Speedwork for Ultra Runners
Written by Chris Taylor
Taylor is a UKA Running Coach and an Expedition Leader. He's coached multiple world record holders, has organised record-breaking events on all 7 continents, and has helped raise more than £5million for charity.
13th October 2023
Reading Time: 7 Minutes
Whether you’re training for a 10km PB or a mountain 100 miler, if you’re coached by me you’re guaranteed to find speedwork efforts – such as short, fast strides, and short, near-maximum-effort hill sprints – in your training plan. These efforts typically last 8-20 seconds (30 seconds max) and are often overlooked by ultra runners, especially those training for events that last upwards of 20 hours or more (in many cases, much, much more).
Indeed, you may wonder why any endurance runner should concern themselves with increasing what seems like a quality that only sprinters need. After all, don’t endurance coaches spend much of their time banging on about the importance of the aerobic system? Well, anaerobic-capacity training in the methods described below is actually a form of very specific strength training.
No matter the distance you’re training for, these workouts are critical for improving power and running-specific strength, which, in turn, leads to improvements in stride length, running economy and speed, at ALL intensity levels.
💪 Power, strength and speed
How does increased power, strength and running economy actually help you run faster? First, it’s important to understand how power and strength interact with speed.
Power is the rate at which force can be applied. A very strong athlete may not be particularly powerful if their movements are slow. Equally, a very powerful athlete needn’t be particularly strong (not in the conventional sense, anyway).
This is why general strength training (in the form of traditional movements in the weights room) is useful only up to a point in improving an athlete’s speed. You might have spent years building a huge amount of muscle bulk and general strength but if the brain isn’t trained to recruit those fibres in a running-specific, coordinated, powerful movement pattern, that strength will not lead to improved running performance. This is the difference between being gym strong and being running strong.
“Anaerobic-capacity training in the methods described below is actually a form of very specific strength training.”
If you still think that this type of strength and power training is only relevant to sprinters, think again. Becoming a powerful runner directly affects an athlete’s performance at every distance, primarily because increased power manifests itself in longer strides. Even a tiny increase in stride length will result in a significant performance gain.
Take an athlete training for a 100km race. If their current stride length (two foot strikes) is 2 metres, they will take 50,000 strides during the race. Say that athlete increases their stride length by 5 centimetres – that’s 50,000 strides that are 0.05 metres longer. That puts the more powerful version of the same athlete 2.5 kilometres (and therefore many minutes) ahead of the less powerful version.
A note on stride length
A common misconception about stride length is that it can be increased by simply reaching your foot well out in front of your body’s centre line. This is called overstriding and is usually accompanied by the heel striking the ground first (and applying a significant braking force through the leg). Overstriding is inefficient as it increases ground contact time (it takes a while for the foot to move into a position under the hips where a backward-pushing force can be applied), increases the impact load, and can lead to overuse injuries.
Instead, the forward foot should strike the ground directly under the body’s centre line. This efficient stride movement immediately puts the foot and leg muscles into a position where a backward-pushing propelling force can be applied (thus, ground contact time is reduced). It is therefore much better to increase stride length by improving strength and power. Developing running-specific strength and power is most effectively achieved using exercises that closely (or better yet, exactly) mimic the propulsive movements of the sport.
“Becoming a powerful runner directly affects an athlete’s performance at every distance, primarily because increased power manifests itself in longer strides.”
⛰️ Hill sprints
One of the most effective anaerobic-capacity running-specific leg-power workouts is hill sprints. These are repetitions of very short duration (8-15 seconds) performed at near-maximum intensity, separated by periods of complete recovery (at least 2 minutes).
It is best to utilise at least a 20% gradient hill with good footing (the steeper the hill, the shorter the sprints). Steeper is generally better for building strength and power, but hills over 40% with good footing are not only difficult to find, they can also be hard to maintain traction on.
(Alternatively, stair bounds (steep stairs taken two or more at a time) work very well for this exercise. However, long sets of stairs that will take you 8-15 seconds to sprint up can be equally hard to find. The typical fire escape stairs in commercial buildings are usually in the range of a 30-40% gradient, which makes them ideal – aside from the frequent landings. Regardless, they are fine to use if nothing else is available.)
