Written by Garett Reid | NSCA, CSCS, CISSN, M.S.E.S.S
Fact checked by Sam Coleman, Co-Founder
FACT CHECKED
Running is one of the fastest-growing sports worldwide, demonstrating its enjoyment. However, so many people decide they want to run and just go out and run! While this can work, it's ideal to have a plan for your endurance training, and it doesn't need to be that complicated. We will lay out an awesome training plan for endurance that anyone can use to up their cardio game!
What Is Endurance?
So, let's first define endurance. It's a term that can be used in various situations yet means pretty different things. In its simplest definition, endurance is the ability to perform continuous exercise for a prolonged period. However, we can break it down into two types just to illustrate.
The first is anaerobic endurance or aerobic endurance. Anaerobic endurance is the ability to complete repeated high-intensity events for a prolonged duration. The best way to think about this is the bench press.
Let's say you're using a relatively heavy weight, 85% 1RM.
Having high anaerobic endurance would mean being able to perform a single, rest 20 seconds, perform another single, rest 20 seconds, and so on for a longer duration.
The second type, aerobic endurance, refers to performing low-intensity exercises such as jogging or cycling. Most people refer to this type of endurance training when they talk about endurance training, so we'll be discussing it for the rest of this article.
That said, endurance usually refers to running but can really refer to any prolonged activity, including cycling and swimming, of low to low-moderate intensity. There's no hard definition, but this generally includes a heart rate of 60-80% max intensity.
In terms of duration, again, there's no real hard definition. Technically, anything longer than 2:00 minutes begins to use your aerobic system.
However, in general, an endurance session will usually be at least 20-30 minutes and can go on for hours.
What's Involved In Endurance Capabilities
So now, let's look at some of the physiological systems and adaptations involved in endurance training.
Aerobic Metabolic System
Most have heard about "aerobic classes," but not all know what this refers to. The term aerobic means "with oxygen," while anaerobic means "without oxygen". This refers to the primary metabolic system an activity uses and whether it is aerobic or anaerobic.
Your body has 3 different metabolic systems, each whose primary job is to generate a compound known as ATP to replenish your body's supplies. ATP is your body's "energy currency" and is required to power every muscle contraction.
The three systems are always working simultaneously. However, depending on the intensity and duration of the activity, different systems play a larger role.
- ATP-CP or Phosphagen: Anaerobic. Very high-intensity of less than 30 seconds.
- Glycolysis: Anaerobic. Moderate to high intensity of 30 seconds to 2:00.
- Oxidative: Aerobic. Low intensity of 2:00 or longer.
You have only one aerobic system, and this system is utilized most during endurance training.
VO2max
VO2max is the best indicator of a person's cardiorespiratory fitness and endurance capacity. In simplest terms, it measures a person's ability to utilize oxygen during exercise. As such, having a higher VO2max means a person can utilize more oxygen during exercise, which is obviously going to help improve one's capabilities.
When it comes to improving VO2max, you can do it with just about any type of training depending on your fitness levels. However, endurance athletes generally have greater levels then anaerobic athletes while anaerobic athletes have greater VO2max than non-athletes.
Lactate Threshold
Lactate threshold is the rate at which your body is able to clear the accumulation of lactate. This point basically limits your ability to maintain a certain intensity for a longer duration. If you go faster than your threshold, you won’t be able to clear lactate which will eventually result in fatigue. On the other hand, if you run slower, you’ll be able to clear the lactate and continue on at that intensity, theoretically.
Of course, there are many other factors. However, being able to increase the speed at your lactate threshold will obviously result in better endurance performance. We’ll tell you, increasing this sucks; it’s often considered to be the most intense part of endurance training as you’re basically dancing on your bodies redline.
How To Train For Endurance
There are many ways to train for endurance and many different schools of thought. However, based on research and the practices of elite endurance athletes, the best training mix consists of 80% low intensity and 20% high intensity¹.
