The many benefits of speedwork for runners are well-known. Upping the pace once or twice a week will help to boost everything from your lactate threshold to your VO2 max. For some, though, speedwork can feel intimidating and complicated.
If you’d like to start doing speedwork, and want an enjoyable, low-fuss introduction, Brad Hudson’s 1-2-3-2-1 is a good place to start. The US coach calls it an ‘introduction to power endurance’, and it represents an accessible and adaptable session for runners of various abilities.
It’s probably particularly applicable to those training for a half-marathon or marathon, and can be used as an alternative to a standard threshold run.
The 1-2-3-2-1 Workout
The workout’s name is a reference to the length of the running intervals it involves. These are to be performance at around 10k pace. After each interval, you do some easy jogging for the same amount of time as the preceding interval. So if you’ve just completed a 1-minute interval, you get 1 minutes of jogging, and so on.
Warm-up
- 2 miles (or 20 minutes) of easy running, finishing with a set of 6 x strides (quick bursts for about 50m).
Workout
- 1 minutes @10k pace
- 1 minute easy jog
- 2 minutes @10k pace
- 2 minutes easy jog
- 3 minutes @10k pace
- 3 minutes easy jog
- 2 minutes @10k pace
- 2 mins easy jog
- 1 minute @10k pace
- 1 minute easy jog
Rick Pearson is the senior editor at Runner’s World UK. He’s been with the brand since 2017 and loves testing PB-friendly shoes for on and off road. Rick is a sub-three marathoner, 4-something miler and once completed 100 miles in less than 24 hours. He occasionally likes to remind people of these feats on the Runner’s World podcast, which he co-hosts.
Rick’s running CV also includes racing a steam train over 14 miles (he won, narrowly) and a horse over a marathon (he lost, comfortably).
