Running Tabata is basically heinous, I did my first one today and lived through it enough to tell you it’s awful BUT, according to Mark’s Daily Apple, it has some amazing benefits:
“We now know that high-intensity interval sprinting is far more effective at burning fat and maintaining – or even building – lean muscle mass than the moderate jog-ten-miles-a-day training espoused by so many “experts.” “
So with that in mind, and the LAME results from my first 10k this year which I did on Jan 1st, I have decided to commit to this training plan I pilfered from Men’s Running
Urban Tabata Sprinting:
I decided to go a little longer than the 20 seconds, which may explain why I found it so terrible, but I like the idea of doing a block for each sprint, and recovering at the end. It’s kinda perfect for urban situations, so I’ll try make it work over the next 29 days:
I did a half mile warm up jog – the red streak across the bottom of the route, and then sprinted up to the next blog, recovered as I took a left / perpendicular to the sprint, and then another sprint as I took the paralel road for another sprint.
The Science:
I’m relatively new to Tabata Sprints so am learning about this as I go, but apparently this is all based on the research of a Japanese Dr Tabata – he compared two sets of athletes who participated in medium high intensity training and high intensity training. The results were that the athletes training in high intensity interval training improved their aerobic (slower, oxygen consuming) systems as well as their anaerobic system (intensity and muscle building). The athletes who did the moderate high intensity training only improved their aerobic system and had little to no increase in their anaerobic system.
Tabata For Marathons
So, this is an online experiment to see if this will speed me up a little for my marathon in March which I feel like I’ve not trained for at all. FML.
In addition, I’ll be doing long runs (ie TABATA in the morning and regular runs at night) and crossfit twice a week for core and muscle toning.
I think I’m going to be super exhausted.
Have you done Tabata? Any tips?
Hmmm. Sounds perfectly horrid, which means it will probably work. Good luck! (I hate speed work so I will be content to only read about how it goes.)
Never used it for running, but I did a tabata workout yesterday. My trainer describes it as the longest 20 seconds of your life, followed by the 10 shortest, over and over again. It’s one of those things you’ll come to hate that you love so much.
Sounds a little like the Couch to 5K plan for running, which I’ll have to start again soon.
My advice? Get a tabata MP3 track, so you don’t have to continue to watch the clock. (http://www.beach-fitness.com/tabata/) That way, you only have to focus on yourself.
Good luck, sir!
ah! this is great advice- will look into it immediately
Ahh, that is good advice…I may try this to help with my speed work! Thanks for sharing.
Sounds bloody awful….BUT like all hideous things (speedwork argh) no doubt it will work:) I will give it a go….Have done odd bouts of interval training but just basic…run hard out for 90 seconds- slow for 30 and i will do that for 20-30 minutes….
Tabata here i come!!
It’s truly awful – I am dreading next week when I have to do it twice…
Let me know how it goes!
Oooh interesting! Look forward to see how it works for the marathon, good luck!