How hard is hard?

Yesterday, I posted about how hard easy was.  Well, here is the other end of the spectrum.

How hard is hard?

I use the terms hard, tempo, up tempo and easy purposely because they are vague—each is different for everyone, and they changes every day as a result of many factors.  I try not to get too caught up in numbers and prefer people feel their way through some workouts.   When I want something specific, I ask for it.

The short answer to how hard is hard (and how easy is easy) is: it depends.

More specifically, it depends on how long the workbouts are, as well as the workout, and how much rest is involved.

Notice, I use the term workBOUT and workOUT.  Do not confuse them.

Remembering that the longer the running component it is, the lower the intensity ought to be, but the more rest you get, the higher the intensity should be.  It’s kind of like 1 step down the intensity scale for each minute longer of workbout duration and 1/4 step higher per 15sec more rest.  As an example, 8x1km will be run at a lower intensity than 40×200 even though they total the same distance—shorter workbouts and rest more often means you should go harder.   Armed with that piece of knowledge, you can simply follow this guideline: look at the length of the workbouts, the total workout volume, and how much rest is involved, and then assess your efforts based on this information.

The longer answer expands on the previous answer:  the longer the workbout, the lower the level of intensity, and the shorter the workbout, the higher it should be.  For example, a hard workbout of 2min should be harder than a workbout of 4min, which should be harder than a workbout of 6min.   At the same time, the rest interval has a lot to do with how recovered you are, and therefore how hard you can push.    In running, 45sec rest is not much after a kilometer, but it is sufficient for a set of 5-10 times 200m moderately hard.  That said, the harder you go, the more rest you would have to take to achieve similar levels of effort.  Conversely, the more rest you are assigned, the harder you should go.  During that rest period, the less energy you expend , the more recovered you will be, so the harder you will be able to go when it is time to.  This lazing around recovering has to be balanced off with staying loose and in the mental groove, so laying down or standing around chatting may not be as productive a use of the recovery time as walking, running really easily (almost walking) and/or shaking the legs out in the final seconds of rest.

Similarly, a workout with a total volume of hard stuff of 5k should be harder than a workout with a total volume of hard stuff of 8k.

The actual difference in how hard you can/should  run for most lengths of intense workbouts is only 1-5 percent from short to long, so it is not much easier the further you go.  The table below shows the difference in paces for a 60min 10k runner doing 200’s, 400’s and 1000’s.

200m—5:40/km or about 1:08/200m

400m—5:50/km or about 1:10/200m

1000m—5:55/km or about 1:12/200m

Like I said, it’s not much of a difference and what you should take from this is the effort, not the time.  It’s almost as hard, but not quite.

All of this, of course, assumes good and safe conditions.

The main thing to bear in mind when assessing how hard to go is that you always want to A) finish the workout, and B) finish it in one piece.  You also do not want to go so easy that you feel unfulfilled when done, so the volume of running will help dictate how hard you go, at least in the beginning.  You can always wind things up as the workout progresses.

All that said, no matter what the workout, you should always finish like you could do another piece of hard work, but quite happy that you don’t have to.

Rick