A common claim you may hear from more gym-centric individuals is that you don't need low-intensity steady-state training to improve cardio health. This is true; numerous studies show that HIIT can adequately improve various markers such as VO2max. However, improving VO2 max is one variable that improves a trainee's endurance performance.
To give a brief illustration, we can look at adaptations to the muscle fibers. The whole muscle consists of two main types of muscle fibers (Yes, there are at least three fiber types, but we're sticking with the two main types for simplicity). These two fiber types are:
- Type I ("Endurance muscle") - Smaller in diameter, which makes them resistant to fatigue but produces lower levels of force.
- Type II ("Strength muscle")- Thicker in diameter, allowing greater force production yet fatigues easier.
As you can see, type I muscle fibers play a larger role in endurance activities. The issue is that studies show aerobic activity effectively increases the number of type I muscle fibers after an extended duration of aerobic training. If all you did was HIIT training, your cardio may increase, but you would not see these changes.
Other variables you'll miss out on by not doing longer endurance exercises are:
- Mental toughness/capability: Running for an hour or longer differs greatly from a 10-minute HIIT session regarding mentality. Yes, HIIT sucks, but it's over relatively fast. Running for an extended duration allows your brain to start messing with you, and you can start focusing on how hard it is.
- Durability: This is especially true for running. Running for an hour puts a lot of damage on your muscles and joints and gets worse the longer you go. Talk to anyone after their first half-marathon, and they'll tell you it's sore like no other!
- Fatigue: Again, going for so long brings on all sorts of physical and mental fatigue. Forms can start to break down, which can lead to other problems.
These are just a few issues. Regardless, if you want to improve your endurance, you must run! Now, if all you want to do is improve your cardio, you could get away with minimizing your aerobic activity.
How Much Should You Run For Endurance Training?
If you are running for general health, exercise, or social reasons, you could probably run twice a week and see some improvements while improving your fitness. However, if you are a serious runner and want to increase your performance, the simple rule is "more and longer is better"; of course, this assumes you're running at your ability level.
A large meta-was done in 2020 to examine what determinants make a successful runner. They examined 7 different behaviors, including:
- Average weekly running distance
- Number of weekly runs
- Maximum running distance completed in a single week
- Number of runs ≥32 km (for marathon runners)
- Average running pace during training
- Distance of the longest run
- Hours of running per week
After reviewing 85 studies, they found that an increase in all seven variables was related to better performance! Therefore, the question depends on your fitness level and free time.
Proponents Of An Effective Endurance Training Plan
Now, we will look at the primary training sessions involved in your training.
Long, Slow Distance
Long, slow distance is exactly how it sounds. This is your longest training day, generally performed in Zone 2 (60-70% of your maximum heart rate). These days are essential for building your base endurance and getting more time on your feet (or in the saddle). Again, remember that improving endurance is about more than just physical capabilities.
If you're a beginner runner, you'll be better off starting at the 60% range, while more advanced can move up to 70%. Either way, running should not feel challenging, and many will explain that you should use the "talk test." You should be able to talk and have reasonable chit-chat while running.
Many people fail to see the value in this day as they've grown to appreciate intensity. However, many coaches and athletes believe this is actually the most important day of your running career. In fact, many runners claim that learning this was the single biggest game-changer in their endurance training.
This day is crucial for everyone but perhaps even more important for beginner runners, as they need to learn to perform for extended periods of time. If you're a beginner and can't run continuously yet, you should still start with a lengthened duration and opt to use a walk/jog style as you begin.
The duration can vary depending on the person, but 45 minutes should be the shortest. However, 60 minutes is probably better and is doable for most people. This means that if you need to alternate between walking and running, that’s fine, even if you’re walking 50% of the time. The goal is to get time on your feet and build your base.
Tempo Runs & Threshold Runs
Tempo runs and threshold runs are both higher intensity than long, slow distance runs. They both aim to increase your lactate threshold, which is when your body stops being able to clear lactate, causing an accumulation. This accumulation eventually results in fatigue.
