Special Workout : Billat's Four by Five





Veronique Billat is an expert on how to improve running performance.

She is a fast half marathoner herself (sub 1:20), coach of top runners in France, and a renowned exercise physiologist.

When she claims she has found a way which show how to improve running performance and increase running speed, the running society listens.


What does the workout do ?


Billat claims in her article in the "Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness" that the 4x5 workout increases max VO2. This is the amount of oxygen your body passes on to your muscles.
A higher max VO2 will help you increase running speed.


How to improve running performance


The recipe is simple :
Run four times for five minutes with a 2 1/2 minute recovery jog in between.
At what speed ?
She explains further that you should do this workout at a pace between tempo and interval pace. This is normally close to 5K race speed.


What do I think of the workout


I like killer workouts. This one does a good job !
I regularly do this run as a lunch break run. My lunch break is not overly long (as for most people), a bit too short to be satisfactory if I stick to easy running.
However, the 4x5 workout gets me sufficiently tired for the rest of the day !
It is a good replacement for an interval session.
And it is always good to get a bit of extra variation into your running schedule. After all, as a general rule, the question of how to improve your running performance is best answered by saying that a runner needs to cover as many different running speeds in running training. Each running speed comes with its own benefits.
So, do the Billat everyone !


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Go from Billat's 4x5 Page to Running Training Page



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