Speed Training for 1500m and Mile

by Jay P
(New Zealand)

Hi there, have a question on how to get the most out of threshold training and what type of workouts would suit. I am a 25yr old male, 185cm tall, and very lean. I have been racing this year in various distances but have decided to race more over the short fast 1500m to mile.

I read a previous post on increasing cadence or speed, and you recommend lost of slow running, my problem is that when race day comes round my body doest feel prepared as I am doing more aerobic workouts than that lactate threshold range. Up to this point in a race it seems that its anaerobic because of its intensity.






Are there any good workouts for speed / cadence and threshold?

These two points make up the ideal race I feel for the distance I am racing......thanks for your help!


Answer by Dominique:


Hi there,
Thanks for your running training question.

You are definitely right, you need fast workouts. The questions I usually get from people wanting to do short distances are to do with police fitness tests or army fitness tests and they are from people who have not built up much stamina yet.

For them, I consider it best to first start slow and build up the running. Any race up from 800 metres is predominantly aerobic.

However, if you are already doing your easy + long runs and can cover the distance easily and now want to race it, that's the moment we start talking about incorporating speed training in the mix. For these short distances you definitely need to do lots of interval running and tempo runs.

Check out those pages for some more explanations about the reasons why. With intervals it is important to not always do the same intervals. Mix it up, do stuff like 400m/800m intervals but also km-repeats and mile repeats.

In addition to that it would be beneficial to work on your running cadence.

A book that really puts all the puzzle pieces together is Daniel's Running Formula. It provides you with lots of examples of running workouts and also includes templates for running programs for anything from 800m/1500m to the marathon.






I hope this helps.
Kind regards,
Dominique