Threshold runs are when you increase your intensity right up to this threshold point but remain slightly below it. This allows you to run at a moderately high intensity for a prolonged duration.
Everyone is different, but for more experienced runners, the threshold pace is usually around their half-marathon pace, while it may be the 10k pace for beginners. This is usually around 88-92% of your heart rate. Psychologically, think of these as "comfortably hard".
Related are tempo runs, which are slightly slower than your threshold pace allowing you to run longer.
Threshold runs are usually 20-30 minutes while temp runs are somewhere between 30-40 minutes.
However, you can mix these with a longer run. For example, let’s pretend you run 5k in 30 minutes as your threshold. You could then slow down and run an extra 5k or whatever you need. It’s a different stimulus to add some variety.
Intervals
Most people are aware of interval training, but more so for sprinting or speed work. Well, you can do the same thing with endurance training. Again, it involves altering between intervals of low-intensity and intervals of high-intensity, with the difference being longer intervals.
That said, there are numerous ways someone could use these, such as tempo intervals and threshold intervals. Some even like to intersperse running low-intensity and short durations of near-max or max speed. Technically, these can be effective at training to take over another runner and final sprints.
Fartlek Training
Fartlek, Swedish for "speed play," is a type of unstructured interval training. It involves a long run interspersed with intervals of various duration and intensity. The intervals are not planned but rather based on how the runner is feeling that day.
Hills
Hill runs are another great addition to any endurance training program, and they sound exactly like this: You find a hill and sprint up it! These are generally performed as intervals and are great at building anaerobic power and strength.
Repeats generally range from 4-10 but this varies greatly on the height and incline angle.
Recovery Session/Cross Training
Recovery sessions are also extremely important for endurance training. These can be challenging to define as the person's fitness level can dictate the intensity, but these should not be too long or hard. For example, if you're training for a 10k (6 miles), you may go for a light 1-mile run. Or, you could even just walk briskly.
You might even want to look into cross-training if you're a runner. Actually, anyone can use cross-training! Cross-training simply uses another training mode to provide variance in your overall program. For example, if you run, we would suggest you take up cycling. Other options include:
- Incline treadmill/hill walking
- Swimming
- Rowing
- Walk
Endurance Training Plan
We're now going to outline a training plan. This can vary greatly depending on the person's skill, goal, and time available, but we can still provide some easy guidelines.
With any plan, you want to divide your weekly mileage over your runs while primarily focusing on your long run. The only person this might not apply to is an advanced runner who is putting in a ton of miles and there weekly long run is already
Again, this can look very different depending on the person, skill level and total mileage. For example, elite runners will usually place 30% of their total mile on their long run. If you only run 3 times a week, you see how this isn’t going to work math wise.
Therefore, take this advice as suggestions more so then hard-line advice. With that said, we’ll provide some basic percentages of how this might look.
When progressing overtime, the general rule of thumb would be to add no more than 10-15% on a weekly basis. With that said, you can also work at increasing speed or even time at intensity during your threshold runs.
3 Days A Week
If you're only training for 3 days a week, you want to maximize your time and get time on your feet. In this situation, you should have two longer runs and one medium run. Your emphasis should be on increasing the long run if your primary goal is to be able to run longer.
- Day 1: Fartlek 30%
- Day 2: Recovery Or Rest
- Day 3: Temp/Threshold 20%
- Day 4: Recovery Or Rest
- Day 5: Recovery Or Rest
- Day 6: Long Run 50%
- Day 7: Recovery Or Rest
4 Days A Week
When training 4 days a week, you can add more specific speed or hill training.
