It’s race season—want to show up at your next race feeling unbreakable? Add these three power-packed workouts to your training. Each one builds a different type of endurance—physical, mental and the kind that keeps you from crumbling with 10K to go.
The “surge and settle” long run
This workout teaches you to handle pace changes without blowing up—a key skill when tackling hills, surging with a pack or responding to fatigue late in the race.
Warm up with 10–15 minutes of easy running.
Every 10–15 minutes afterwards, surge for 60 seconds at your half-marathon pace.
Return to your long-run pace immediately—no rest stops.
Repeat this pattern for the final 8-10K of your long run (or the second half of your long run, if that’s a shorter distance).
Cool down with 5–10 minutes of easy running and some mobility work.
The race simulation float interval session
These intervals build stamina and teach you to recover on the move with “float” recoveries. During a float recovery, you run at a moderate pace—faster than your easy jog but slower than your race pace. This allows you to maintain effort while recovering, helping you adapt to the fatigue and pace changes you’ll experience on race day without fully stopping.
Warm up with 10–15 minutes of easy running, followed, by some dynamic drills.
Run 5-8 x 1 kilometre at half-marathon pace, with 90 seconds float recovery at marathon pace + 20 sec/km. Cool down with 10–15 minutes of easy running.
The mental toughness test: race-pace alternating repeats
This workout forces you to stay focused and controlled while alternating between effort levels, mimicking the mental and physical fluctuations of race day.
Warm up with 10 minutes of easy running, followed by dynamic drills.
Run 8–12 kilometres at alternating paces, with odd kilometres at marathon pace, and even kilometres at 20–30 seconds/km slower than marathon pace.
Cool down with 10 minutes of easy running, followed by some gentle mobility work.
Need more a (or less) intense workout? Feel free to add, or remove, repeats. Be careful not to overdo it, and make sure to follow any of these workouts with a rest day or easy running day—you want to head into race day in peak form to push through the final stretch and set a PB.