What is it?
Progression workouts focus on gradually building the pace or effort during a training session through the end. The goal of this training is to teach your body to continue working harder through completion even when fatigued!
How is it done?
Progression workouts can be designed in a variety of ways but follow this typical structure: easy warmup, bump effort and speed, maintain, bump effort and speed, maintain, bump effort and speed, maintain, etc. The ways this can be designed are endless!
What mode of training?
Progression workouts are commonly done through running but can be done through any mode of training: elliptical, bike, stairmill, rowing machine, etc.
What are the benefits?
It teaches the body endurance and mental fortitude through persistently harder effort over time. Progression runs also stimulate recovery by challenging the body in a controlled way, promoting adaptation and improvement. For runner specifically, progression runs mimic race efforts and can help runners finish strong.
Progression Run Workout Example:
Start with 2 miles easy pace (zone 2), bump to 2 miles moderate effort (zone 3), bump to threshold pace (zone 4) for 1-2 miles as able, finish with 0.5 hard effort (zone 5), cooldown for 1-2 miles. Cooldowns are critical for promoting recovery and allowing the heart rate to drop.
