Types of Running Training Explained Simply (So You Can Stop Winging It)

Picture the scene. It’s 6:15am. You’re standing on a rain-soaked towpath in a club vest that wasn’t quite warm enough, trying to remember whether tonight’s session is supposed to be “easy” or “hard.” Your watch says one thing. Your lungs say another. Your left big toe – still black from three weeks ago – is lodging a formal protest.

Sound familiar? Most club runners spend years just… running. Same pace, same route, same Spotify playlist. And then they wonder why their Parkrun PB hasn’t shifted since 2022. The answer, almost always, comes down to not understanding the different types of running training and how to actually use them. So. Let’s fix that.

Why Different Types of Running Training Actually Matter

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: if every run feels roughly the same, you’re leaving serious fitness on the table. Your body adapts to stress, and if the stress never changes, neither do you. Running science has known this for decades, and Runner’s World consistently highlights the 80/20 principle – roughly 80% of your weekly mileage should be easy, and around 20% hard. Most amateur runners do the opposite. They run medium-hard almost every day. Not easy enough to recover. Not hard enough to actually improve. The grey zone. The junk miles zone. We’ve all been there.

Let’s break down the main run types you need to know.

The Easy Run: Your New Best Friend

The easy run is exactly what it sounds like. Genuinely easy. Conversational pace. You should be able to say a full sentence without gasping. If you’re using a heart rate monitor, that’s roughly Zone 2 on most Garmin watch HR zone scales – typically 60-70% of your max heart rate.

The problem? Most people run their easy runs too fast. It feels embarrassing to jog slowly past the dog walkers. The ego kicks in. The pace creeps up. And suddenly your “recovery” run is actually just a medium-effort run that leaves you tired for your hard session two days later.

Easy runs build your aerobic base. They improve fat metabolism. They let your legs recover while still logging mileage. The Sunday Long Run that you brag about at Parkrun? That should almost always be run easy. Slow down. Embrace the shuffle. Your future PB will thank you.

Signs You’re Running Your Easy Runs Too Fast

• You finish feeling like you’ve worked for it
• You’re tired going into your next session
• Your easy pace and your “normal” pace are basically the same
• You feel vaguely guilty slowing down (this one’s just ego, to be clear)

Tempo Runs: Comfortably Uncomfortable

A tempo run sits at that glorious/horrible threshold where you’re working hard but not absolutely hanging off a cliff edge. It’s sometimes called “lactate threshold” running. The pace is sustainable for roughly 20-40 minutes, and it teaches your body to clear lactate more efficiently – which is a nerdy way of saying it makes running faster feel less terrible.

In practice, it’s the pace where you could hold a conversation, but you’d deeply resent being asked to. One word answers. Tight smiles. Not now.

For most club runners, tempo pace lands somewhere between 10K race pace and half marathon race pace. If you ran a 55-minute 10K, your tempo pace is probably somewhere around 6:00-6:15 per mile. Rough guide only – a proper tempo session, as Athletics Weekly outlines, should feel like a 7 out of 10 effort.

One or two tempo sessions per week is plenty. More than that and you’re just grinding yourself into the pavement. Trust the process. Check out how the Norwegian Singles Method uses threshold work cleverly to build fitness without destroying yourself in the process.

Interval Training: The One That Hurts the Most (Obviously)

Intervals. The word alone makes grown adults contemplate a new hobby. Pottery, maybe. Or stamps. Something where you sit down.

Interval sessions involve running hard efforts – typically at 5K race pace or faster – broken up by recovery jogs. The hard bits are usually 200m, 400m, 800m, or mile repeats, and they’re almost always done at the track. (Because at least on a track, your suffering is measured and contained.)

The benefit is clear: intervals improve your VO2 max, which is essentially your engine size. They make you faster. They also make you want to lie face-down in the car park after, which is a bonus character moment.

A typical beginner interval session might look like 6 x 400m at 5K effort, with 90 seconds recovery jog between each. That’s it. You don’t need to do 20 reps like the club’s star man. Start modest. Build gradually. Keep the recovery honest – shuffle, don’t stop, but don’t sprint it either.

• 400m repeats: great for beginners, speed development
• 800m repeats: classic middle-distance staple, excellent for 5K/10K runners
• Mile repeats: brutal, effective, particularly useful for half and full marathon training
• Fartlek: informal, unstructured intervals – “sprint to that lamppost” energy

How to Actually Structure Your Week

Right. So you’ve got three types of running training to play with. How do you fit them in without ending up injured, exhausted, or with a dodgy stomach from eating a gel at the wrong time?

A sensible week for a club runner doing 4-5 days might look like this:

• Monday: Rest or easy 30-minute recovery jog
• Tuesday: Intervals at the track (hard session)
• Wednesday: Easy run, genuinely easy, 40-50 minutes
• Thursday: Tempo run, 20-30 minutes at threshold
• Friday: Rest or very easy jog
• Saturday: Parkrun (treat it as a tempo effort or race – your call)
• Sunday: Long run, easy pace, whatever distance your goal demands

That’s two hard sessions, the rest easy. It follows the 80/20 principle. It gives your body time to adapt between the sessions that actually create fitness. And it leaves room for the 5am rain alarms, the black toenails, the dodgy stomach on mile 14 – all the glamorous bits of being a runner.

If you’re struggling to get faster despite putting the miles in, the problem is almost always the same: not enough easy, not enough hard, too much medium. Read our full guide on breaking through a running plateau for a deeper dive into why your pace has stopped moving.

According to NHS guidance on aerobic exercise, building gradually and allowing recovery is key to avoiding injury – which is code for “don’t try to do all three types of training every single day because you got enthusiastic in January.”

Real Talk

Here’s the summary. There are three main types of running training worth your time: easy runs, tempo runs, and intervals. Each one does a different job. Easy runs build your aerobic base and keep you sane. Tempo runs push your lactate threshold and make race pace feel more manageable. Intervals develop raw speed and VO2 max, and make you briefly question all your life decisions.

The mistake almost every runner makes is running everything at the same medium-hard effort that’s too hard to be recovery and too easy to actually improve anything. Polarise your training. Run easy when it says easy. Run hard when it says hard. Trust the boring sessions.

Your Parkrun PB is not hiding at the bottom of junk miles. It’s hiding inside a properly structured week that actually respects recovery.

Ready to go deeper? Find out why joining a UK running club could be the single best thing you do for your training – intervals are always more bearable when someone else is suffering next to you.