on the track. Then divide the mile time by 4 and this will tell you how many seconds it should take you to run one lap hard around the track. So if you are aiming for an 8:00/mile pace for your hard intervals, this means each hard repeat will take 2 minutes (120 seconds).
The shorter intervals will be at the faster end of the pace range (2 minutes per mile faster than easy pace) and the longer intervals should be on the slower end of the pace range (90 seconds per mile faster than easy pace). Make sure you take the recovery laps at a very easy effort to let your breathing return to normal before the next hard interval.
For proper track etiquette, move to an outer lane for your warm up and cool down. The innermost lane is for hard intervals.
If you aren’t running on the track, you still run this workout! 200 meters is 1/8 of a mile (~0.12), 400 meters is 1/4 of a mile (0.25), and 800 meters is half a mile (0.50). Track it here with Runkeeper Audio Cues!
