One of the most important physical parameters of a runner is endurance.
What is endurance
As such, there is no unit of measure for determining endurance. Moreover, endurance is a very vague concept. For a person who is just starting to run, endurance is primarily associated with the maximum distance covered. Now, if a person can run 20 km without stopping, then he has normal endurance. If 40, then it means very large. And if it is 100, then just an exorbitant level of endurance.
In fact this is not true. After all, the question of who is more enduring, a person who can run 100 km without stopping but running a marathon in 4 hours, or a person who has never run 100 km and most likely will not reach, but runs a marathon in 3 hours, will be difficult to answer.
Therefore, endurance is usually considered as a parameter responsible for the body's ability to resist fatigue. That is, in fact, the ability to maintain a certain pace throughout the entire race.
In this regard, speed endurance is separately distinguished, which helps to run 200 and 400 meters. That is, the athlete accelerates to high speed and maintains it throughout the entire distance. He is enduring, but a 400 meter runner is unlikely to even run a marathon. Because he has speed endurance.
How to train endurance for medium to long distance running
Tempo crosses
One of the main types of endurance training is tempo crosses. In fact, these are distances ranging from 4-5 km to 10-12, which must be run in the shortest possible time. Naturally, this load is quite heavy. If we talk about the heart rate, then you need to run "tempovik" on the pulse of about 90% of your maximum.
The main task on such a cross-country is to correctly deploy forces tactically. Otherwise, you can either run too slowly or not reach the end of the distance. At the end of the run, your heart rate will probably go over 90 percent of your maximum, this is normal. Since due to the fact that at the beginning of the path it will be slightly below this value, the average will just come out in the region of 90%. This is usually around 160-175 beats per minute.
Interval training
Interval workouts are performed at the same intensity as the tempo runs. The only difference is that interval training has small rest periods between runs, which allows you to run at a given intensity for longer.
The following stretches are excellent options for interval endurance training:
4-10 times 1000 meters.
2-5 times 2000 meters
2-5 times 3 km each
2-3 times 5 km.
Rest 2 to 5 minutes between stretches. The less rest the better. But less rest may not allow you to recover in time to complete the next interval in the desired intensity zone. Therefore, you can sometimes increase the rest between segments. Especially if the segments are 3-5 km.
Features of performing endurance training
Endurance training is considered a hard workout, so you shouldn't do any heavy work before or after. Accordingly, it is better to run a slow cross before tempo cross or interval endurance training. And the next day after such a training, do a recovery cross of about 6-8 km.
Otherwise, you can run to overwork. The main thing is to understand that only in the aggregate, load and rest bring results. 5 endurance workouts per week will be significantly less effective than 2-3, but of high quality with proper and proper rest. In the absence of rest, injury and fatigue will be provided.
