The Best Interval Running Workouts to Build Speed and Endurance

Maybe you've played a sport that required moments of high intensity followed by recovery, like soccer, basketball, or even running drills in practice when your coach calls, "On the line!" If so, you've inadvertently tackled interval running workouts — short bursts of hard effort followed by time to recover, then repeated again and again to build speed, endurance, and general fitness.

We tapped Maddy Cardenas — a former Division 1 volleyball and track athlete, current AA beach volleyball player, Team USA Beach Handball athlete, and aspiring Olympian with her sights set on the 2028 and 2032 games in flag football or handball — to break down how interval running fuels her training, workout tips, and how you can incorporate it into your own routine.

What Is Interval Running?

Interval running is an interval workout that alternates periods of high-intensity work with active or passive recovery. This type of workout can utilize a variety of intensities — depending on the goals and desired physological adaptation — from all-out sprints, race pace, or endurance efforts. 

When discussing training for football and volleyball, Cardenas notes that, in addition to building sport-specific skills and muscle memory, interval running is one of the most beneficial training tools. "In addition to it being a method of conditioning for your cardiovascular system, it helps mimic the changes in speed and intensity you'll face in a game," she says.

A running interval workout includes three parts:

1. Run: This is where you’re running with an effort between 7 and 9 out of 10. Your breathing should be heavy and talking should be difficult.
2. Recover: After the work, you’ll recover with walking or slow jogging, slowing your breath and prepping for the work again.
3. Repeat: Once recovered, you repeat the work and recovery for a predetermined amount of sets. The number of interval sets depends on your goals, fitness level, and interval length, but typically ranges from 8 to 15.

How Do I Structure an Effective Interval Running Routine?

First, choose the goal you want to accomplish with interval running to help you decide on the right interval programming to add to your routine. If you want to run a faster marathon, try utilizing a race pace program. If you want to get faster on the court or on the field for your sport, take a look at the soccer interval or sprint interval workout.

Then, aim to tackle your chosen programming 1-3 times a week, depending on your fitness level, with adequate time between sessions to allow your body to fully recover.

Finally, similar to how we utilize progressive overload paired with consistency to improve strength from your home gym, look to add another round to your programming when your body's ready for the extra challenge.

Benefits of Interval Running

If your sport requires endurance, speed, and power, interval running may be just the tool you need to move the needle. "Tackling interval work in practice mimics the effort needed when it comes time to compete," says Cardenas, referring to flag football, where she's currently with the She Units based out of Los Angeles.

Here are some additional benefits you can expect from running hard, recovering, and doing it all over again.

• Increased speed and power: Your high-intensity (but controlled) effort trains your fast-twitch muscle fibers. This leads to better acceleration, improved sprint speed, and explosive strength in your lower limbs.
• Cardiovascular fitness: These short bursts of effort challenge your heart and lungs, leading to an increase in VO₂ max and aerobic capacity.
• Better recovery: "This style of training really teaches your body how to recover well," says Cardenas. Hard efforts followed by brief recovery help your body clear lactate and restore oxygen more efficiently, leaving you better prepared for your next interval.
• Elevated calorie burn: You’ll burn more calories in less time with interval running, which can help support weight loss goals. Your body works harder during the run and continues burning calories during recovery — and even after your workout.
• Efficient endurance: Instead of building endurance solely through long, moderate runs, your body adapts more quickly to repeated periods of stress with interval training.
• Better glute activation: Unlike jogging at a moderate pace, high-intensity efforts recruit fast-twitch muscle fibers in your glutes, hamstrings, and quads. When done with enough intensity and consistency, short, explosive sprints can support strength and muscle development in these areas.

Interval Running Exercises

Before you dive into one of these high-intensity interval running workouts — whether you're training outside or on a treadmill — start off with a 5-minute warm-up featuring some jogging and dynamic stretching to prep your body for the work ahead. 

If you can't recover your breathing during your rest, or you're no longer able to maintain the pace or your form for your run, go ahead and call it a day. Remember, just like with weight training, quality reps are more important than quantity.