- Day 1:Tempo/Threshold 10-15%
- Day 2: Recovery Or Rest
- Day 3: Fartlek 25-30%
- Day 4: Hills/Interval 5-10%
- Day 5: Recovery Or Rest
- Day 6: Long Run 40-50%
- Day 7: Recovery Or Rest
5 Days A Week
Now, with 5 days, you could throw another semi-long, slow run to increase your total mileage. On the other hand, you could use some cross-training instead.
- Day 1:Tempo/Threshold 10-15%
- Day 2: Moderate Slow Run 20-25%
- Day 3: Recovery Or Rest
- Day 4: Fartlek 20-25%
- Day 5: Hills/Interval 5-10%
- Day 6: Recovery Or Rest
- Day 7: Long Run 30-35%
Weight Training For Endurance Training
Above, we went over the training aspect to improve your cardiovascular system, which is crucial. However, having an elite cardio system is just one part of the equation. That's why we also believe that optimized endurance training will include weight training. Therefore, we wanted to touch on this real fast.
Even though many people will use the gym during their endurance training, it’s usually done in a manner primarily for prehab and general training. However, when done right, weight training for endurance brings several awesome benefits:
- Prevent injuries
- Maintain and build muscle mass
- Improve endurance!
That’s right, weight training can actually improve your endurance if you do it correctly.
Most of the time, when people go to the gym to supplement endurance training, they will do high-rep work or circuit-style training. This might make sense initially, but it’s trying to replicate endurance training in the gym. Here’s the thing; nothing you do inside the gym will replicate an hour run. The good thing is it doesn’t need to! You are already putting plenty of low-intensity volume on your body during your endurance training, so there’s no need to do it more with weights.
Therefore, you should perform large, compound movements with heavy weights (>85% 1RM). Many people find this surprising, as it usually runs opposite to what we assume. However, it makes sense when we look at the adaptations from heavy strength training.
This type of lifting increases strength, ultimately increasing the neuromuscular system's function. In other words, the existing muscle works better! If you have ever heard someone say “quality muscle,” this is what it means.
This helps improve endurance because a muscle with higher neuromuscular function requires less energy to produce the same amount of energy. This has actually been studied quite extensively, with study after study showing this type of weight training can²:
- Extend time to exhaustion
- Decrease RPE
- Improve recovery
- Increase speed at a similar intensity
- Increase work volume
General Guidelines For Weight Training For Endurance
Your weight training should be simple and straightforward. You should primarily focus on your big, compound exercises using heavy loads (>85%) or power exercises and plyometrics.
Some exercises include:
- Back Squat
- Deadlift
- Leg Press
- Split Squats
- Depth Jumps
- Broad Jumps
- Box Jumps
If you don’t feel comfortable squatting heavy (1-5 rep range), you could use a lighter load but use maximal effort on every rep. Or, you could perform things like squat jumps.
With that said, you can also throw in some upper body training as well as some isolation if you have time. The primary focus for this is to improve the muscle quality while also strengthening the joints.
Most endurance athletes will train twice a week and perform in either the morning or evening of a shorter run. If you only train endurance three times a week, you could strength train on one of your non-endurance training days.
Training For Endurance
Training for endurance looks very different from training for strength, but it also has many similarities. The largest commonality is that your body will adapt to the stressors you place on it! This means training different variables while increasing overall volume overtime - hello progressive overload!
Bottom line is if you want to take your endurance training seriously, you need a plan in the same way you need a plan when going to the gym; just winging it only works for so long. Now, if you just want to train for fun and enjoyment, then no worries! Just enjoy yourself and be sure to not overtrain. However, if you want to see improvements, follow the guidelines in this training plan for endurance to optimize your performance.
References:
- Seiler, S. (2010). What is Best Practice for Training Intensity and Duration Distribution in Endurance Athletes? International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 5(3), 276–291. https://doi.org/10.1123/ijspp.5.3.276
- Hoff, J., Gran, A., & Helgerud, J. (2002). Maximal strength training improves aerobic endurance performance. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 12(5), 288–295. https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1600-0838.2002.01140.x
Garett Reid
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