3 Best Workouts in 30 minutes or less

No matter how dedicated you are, sometimes it can be difficult to find time to run. However a lack of time shouldn’t stop us from getting in a workout. These workouts epitomise the phrase ‘bang for your buck’ as they help develop a number of physiological benefits.

So if you find yourself short on time, below are three of the best workouts to have a go at.

1. Hill Workouts

10 x 1 minute hill repeats (walk/jog back down the hill)

Hill sessions are a staple for many professional and recreational runners and for this workout I would recommend running up the hill at 3-5k race effort with a walk or jog back down the hill as a recovery.

Hill repeats have a number of benefits which make them one of the best workouts you can do if you a struggling for time. Running hills helps build muscular endurance, running economy as well as improving running form due to the exaggerated running motion. Hill repeats also develop speed without the same impact forces as running on flat ground which reduces the risk of injury.

2. Moneghetti Fartlek

2 x 90 seconds effort / 90 seconds recovery 4 x 60 seconds effort / 60 seconds recovery 4 x 30 seconds effort / 30 seconds recovery 4 x 15 seconds effort / 15 seconds recovery

Also known as the ‘Mona fartlek’ this is a classic and a staple of many Australian distance runners. It was created in the 1980’s by Steve Moneghetti, a 2:08 Australian marathon runner and was a staple workout of his. It’s simple, totals 20 minutes of continuous running and is adaptable to all levels of athletes that are training for a variety of events.

You should aim to complete the efforts at 5k pace/effort and the recovery’s completed as a float (slower than the rep but faster than a jog). ‘Floating’ recoveries developed as the idea is to glide between intervals and help improve our lactate threshold. But you can make this session as hard or easy as you like (I guess you can with every session) and join thousands of others to have completed this session before.

3. 2-minutes on, 1-minute off (repeat 6-10 times)

Another float recovery session – You can see that I love float recoveries as these sessions definitely help get you into shape, no doubt about it as they can keep your heart rate pretty high. These types of workouts help you get comfortable with being uncomfortable Aim to run the reps at approximately 10km race effort and float the recoveries at approximately 30-40 seconds per km slower than your 10k paced reps. The first few repeats will feel relatively easy but as the workout progresses the recoveries seem to be getting shorter and shorter as the fatigue builds in your legs.