Solid Week of Speed Work (Running & Pure Barre workout recap)

I think this makes 3 weeks in a row of super solid running workouts! While I was finally able to run outdoors again yesterday (it’s been too cold otherwise), I have not been minding the treadmill lately at all. In fact, my speed workouts have totally been paying off!  I’ve detailed my workouts fairly well below so take a look and try one if you are looking for something different to do on the treadmill that is full of effort and engagement. Mostly run by time, you can totally run these workouts outdoors too!

Monday – Speed Workout/5 Miles (treadmill)

With a snowstorm overnight that wasn’t as bad as they predicted (like 4 inches maybe?) I walked over to the gym in my community for a treadmill run.

I didn’t have a plan and figured I would see how I felt once running. Ultimately, I ended up with a great speed workout! Here’s what I did:

• 10 min warm up (5 min easy 5 min of 30 sec hard/30 sec easy)
• 15 X 1 min hard/1 min easy
• cool down to 5 miles.

My hard minutes ranged from 8.1- 8.6. I probably averaged more like 8.2 – 8.3, bumping things higher more towards the end of the workout.

Tuesday – 35 Min Pure Barre

I combined a 30 minute Pure Barre seat-focused workout with a 5-minute arm workout. The 5-minute arm workout was intense and worked thighs the entire time too! Intense.

Note: My son makes fun of me for using 3 lb weights so I made him try this 5-minute workout in the evening. Let’s just say he didn’t last. 🙂

Wednesday – Speed Workout (5 Miles treadmill)

Another great speed workout! I’m killing it lately. Here’s what I did:

• 10 min warm up (5 min easy/5 min of 30 sec hard/30 sec easy)
• 5 min comfortably hard (7.6 – 8.0)
• 1 min easy (6.3)
• 5 min comfortably hard (7.6 – 8.1)
• 2 min easy (6.3 – 6.5)
• 5 min hard (7.7 – 8.2)
• 2 min easy (6.3)
• 4 min hard (7.7 – 8.2) to finish at 5 miles

With each interval, I started at the lower end of my speed range but worked at holding the faster speeds the most.

Thursday – 30 Min Treadmill (3.5 Miles)

I ran on the treadmill, making it two days in a row! This is not a common occurrence for me this winter! I was in the mood to run but it was too cold outside and I felt like I could handle the treadmill for the second day in a row. I didn’t plan on running long or fast so this was totally doable.

My plan was 30 minutes, mostly easy yet engaging (important for the treadmill!) so I broke it up mentally into sets of 10 minutes.

• 1 – 10: 5 min easy (6.3) / 5 min 30 sec hard/30 sec easy
• 10 – 20: 5 min easy (6.8) / 1 min harder (8.0-8.1)/1 min easy (6.5)
• 20 – 30: 5 min easy (6.8) / 1 min harder (8.0 – 8.2)/1 min easy (6.5)

My incline is always at 1.0 but during the easy sections, I played with it by ranging up to 3.0.

Friday – 30 Min Pure Barre

I combined a 25 minute lower body intensive with a 5-minute arm workout (a different one from Wednesday).

Saturday – 7 Miles (tempo workout)

Laura suggested I may like a workout she ran this week which featured 3 x 10 minutes with 3 minutes easy in between. I gave it a try today outdoors and really liked this tempo interval workout!

I ran 2 miles as a warm-up plus one minute –  I wanted to start the intervals at an exact time.

While running, I had no idea what my pace was (did not look at Runkeeper and do not pause for the recovery minutes) but felt as though I was running comfortably hard, like at a half marathon effort. In reality, I think I was actually faster (and mile 5 shows that too).  I think my speed workouts on the treadmill have been paying off!

Sunday – Pure Barre

Recapping my workouts from the week on the blog today! #running #treadmill #purebarre @pure_barre Click To Tweet

Have you been running more outdoors or on the treadmill lately? Do you have a favorite treadmill workout?