This One-Hour Workout is the Ultimate Power VO2 Max Run
Improve your top-end speed and snap with these short and fast hill repeats from run coach David Roche.
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David Roche, a distinguished run coach and ultra runner, is well known for some of his unique workouts and has been coaching athletes of all abilities for the past eight years. He blends a deep knowledge of exercise physiology with a holistic, emotionally-intelligent coaching style, and sessions like this one are designed to reap maximum benefit without heavy fatigue.
After a two- to three-mile easy warm-up—”easing into it, don’t be afraid to go slow,” Roche said—you’ll begin the first part of the main set, which is six sets of two-minute hill reps at a moderate/hard pace. These should be done at or around 5K pace, “but not digging too deep,” Roche advised. Between each rep, jog back downhill to recover before starting the next one.
The second part of the main set is four rounds of 45-second hill repeats, pushing the pace to a hard and fast effort. “These should be hard, so you’re putting out a good amount of power and really pushing your cardiac system,” Roche said.
You’ll then wrap it all up with two to three miles easy cool-down.
“As simple as this workout sounds, there’ll be times when you feel like you’re running through sludge and you’ll be very excited when it’s over,” Roche said. “But it’s really all about how much output can actually come from those muscles over the course of the workout.”
He added that this session—while tough at the time—will actually leave you with some good “snap” in your legs a few days later. The additional good news is that doing harder efforts on hills like this helps minimize injury risk while optimizing power—”and that’s where really cool things happen” Roche said.
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One-Hour Workout: The Ultimate Power VO2 Max Run
Warm-up:
2-3 miles easy running
Main set:
6 x 2 min. hills @ 5K race pace or moderate/hard pace, jogging back downhill as recovery
4 x 45 sec. hills, hard, jogging back downhill as recovery
Cool-down:
2-3 miles easy running
David Roche is the co-founder and coach at Some Work, All Play and co-host of the Some Work, All Play podcast.