Hill sprints can be used during any phase of training and many of the athletes I coach use them year-round.
The counterintuitive training effect of hill sprints
If you’re new to hill sprints or haven’t done them in a long time, the initial training effect will be mainly neurological as your brain learns (or re-learns) how to sprint (ie which muscle fibres to recruit and in what order). Once you’ve overcome the initial neurological adaptation phase, hill sprints have a greater anaerobic-capacity training effect.
Many endurance athletes struggle with hill sprints. The first several times they may not even make you feel tired, so it doesn’t feel like training and you might wonder – why am I doing this? However, the easier they feel at first, the more likely you are to experience good gains from power training.
The reason is simple: if you aren’t trained for power and you’re not getting tired with hill sprints, it’s because you’re mainly using slow-twitch motor units that are so well endurance trained they don’t get tired in 8-15 seconds. This is somewhat counterintuitive, but if they feel ineffective/easy, then that’s a sign you need to do them even more. As your brain learns to recruit more fast-twitch fibres, you will become more powerful, and (again, counterintuitively) the hill sprints will become increasingly fatiguing. This is because you will be recruiting (and therefore strengthening) a higher number of fast-twitch muscle fibres, which fatigue quickly.
Another reason endurance athletes often struggle with hill sprints is because they hate resting. High anaerobic-capacity exercises of this nature require a radical shift in thinking. The extended rests are a vital part of the training effect, as they allow maximum power to be generated on each repetition. A rest-to-work ratio of at least 5:1 and even up to 10:1 should be used. If the rests are too short, the high-power muscle fibres you are trying to train will not recover, will drop out of the recruitment protocol, and the more endurance-trained motor units will take over. The result will be slower reps and less anaerobic-capacity/strength improvement.
“…if you aren’t trained for power and you’re not getting tired with hill sprints, it’s because you’re mainly using slow-twitch motor units that are so well endurance trained they don’t get tired in 8-15 seconds … if they feel ineffective, then that’s a sign you need to do them even more.”
🚀 Strides
Strides are short, 15-30 second accelerations performed with long-distance running form (ie not flat-out sprints). It’s important to ease slowly into these – use 5-10 seconds to come up to pace, hold the pace at around 90% maximum effort for another 5-10 seconds, then use the final 5-10 seconds to ease off slowly.
Run tall through the hips, with a slight forward lean from the ankles and focus on maintaining the same form and speed you’d use running a fast kilometre. Resist using excessive arm drive or high turnover and instead focusing on increasing stride length (through powerful movement, not by overstriding) and knee drive. Rest for 1-2 minutes and repeat for 4-8 strides.
I like the athletes I coach to perform strides at the end of an aerobic base run in a structured repetition style (ie all at once), as opposed to sprinkling them throughout the workout.
💨 Pick-ups
Pick-ups (speedy segments) are very similar to strides, but are shorter in duration, and the athlete has more freedom to play with the pace. Pick-ups range from 8-10 seconds for the first few, building up to a maximum of 15 seconds in the later stages. The volume should initially be limited to no more than 6-8 pick-ups during an individual workout, and the speed should still only be a fun, fast pace – never a full sprint. Do at least 2 minutes of easy running between each pick-up, to allow your anaerobic system to fully recover.
I encourage the athletes I coach to experiment with their pick-ups, performing them at a range of different, fun intensities, and at different times during their workouts. You can choose to do your pick-ups early in the session, when you are feeling freshest and fastest, which will provoke more of a speed and strength training effect. Or you can do them later in the session, when your legs are more fatigued, which will elicit more of an endurance training effect. You can also do them all at once in a structured repetition style, or you can sprinkle them throughout the workout as the terrain and feeling motivates you.
📹 How to perform speedwork drills
For tutorial videos demonstrating how to perform speedwork drills, see the Resources page. Or, check out the tutorial videos for each individual drill on the TaylorMade Coaching & Events YouTube channel by clicking the follow links:
⛰️ Hill Sprints Tutorial Video
🚀 Strides Tutorial Video
💨 Pick-Ups Tutorial Video
🏃 Stair Bounds Tutorial Video
🪜 Stair Drills Tutorial Video
“If the rests are too short, the high-power muscle fibres you are trying to train will not recover, will drop out of the recruitment protocol, and the more endurance-trained motor units will take over.”
