Originally Posted by
T-Man007
That sounds a lot like what our track coach did for the distance guys too. It's a modified version of the run/walk, which I'm a huge fan of, and it can be used with most running goals other than say a marathon, that's just flat out endurance. I was a sprinter in HS and ran the 400, 4x400, 200 and 4x100. Depending on what we would run, it was some variation of the run/walk. For example, those of us working on our 200 time would (after warm up of course) sprint all out for 200 meters and then walk the half lap and do it again at full speed. For the 4x100, we would just sprint all out 1/4 of the track and then walk to the opposite 1/4 and do it again. Run/walk is very effective for cardio vascular and fat burning because of the calories it takes. The trick is to try and keep up the tempo for 20 to 30 minutes. 20 should do good until you get to that last little bit of stubborn fat and then it's going to take more time. I used to use this technique when I used to train but I did a 40 yard run/walk. The would sprint all out for 40 yards and then walk back to the start, as soon as they got back, it was off to the races. No one EVER made it past several minutes the first time, no one. It takes a lot of stamina to do that kindof thing for that length of time. Stamina is different than endurance because of the intensity. I'll give you an example, marathon runners need endurance and boxers need stamina. Boxers must be able to excert more intense moves for a long period where a marathon runner just needs to set a tempo and stick with it, but it's not near as much intensity as a boxer or wrestler or MMA fighter. However, the fighter also needs endurance as well. There are a lot of people who can jog for an hour like it's nothing but if you had them do 40 yard run/walks they would die out quickly because of the lack of stamina.
Sorry to ramble on but I agree 100% with SA's advice, it's a proven effective tool for both stamina and endurance so you get the best of both worlds.