RUN IT OFF
Calorie-burning workouts from America's best coaches will help you slim down--and speed up.
By Matt Fitzgerald
Photographs by Joe Morse
PUBLISHED 03/04/2007
Cranking up the intensity is the best way to take your running to the next level. It's also an effective way to burn extra calories and shed body fat. A 150-pound runner who picks up the pace from eight and a half minutes per mile to seven minutes per mile, for example, burns about an extra 180 calories per hour. Should you speed up all of your runs that dramatically? No, but the following five workouts, designed by some of America's top coaches, include segments of higher-intensity running to boost your calorie burn. Try one or two per week
Include a five-minute warmup and cooldown with each workout.
1. JOE VIGIL'S ACCELERATIONS
Ryan Shay, former U.S. marathon (2004) and half-marathon (2003 and 2004) champ, learned the following workout from his coach, Joe Vigil. "It's designed to work on leg turnover and speed," says Shay. But it also comes with a significant bonus: maximum calories burned in minimum time.
Head to a local track, or find a flat area where you can mark off 100 meters, and then every 10 meters after that up to 200 meters.
Run 100 meters at roughly one-mile race pace. Note your time. Recover by walking from the finishing point of each sprint back to the starting point.
Run 110 meters slightly faster than one-mile race pace, so that your 110-meter time is just one second greater than your 100-meter time. Recover.
Run 120 meters even faster, so that your 120-meter time is just two seconds greater than your 100-meter time. Recover.
Continue in this manner all the way up to 200 meters. Your 200-meter time should be about 10 seconds greater than your 100-meter time.
Estimated Burn: 340 calories*
*Calorie-burn estimates are based on a 150-pound runner who averages a 50-minute 10-K pace and includes a five-minute warmup and cooldown.
2. BRAD HUDSON'S MILES AND HILLS
A former 2:13 marathoner and now coach of the Boulder Performance Training Group, Brad Hudson likes to incorporate lots of short hill sprints into the workouts he prescribes. "They're great for developing running-specific strength," he says. Running hills also burns calories at a higher rate than running on flat terrain. This particular workout combines hill sprints with 10-K-pace mile intervals.
Run 2 x 1 mile at 10-K race pace. Follow each mile with three minutes of easy jogging for recovery.
Run just 20 seconds up part of a steep hill at maximum speed. Jog slowly for two minutes to recover. Do a total of five hill sprints.
Estimated Burn: 466 calories