Interested in
Whether you’re training for a 10km PB or a mountain 100 miler, if you’re coached by me you’re guaranteed to find speedwork efforts – such as short, fast strides, and short, near-maximum-effort hill sprints – in your training plan. These efforts typically last 8-20 seconds (30 seconds max) and are often overlooked by ultra runners, especially those training for events that last upwards of 20 hours or more (in many cases, much, much more).
Indeed, you may wonder why any endurance runner should concern themselves with increasing what seems like a quality that only sprinters need. After all, don’t endurance coaches spend much of their time banging on about the importance of the aerobic system? Well, anaerobic-capacity training in the methods described below is actually a form of very specific strength training.
No matter the distance you’re training for, these workouts are critical for improving power and running-specific strength, which, in turn, leads to improvements in stride length, running economy and speed, at ALL intensity levels.
“Anaerobic-capacity training in the methods described below is actually a form of very specific strength training.”
💪 Power, strength and speed
How does increased power, strength and running economy actually help you run faster? First, it’s important to understand how power and strength interact with speed.
Power is the rate at which force can be applied. A very strong athlete may not be particularly powerful if their movements are slow. Equally, a very powerful athlete needn’t be particularly strong (not in the conventional sense, anyway).
This is why general strength training (in the form of traditional movements in the weights room) is useful only up to a point in improving an athlete’s speed. You might have spent years building a huge amount of muscle bulk and general strength but if the brain isn’t trained to recruit those fibres in a running-specific, coordinated, powerful movement pattern, that strength will not lead to improved running performance. This is the difference between being gym strong and being running strong.
If you still think that this type of strength and power training is only relevant to sprinters, think again. Becoming a powerful runner directly affects an athlete’s performance at every distance, primarily because increased power manifests itself in longer strides. Even a tiny increase in stride length will result in a significant performance gain.
Take an athlete training for a 100km race. If their current stride length (two foot strikes) is 2 metres, they will take 50,000 strides during the race. Say that athlete increases their stride length by 5 centimetres – that’s 50,000 strides that are 0.05 metres longer. That puts the more powerful version of the same athlete 2.5 kilometres (and therefore many minutes) ahead of the less powerful version.
“Becoming a powerful runner directly affects an athlete’s performance at every distance, primarily because increased power manifests itself in longer strides.”
A note on stride length
A common misconception about stride length is that it can be increased by simply reaching your foot well out in front of your body’s centre line. This is called overstriding and is usually accompanied by the heel striking the ground first (and applying a significant braking force through the leg). Overstriding is inefficient as it increases ground contact time (it takes a while for the foot to move into a position under the hips where a backward-pushing force can be applied), increases the impact load, and can lead to overuse injuries.
Instead, the forward foot should strike the ground directly under the body’s centre line. This efficient stride movement immediately puts the foot and leg muscles into a position where a backward-pushing propelling force can be applied (thus, ground contact time is reduced). It is therefore much better to increase stride length by improving strength and power. Developing running-specific strength and power is most effectively achieved using exercises that closely (or better yet, exactly) mimic the propulsive movements of the sport.
⛰️ Hill sprints
One of the most effective anaerobic-capacity running-specific leg-power workouts is hill sprints. These are repetitions of very short duration (8-15 seconds) performed at near-maximum intensity, separated by periods of complete recovery (at least 2 minutes).
It is best to utilise at least a 20% gradient hill with good footing (the steeper the hill, the shorter the sprints). Steeper is generally better for building strength and power, but hills over 40% with good footing are not only difficult to find, they can also be hard to maintain traction on.
(Alternatively, stair bounds (steep stairs taken two or more at a time) work very well for this exercise. However, long sets of stairs that will take you 8-15 seconds to sprint up can be equally hard to find. The typical fire escape stairs in commercial buildings are usually in the range of a 30-40% gradient, which makes them ideal – aside from the frequent landings. Regardless, they are fine to use if nothing else is available.)
Hill sprints can be used during any phase of training and many of the athletes I coach use them year-round.