1:1 Interval Running for Beginners

This is a popular interval training introduction, suitable for new runners and anyone wanting to dip their toe into interval work. 

• 1 minute run
• 1 minute jog
• Repeat for 8+ rounds

High Intensity Interval Training Treadmill Workout

When the weather outside is gross, or maybe you just prefer the pacing control a treadmill provides or the increased calorie burn from a curved manual tread like the Strive™ Curved Treadmill, tackle this interval workout to improve VO2 max, aerobic capacity, spint speed, and explosive power.

• 10 minute warm-up jog — 4 out of 10 effort — 2.5-4.5 mph
• 4 minute high-intensity interval — 8 out of 10 effort — 7-10mph
• 3 minute recovery jog — 5-6 out of 10 effort — 4.5-5.5mph
• Repeat 4 times

Race Pace Interval Running Treadmill Workout

If you've got a 5K, 10K, half marathon, or more on the horizon, try out this race pace interval workout to help train your body to hold your goal race pace through repeat efforts.

For example, if your goal 5K time is 23:30 (that's 7:58 per mile), each 800 meter should take you 3:46 to mimic your goal race pace. If working on a treadmill, that's about 8.0 mph.

• 800 meter run at your goal race pace
• 1 minute rest
• Repeat for 8-12 rounds

Soccer Interval Workout

This is a popular (and tough!) interval workout used by many professional and collegiate soccer teams. You can use the field markings on a soccer field to help you tackle the distance, or just mark a guesstimate and mark it (a sweatshirt or rock works) so you know where to stop and turn around.

Your effort during your runs should be about a 7-8 out of 10.

• Run 100 yards (about the full length of a soccer field).
• Rest for 20 seconds.
• Repeat for 7 minutes.
• Rest for 2 minutes.
• Run 50 yards (about half the lengh of a soccer field).
• Rest for 10 seconds.
• Repeat for 5 minutes.

Interval Sprint Workout

This is an interval workout to help increase your speed, power output, and endurance. Start off with 7 sets that cycle through the sprint, jog, sprint — that's one set — and increase the sets depending on your fitness level and goals.

Use the jog as your recovery to help you slow your breathing and lower your heart rate.

• Sprint for 7 seconds.
• Recovery jog for 7 seconds.
• Sprint for 7 seconds.
• Repeat

Threshold Interval

We've covered sprints and goal-pace runs, but to teach your body to tackle a harder pace for longer periods, a threshold interval (often called a tempo interval) is ideal. 

This advanced type of training helps to link power with endurance, improving lactate threshold meaning your body more efficiently clears lactate from the bloodstrem, leading to faster longer runs, and less fatique.

• 8 minutes at an 8 out of 10 effort.
• 2 minutes easy recovery jog.
• Repeat 4 times.

Maddy Cardenas' Track Interval Workout

When Cardenas isn't (figuratively) running from USA Beach Handball practice to beach volleyball games and then to flag football tourneys, you can catch her at a local high school track logging laps. Here's her interval workout so you can train just like her.

• 100-meter jog (the curve of the track)
• 100-meter sprint (the straightaway)
• 100-meter walk (the curve of the track)
• 100-meter sprint (the straightaway)
• Repeat 2 or more times.

Takeaway

Lace up your running shoes and grab a stop watch to help you try a variety of interval running workouts that can help to build speed, endurance, and mental strength, while keeping your training fun, challenging, and time-efficient. Whether you're a beginner just trying it out or a seasoned athlete looking to improve performance, we've got the right interval programming to set you up for success. 

FAQs

What is an interval workout?

An interval workout, like interval running, is a workout that cycles between high-intensity exercise and recovery. This style of training can help shorten the amount of time you need to spend training to improve speed, strength, and endurance.

How can I improve my stamina with interval running?

It's easy to think that improved stamina will come just by going harder, but that isn't always the case. Instead, add in longer intervals to support endurance, and allow your effort to come in at an 8 out of 10 — helping to raise your lactate threshold, improve endurance, and lower fatique.