Rui Silva is a Portuguese track and field athlete that specialises in the 1500m and 3000m distances. He won the Bronze medal at the 1500m event in the Athens Olympics, going from last place to 3rd in 400m. Here are a couple of his favourite speed workouts that he does during his base training.
#1 3km x 3
This workout is a 7.5 loop speed workout around the track. It is done with a 3 minute rest in between. Rui does his 3km sets in 8:30-8:35. Of course we aren’t Olympians. Run it at a pace you are comfortable with and with a longer rest in between, say 5 minutes?
#2 2km x 4
This workout is a 5 loops speed workout around a track stadium. 4 sets is to be done with a 3 minute rest in between. Rui completes his 2km sets in 5:35 – 5:40 pace. With a 2km warmup and 2km cool down, you’ll be getting in a 12km mileage with this workout.
Photo Credits: Zimbio
#3 1500m x 5
This is a tough workout to complete. Doing the 1500m distance 5 times is going to hurt. Rui does this workout at a blistering pace of 4:00 – 4:05 with a 3 minutes rest in between sets.
#4 1km x 6
This seem to be a favourite workout of many athletes. Rui does this workout with 3 minutes breaks in between sets. Some athletes like to do a 200m recovery run in between sets to make is more like a fartlek workout rather than a speed workout. Either or, we are sure that this is a great workout to build up your speed endurance.
