Should You Walk or Jog Interval Rests?

Audio Transcript

Coach Claire Bartholic: Hello everyone. Thanks so much for listening today.

Today’s question is ad free and is from Jennifer.

Jennifer: Is it better to run an interval set a bit slower and jog the recovery, or run harder with the same time of recovery but walk instead? Thanks.

Claire: This seems like a pretty straightforward question Jennifer, but it actually has quite a long answer. The quick answer is it depends.

The rest period is an important part of your interval workout arguably just as important as the intervals themselves. The length of your rests and what you’re doing during those rests will dramatically change what you’re able to do during the intervals.

Obviously, if you are running 400-meter intervals which is about a quarter mile, at faster than your 5K race pace, you will feel a lot different with the 20 second jogging rests versus two-minute standing or walking rests.

There is a place for both kinds of rests.

The first thing you want to do with any workout you are doing, is trying to understand what is the spirit or the purpose of the workout.

Are you practicing race pace? Are you working on high end speed? Are you developing your speed endurance?

Once you understand the “why” of the workout, you can figure out the reasoning behind the rests.

Let’s say your training for a 5K, a classic 5k workout is 12 intervals of 400 meters at 5K race pace with one to two minutes of quick jogging in between.

What we’re doing here is simulating your goal 5k pace without running the entire distance of the race straight through.

We want you going right at your goal pace and no faster during those intervals, but we don’t want you getting a full recovery during the rests.

The reason we keep your rests short and relatively quick is so that you are more closely simulating the 5k race where there is no rest.

If you think about it, 400 meters is a little more than one twelfth the distance of the 5k. Running 5k pace for only one lap around the track should feel easy.

It should only feel easy for the first few. When you should run twelve and a half of them in a race, it will feel very hard.

Now let’s say we change the rests in this workout, you’re still running those 400s, but you get a full two to three minutes of recovery by walking or even standing in one spot.

Do you think you could run a lot faster than 5k pace for 400 meters? Yes. You probably can.

With a longer and easier recovery, you can recover more fully and you’re able to run faster for the intervals.

Running as fast as you can for the intervals was not the point of the 5k race pace workout. The purpose was practicing race pace.

With full recovery, you might be able to run those 400s at closer to your mile pace.

This turns those 400s into of the O2Max workout or a high-end speed development workout. Unless you race the mile or the 400, this is a much faster pace than you will run in any race.

The reason you do this work out is to improve your overall speed and to boost your neuromuscular system. This type of workout is not mimicking race day, but it is developing your speed over all.

Sometimes you get a workout with the rest that is anywhere from three to five minutes long in which case a very slow jog after you’ve caught your breath is a good choice.

A slow jog helps keep the blood flowing through your legs and body, which will make the start of the next repeat a little less jarring on the body.

For some intervals that are relatively short and are not done at a high effort level, you might find that you’re not out of breath at the end and this could be by design.

If this happens and you have longer than about 90 seconds to rest, jogging is a good way to stay moving and to make the workout feel more continuous.

What do I mean when I say jog?

I really don’t even mean jog I mean shuffle. You’re not going for speed record here or trying to make the workout any harder. Your goal is to get recovered as possible for the next repeat.

There are some workouts where the rest period is not designed to make you feel recovered, but the opposite.

The rest period is meant to make you feel worse than if you had run straight through.

A good example of this is the classic 2 by 6-mile workout in a marathon build up.

We ask you to run six miles at marathon pace and then ask you to stand around for 10 minutes. Then, run your second set of six miles at marathon pace.

The purpose of this long rest period is to not only bring your heart rate and breathing back to normal, but to slow the blood flow to your legs.

This creates a feeling of stiffness and perhaps even muscle soreness that will simulate what you will feel during the late stages of the marathon.

For this rest, I prefer that you stand or sit, but not jog at all.

The second set will feel much harder than the first, but if you can get through that one well, it’s a great sign of your marathon fitness.

What if you’re in the middle of a set of intervals and that easy shuffle jog recovery is starting to not feel so easy anymore.

How do you adjust the workout? You have three options.

The first is to slow down the intervals the fast part. The second choice is to slow down or lengthen the rest, and the last choice is to quit altogether and go home.

Now unless you’re feeling terrible, sick, injured, or something is really off, quitting is not usually your best option.

If you do have to pull the plug remember it happens to all of us at some point Try not to dwell on it, it’s just one workout.

There might be a very good reason that you decided to quit so it’s best to let it go and move on and don’t try to make it up later in the week, even if you’re not physically hurt.

We already talked about how slowing down or lengthening the rest, changes the purpose of the workout so that’s typically not the best choice either.

That only leaves us with slowing down the pace of the intervals.

Yes, as much as our ego hates it, this is almost always the best option. If you are struggling with the paces of your intervals accept that you’re not quite 100% today.

All the same, give it the effort expected even if those paces don’t quite line up with what your workout says they should.

Maybe it’s extra hot today, you had too much for lunch, or maybe not enough but for whatever reason, you’re not on your game.

If you still run the effort expected you’re still getting the benefits intended even if the numbers aren’t exactly right and that will make you faster next time.

I hope this helps answer your question Jennifer. Thank you so much for sending it in.

That’s it for the Extra Kick for today.

Don’t forget to send in your question at runnersconnect.net/daily and if you want to find out more about why we’re doing the Extra Kick ad free, head on over to runnersconnect.net/pledge have a great run today.

Have a great run today.