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Progression runs come in a variety of flavors and colors, spanning the duration, frequency, and intensity spectra. As fluid as their particulars may be, however, their benefits are solidly established. 2004 Olympian Dan Browne, a member of the Nike Oregon Project who has spent time in Europe and Kenya training with elite African distance runners, sees progressively faster runs not only as a critical ingredient in his improvement over the past several years, but as the key difference between American and Kenyan training regimens—and as a necessary element in maximizing potential. "In a tight race, you obviously have to speed up at the end," says Browne, "and you have to do it when you’re at your most tired. The same thing applies to progression runs." He notes that a typical elite American male might run 6:00 pace out the door en route to a 10 miler that takes an hour, but that a Kenyan might work from 7:00 pace to 5:00 pace in covering 10 miles in that same hour. "If you’re training to race and racing to win, this approach is something you need to include in your training," says Browne.
Keith Dowling, a 2:13 marathoner and 2003 World Championship Marathon U.S. team member, has also gotten lots of mileage out of progression runs. He stresses the importance of "intense relaxation" in getting the most out of the workouts: "[Progression runs] are very ‘Kenyan’ in nature," Dowling says. "You start slow and finish fast, but you never strain at any point during the run."
Dowling’s history with progression runs began when he was preparing for the Boston Marathon in 2002. "That buildup was the first time I used progression runs in place of a normal Sunday long run." To make sure he didn’t overdo things, he included progression-run workouts in every other long run. His normal routine was to maintain his typical long-run pace of 6:30 to 6:40 per mile for the first eight to 18 miles of a slightly rolling course; with eight miles to go, he’d increase the pace every two miles, starting at 5:50 to 6:00 pace and dropping down to his goal marathon pace of 5:00 per mile for the last half-mile. The distance of these runs progressed from 16 miles to Dowling’s longest run of 26 miles, the latter being four weeks before Boston.