Warmup
- 10 minutes easy
- Dynamic drills: leg swings, A-skips, high knees, butt kicks
- 6 x 100m strides, last two at near-sprint with full walk-back recovery
- 2 minutes rest before set 1
Main Set
Three sets of 4 x 200m, each set faster than the last. 200m walk between reps. 3 minutes between sets.
- Set 1 — 5K effort. The “boring” set. Smooth, rhythmic, finding the legs.
- Set 2 — mile race effort. Clear gear shift up. Fast but controlled.
- Set 3 — 800m race effort. Fast and committed. The closer.
Walk the recoveries — don’t jog. The full reset is what lets the next 200 hit at the right pace. Get on the line and go.
Within each set, all four reps should run within 1 second of each other. If set 3 rep 4 is your fastest 200 of the day, you got the pacing right.
Cooldown
- 1 mile easy
- Stretch: calves, hamstrings, hip flexors, quads
Coach’s Notes
Speed work in summer heat is a balancing act. The reps are short enough that heat doesn’t wreck them, but the cumulative load and full-recovery walks mean the session takes a while. Drink between sets. Don’t stand in the sun.
The three-gear structure teaches you what each effort actually feels like in your body. Most runners default to one race-pace mode — fast or jog. The session forces three distinct gears: 5K (sustainable), mile (aggressive), 800 (committed). Knowing the difference is what lets you race well at any of those distances.
Set 3 is the one. By the time you start it, your legs know the day’s been hard, and you have to find another gear anyway. Run the first rep of set 3 with full intent. The other three follow if the first one was honest.
Form check on every rep: shoulders down, jaw loose, eyes up the track. Don’t grimace. Run fast and look like it’s easy.
Scaling
Newer runners: 3 sets of 3 x 200m, same effort progression, full walk recovery between everything. Or two sets only — drop the 800-effort set and finish with the mile-effort set.
Advanced runners: 3 sets of 5 x 200m. Or add a fourth set at 400m effort — only 2 reps, near-maximal, with full recovery. Treat it as an unofficial speed test.