Guide | 6 tips for more fun interval running

Many people see their interval training as a huge evil. Something that just needs to be done with, or maybe just dropped altogether. But the truth is that interval training is perfect for your body and your general training for several reasons. It makes you better, and your body benefits greatly from training varied. You may just need a little push to make your interval training fun and a game..
You read in many places that when you do interval training, or for that matter HIIT training, it’s about giving your body some peak loads for short periods, and then relaxing completely. The plan is to work in an area where you are beyond your limit. And that also has its truth – absolutely.

We give you 6 “fun” but super useful tips if you would like to have a little more fun and playfulness in your intervals, and in that way better get around using your interval running constructively. However, you should see this guide as a guideline, and according to the above that you have to be “over the limit” to do intervals, you should disregard some of the suggestions. There you should follow the philosophy “better a little than nothing”

1. You can find a partner (that suits you)

Everything is more fun when you do it with someone. And that’s especially true of interval training. It’s a pain in the ass for many, so one place you could start would definitely be to find a training partner to share the pain with. But wait a minute, it doesn’t turn around quickly, because when there are more people involved, it’s usually a lot more fun.
A good tip for choosing a partner is to find someone who is at your level. If you are in good shape and want to build intervals on, find a running partner who is in good shape. Maybe even someone who has worked on their intervals. Then you can lean on his or her dos and donts and that way get to your goal faster.

2. Challenging and fun speed games (intervals)

There are many different recommended intervals. And I’m sure that if they are just built up fairly correctly, they will work. Always look at one main rule – the work space should be roughly balanced with the working hours. But below you can get a few good tips for some of the most popular and fun intervals to run:

• 30-20-10 interval
• Pyramid intervals
• Hill-pace intervals

30-20-10 was a method I used a lot when I was starting my intervals (I still use it) But it is easy to understand and fun because I think you get a lot done in a short amount of time. In its simplicity, it involves running 30 seconds at a normal pace, 20 seconds at a faster pace and then the last 10 seconds in a sprint. You can vary it yourself – the 30 seconds can easily be walking, and the 20 seconds in a normal run and 10 seconds in a sprint. It all depends on your shape and needs.
And with this method, it was to add more repeats. I started with 6 – it didn’t give more than 2.7 kilometers, but I think it gave a lot even if it was a little. Today I use this method to “play” on longer runs if I’m a bit tired of running long distances. It sticks to my watch, and I know it lands very close to the 4.20 kilometers (at 10 repeats and 3min cooldown).
So 30-20-10 is definitely worth recommending. We have written a guide to How to run 30-20-10 intervals

The Pyramid is simple. 1-2-3-2-1. You decide how far up it goes. But remember to put in your breaks of the same length. 1-(1)-2-(2)-3-(3)-2-(2)-1-(1)
It’s fun and easy to understand and it’s really good for the body.

Hill pace. Not really one I would describe as a stand-alone interval training because it can be difficult to find terrain that suits. But where I use it here, it’s when I’m out running anyway, I put the intervals in on the hills. Try to increase your pace every time you hit a climb, and you’ll get the interval effect. It seems a bit “foolish”, but believe me you actually get used to it, and that way you give your body a bit more versatility when you’re out “running long distances”.

3. Alternative interval training – different

Not all intervals need to be straight forward and trivial. You can easily find other methods to expose your body to intervals. It’s not always exciting to be a “slave to the clock” and just run straight on the road. You really have to think creatively. That definitely helps too.
But do yourself a favor and try to run the intervals on your intuition – so that you use the surroundings around you to make your intervals. If you run in the city, you can use traffic lights, buildings, cars, buses or other markings as interval points. We know that you may have to run a little longer, or take a little longer break, but in return we also promise you that it will be more fun and over faster. Something happens to you when you don’t have to run and look at your watch all the time.

Fartlek is for everyone. And when I talk about fartlek, it’s actually a super fun method to get tempo changes (intervals) into your run. Everyone can join in – nothing is scheduled, and you take it completely according to your daily form. But trust me, once you’ve started with a fartlek, your daily form will turn out to be better than you first thought, because it’s a super free way to run and train (hard). Because such a fartlek is great for the muscles and body. You get to expose your body to many different loads in a fun and easy way, and thus also varied training.
It’s all very simple. You start with a good warm-up (as you always do) and then you just keep running and changing your pace. And you decide for yourself what pace you run at. If it’s a good day, you can push the pace higher, if you’re having a bad day, focus on changing the pace. That’s the whole essence of interval training. To give your body some different “peeks”.

4. Make it fun and run on your mood

Break your training into several parts and it will be much more manageable, and therefore also a lot more fun.
But most importantly, run according to your mood and your current fitness level. Because if you have a really hard interval round planned and your mood is not at its best and your current fitness level is less than ideal, trust me, you won’t love the intervals any more.
There are lots of things that can affect your mood and your daily form. You may have had a busy day at work, so your energy isn’t really there? On the other hand, the weather can have a very positive influence on both your mood and energy. So always look at your daily form, and if it’s where it should be – then give it a boost.

5. Start small and build on it

You need to think about how you start if you are new and need to start building up your interval training. There is no reason to start too hard. You can always build on it. So start at a level that you and your body can handle.
It becomes so much more fun if you can build more and more – instead of running headlong into a wall when you are out and training intervals for the second time. This actually also applies to those of you who may have been running intervals for a while and find that you are constantly going dead in it. Try to turn the situation around a bit – pedal down a single step and take it from there. It may be because you are pushing yourself too hard. Then lower the intensity level and get some more fun and constructive training out of it.

A few good tips on how to expand your interval training:

– Longer intervals (If you are used to running 2/2 intervals, you can try to see if you have luck with 3/3 intervals)
– Higher tempo (Higher tempo in your intervals will provide improved training)
– The number of intervals (Instead of running 10 blocks of intervals (+pause), you can expand to 15 or maybe 12.)
– Pause length (However, it is still recommended to keep it in the same position as the active part – so that you do not expose your body to unnecessary pressure and thereby risk injury.)

6. See interval training in context

It’s important that you don’t see interval training as “the one and only”. You MUST remember to see it in context. It should really be the fun part of your running training during the week.
Use your interval training (perhaps based on the above) as a free playground. It’s where you decide everything. Pace, length, play – IT ALL.
When you regularly use interval training, you will relatively quickly be able to both see and feel a difference when you run. After just 6 interval training sessions, I could already start to feel a better lung/running economy, and could see from my times that it was going the right way. And when you see it all in that context – interval training becomes fun, REALLY FUN.

I hope you find the above guide to interval training useful. It is not a guide that focuses on what, how and why you should run intervals. At least not in depth.

You can read that guide HERE.

No, this guide is more for those of you who are about to start interval training, or perhaps are already doing it and think that interval training is boring and tedious.
We would of course like to receive your input about interval training – it may be that your comment could help another runner.