Track Ladder Workout – UPDATED 2021 – Workouts For Milers

We all know track workouts can be demanding on the body, both physically and mentally when you are in the peak of the season. Performing a track ladder workout is a great way to break up the monotony of 1 km intervals or any other type of interval for that matter. In this article, we explain why you should add them to your training and how to structure them correctly.

 

Track Ladder Workout – A Complete Guide

A track ladder workout is an interval session where you ascend or descend through a workout. This means the time or distance gets shorter (or longer if you’re ascending) through each repetition.

Usually, the pace is adjusted as you move through each interval. If you are descending through the intervals, your repetition speed gets faster. Of course, this depends on how you have planned it and the goal of the session.

An ascending track ladder workout starts with short fast intervals and each interval gets slightly longer and slower. The idea behind this is to teach the body to run long repetitions once the legs have been flooded with lactic acid. A descending ladder on the other hand decreases in the distance. The goal here is to teach the body to get stronger as the workout progresses, teaching you to replicate that of racing.

The best thing about a track ladder workout is that there are no real rules to how you complete them. There are so many variables that they can make interval training a lot of fun and specific to your distance or event.

If you are at the beginning of the season then we recommend you to choose a time-based workout, rather than distance. This will help you ease yourself back into hard training without the stress of looking at your speed and comparing it to last season. It also gives you the availability to do the workout anywhere.

Once the season is in full swing it’s time to move to the track. This is where the ladder workouts become more specific through time, speed, and distance.

Ladder Workout For Milers And Running

One of the best ladder workouts for milers or 1500m runners is a race pace session. The session starts with a 1600m effort and works down to 400m through five intervals. With each repetition, the speed gets faster and the recovery gets shorter. A similar workout was made famous by El Guerrouj who used it for mile training, so its an extremely hard session that should only be done in-season when you are fit.

Track Ladder Workout
Start by warming up for a good 15-20 minutes. Your warm-up should include some stride-outs to wake up the legs and increase your heart rate ready to start the session. Once the warm-up is complete, begin the workout below:

1600m – Performed 15-20 secs slower than race pace
60 seconds recovery
1200m – Performed 10-15 secs slower than race pace
50 seconds recovery
800m – Performed 5-10 secs slower than race pace
40 seconds recovery
600m – Performed at race pace
30 seconds recovery
400m – Performed slightly faster than race pace

The speed of each interval will depend on your current mile time and fitness. Ideally, the final 400 m should be performed faster than your goal race pace.

 

Time-based Ladder Workout
Start by warming up for a good 15-20 minutes. Your warm-up should include some stride-outs to wake up the legs and increase your heart rate ready to start the session. Once the warm-up is complete, begin the workout below:

1 minute – Performed at 5 K race pace
30 seconds recovery
2 minutes – Performed at 5 K race pace
60 seconds recovery
3 minutes – Performed at 5 K race pace
1 minute 30 seconds of recovery
4 minutes – Performed at 5 K race pace
2 minutes of recovery
5 minutes – Performed at 5 K race pace
2 minutes 30 seconds of recovery
4 minutes – Performed at 5 K race pace
2 minutes of recovery
3 minutes – Performed at 5 K race pace
60 seconds of recovery
2 minutes – Performed at 5 K race pace
30 seconds of recovery
1 minute – Performed at 5 K race pace

No matter what part of the season you’re in, you can customize ladder workouts to match your speed and fitness. Slower, time-based workouts are good when preparing for the season, while faster race pace workouts can fit well in-season. No matter the distance you compete over there is always a ladder workout to fit your goals.