Tabata training for runners

deisecelt

Hi. Has anyone tried tabata training? Now that the evenings are pitch dark, theres not many safe places outdoors for me to run so i joined a gym and the instructor reccomended i start a training programme called tabata trainning. Its 4 minutes of extremely high intensity training - 20 sec on 10 secs off for 4 mins. I do this 4 times, lifting weights inbetween sets. Anyway my q is, will this over the period of 3-4 months increase or decrease the distance i can run as i am just about at the twelve mile mark at the mo. I dont have the patience to run for a couple of hours on a treadmill ( i dont know if its all in my head but i find it much tougher to run at the same speed on a treadmill for long periods of time.) Are or have any of ye tried this?

menoscemo

Most runners run intervals as part of their training once a week, (something like from 20 x 200m, 12 x 400m, 5 x 1km etc with 50-75% rest in between).

The purpose of these session is to increse speed and speed endurance.

If you are trying to increase distance, you need to do long runs. What you're doing is unlikely to help with that, even as speed training goes it is very sparse (only a 4 minute session).

For you it would be best to have a training programme with a mixture of short, hard runs and long easy ones to increse both speed and endurance.

tunney

deisecelt wrote: »

Hi. Has anyone tried tabata training? Now that the evenings are pitch dark, theres not many safe places outdoors for me to run so i joined a gym and the instructor reccomended i start a training programme called tabata trainning. Its 4 minutes of extremely high intensity training - 20 sec on 10 secs off for 4 mins. I do this 4 times, lifting weights inbetween sets. Anyway my q is, will this over the period of 3-4 months increase or decrease the distance i can run as i am just about at the twelve mile mark at the mo. I dont have the patience to run for a couple of hours on a treadmill ( i dont know if its all in my head but i find it much tougher to run at the same speed on a treadmill for long periods of time.) Are or have any of ye tried this?

I did similar to these - both on the bike and running. I find them very good. However they made up <5% of my training. If you are only doing them then you won't be up to much running wise in 3-4 months.

RayCun

deisecelt wrote: »

Now that the evenings are pitch dark, theres not many safe places outdoors for me to run

Not for running on your own maybe, but if you run with a group - in a club - you'll be fine.

pgibbo

Prepare for a world of pain if you do these properly. I've done them in the past and found them great. They're even better if you can do with with someone of similar ability to yourself. If you're doing them solo, try to do them as an out and back so you can keep yourself honest and try to do the same distance each time.

stipes212

From the little I know, Tabata sessions should only be done once or twice a week, as each 20 secs of effort is 100%. Its mainly a fat burning exercise, lots of stuff on u-tube, but the 100% effort is key. It may not help you run further, but will definitely make you fitter.