The Ladder Down™
The Ladder Down™ workout was created here at Sifuentes Coaching to teach these foundational training concepts:
Variety: incorporating different paces, efforts and durations.
Progression: increasing effort and pace as you go.
Perceived Effort: learning to measure your effort so you can finish strong.
The Workout:
Run for 5 minutes (then rest by walking 1minute)
Run for 4 minutes (rest 1min)
Run for 3 minutes (rest 1min)
Run for 2 minutes (rest 1min)
Run for 1 minute (rest 1min)
Total Time: 20 minutes
As you can see, Ladder Down is technically an interval workout. The intervals get progressively shorter until you’re done.
How to Do It
Start out at a very comfortable run or jog for 5 minutes straight. This would be an E4 according to the little chart above: Easy (could do this all day).
Then take a 1 minute walking rest.
This would be an E3 very easy according to the chart.Proceed to the 4 minute segment at an E5, moderate effort.
Increase the effort and pace in each segment.
In between each segment, walk (or jog very slowly) for 1 minute recovery.
IMPORTANT: Don’t check your paces until AFTER the workout is done. Record your data using the lap button or pre-program the workout. The challenge is to see if you can execute decreasing paces based ONLY on your perceived effort.
Brand New to Running? Hold off on the progression of effort and pace. Focus on finding the right pace for you, so you can run for 5 minutes without stopping, and then 4 minutes, and so on. When you’re confident with the intervals, then try increasing the pace and progression as the intervals get shorter.
Experienced Runners …modify this workout by:
Adding a warm-up jog before starting the Ladder Down
Start the 5min interval at a Moderate pace
(You don’t need to finish at E9 just because you start at E5. Simply focus on increasing your effort a bit every interval)Take a recovery break, then repeat the Ladder Down
Jog the recoveries instead of walking
Focus on Effort, Not Pace!
Your effort for the 1 minute interval should be significantly different than that of the 5 minute interval. Increasing effort will result in changing pace. Ladder Down is designed to help you finish strong because your last interval is the shortest interval.
Ladder Down made an appearance mid-winter as a featured Treadmill workout, but it is even better suited to the roads because ideally, this is an effort-guided workout. On the roads, your body controls your pace (on treadmill, the machine controls your pace).
This workout was inspired by the many ladder-style workouts I did as a professional athlete, and I designed it to be accessible to runners of all levels.
Nicole Sifuentes is a former professional runner and 2-time Olympian, a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and full-time Running Coach for adults of all ages and abilities. Read more about her services, and schedule your free consultation today!