“…if you aren’t trained for power and you’re not getting tired with hill sprints, it’s because you’re mainly using slow-twitch motor units that are so well endurance trained they don’t get tired in 8-15 seconds … if they feel ineffective, then that’s a sign you need to do them even more.”
The counterintuitive training effect of hill sprints
If you’re new to hill sprints or haven’t done them in a long time, the initial training effect will be mainly neurological as your brain learns (or re-learns) how to sprint (ie which muscle fibres to recruit and in what order). Once you’ve overcome the initial neurological adaptation phase, hill sprints have a greater anaerobic-capacity training effect.
Many endurance athletes struggle with hill sprints. The first several times they may not even make you feel tired, so it doesn’t feel like training and you might wonder – why am I doing this? However, the easier they feel at first, the more likely you are to experience good gains from power training.
The reason is simple: if you aren’t trained for power and you’re not getting tired with hill sprints, it’s because you’re mainly using slow-twitch motor units that are so well endurance trained they don’t get tired in 8-15 seconds. This is somewhat counterintuitive, but if they feel ineffective, then that’s a sign you need to do them even more. As your brain learns to recruit more fast-twitch fibres, you will become more powerful, and (again, counterintuitively) the hill sprints will become increasingly fatiguing. This is because you will be recruiting (and therefore strengthening) a higher number of fast-twitch muscle fibres, which fatigue quickly.
Another reason endurance athletes often struggle with hill sprints is because they hate resting. High anaerobic-capacity exercises of this nature require a radical shift in thinking. The extended rests are a vital part of the training effect, as they allow maximum power to be generated on each repetition. A rest-to-work ratio of at least 5:1 and even up to 10:1 should be used. If the rests are too short, the high-power muscle fibres you are trying to train will not recover, will drop out of the recruitment protocol, and the more endurance-trained motor units will take over. The result will be slower reps and less anaerobic-capacity/strength improvement.
🚀 Strides
Strides are short, 15-30 second accelerations performed with long-distance running form (ie not flat-out sprints). It’s important to ease slowly into these – use 5-10 seconds to come up to pace, hold the pace at around 90% maximum effort for another 5-10 seconds, then use the final 5-10 seconds to ease off slowly.
Run tall through the hips, with a slight forward lean from the ankles and focus on maintaining the same form and speed you’d use running a fast kilometre. Resist using excessive arm drive or high turnover and instead focusing on increasing stride length (through powerful movement, not by overstriding) and knee drive. Rest for 1-2 minutes and repeat for 4-8 strides.
I like the athletes I coach to perform strides at the end of an aerobic base run in a structured repetition style (ie all at once), as opposed to sprinkling them throughout the workout.
“If the rests are too short, the high-power muscle fibres you are trying to train will not recover, will drop out of the recruitment protocol, and the more endurance-trained motor units will take over.”
💨 Pick-ups
Pick-ups (speedy segments) are very similar to strides, but are shorter in duration, and the athlete has more freedom to play with the pace. Pick-ups range from 8-10 seconds for the first few, building up to a maximum of 15 seconds in the later stages. The volume should initially be limited to no more than 6-8 pick-ups during an individual workout, and the speed should still only be a fun, fast pace – never a full sprint. Do at least 2 minutes of easy running between each pick-up, to allow your anaerobic system to fully recover.
I encourage the athletes I coach to experiment with their pick-ups, performing them at a range of different, fun intensities, and at different times during their workouts. You can choose to do your pick-ups early in the session, when you are feeling freshest and fastest, which will provoke more of a speed and strength training effect. Or you can do them later in the session, when your legs are more fatigued, which will elicit more of an endurance training effect. You can also do them all at once in a structured repetition style, or you can sprinkle them throughout the workout as the terrain and feeling motivates you.
📹 How to perform speedwork drills
For tutorial videos demonstrating how to perform speedwork drills, see the Resources page. Or, check out the tutorial videos for each individual drill on the TaylorMade Coaching & Events YouTube channel by clicking the follow links:
⛰️ Hill Sprints Tutorial Video
🚀 Strides Tutorial Video
💨 Pick-Ups Tutorial Video
🏃 Stair Bounds Tutorial Video
🪜 Stair Drills Tutorial Video