How to improve your endurance?

On Campus, we offer you training plans including competition plans or training plans to start running. You can also find plans to work on more specific qualities such as your MAS, your endurance, or even your speed.

Today, we are going to give you our recommendations to improve your endurance, because if you are more of a runner with a speed profile, endurance is a quality you will need to work on. Because we like to emphasize at Campus, it's important to work on your weaknesses to reach a new level in your Progress.

Let's start by recalling that “endurance is the ability to maintain a certain level of intensity for as long as possible”

That is to say, working on your endurance will allow you to run longer, obviously. But also to allow you to run longer at the same pace, and to maintain a higher pace over the same long duration, without being more tired.
By combining smart pacing strategies with consistent training, you can truly determine how fast you need to go to hit your goals. A jogging pace calculator or running pace calculator can help you figure out your average pace for shorter efforts—say 20 minutes or 30 minutes—to establish benchmarks for longer effort, including tempo runs and long runs.
Knowing your 5k pace and marathon pace via these tools gives you realistic targets for race time. For example, you might use a tempo run or a time-based test (20 or 30 minutes) to estimate your goal finish time in a 5k race. But even more importantly: learn to feel comfortably in each zone. Your heart rate, your breathing, your legs—they all tell you whether your ideal pace is truly sustainable.
Use a training plan that mixes steady long runs, tempo runs, and recovery so you preserve energy for the finish line. Don’t start out too fast, or else even with great 5k pace, you may falter later. Thanks to that balance between pace estimates and sensations, you’ll cross the finish line close to your goal time—and maybe surprised at how much stronger you’ve become.

Specifically, Campus's endurance training plan will combine long runs with workouts of pace and threshold variations that will allow you to increase your resistance and endurance in an ideal balance (which we detail right after). But to make this work even better, here are the basics to apply throughout your training plan.

🔥 Discover your endurance plan right here!

In Campus's support, we often encounter this question: “how can I improve my endurance?””. No miracle solution: consistency in your training sessions, is the key.

If you follow a Campus plan, you will be able to have three, four or five training sessions per week depending on your level, but also on your goal. Each workout has its level of intensity, and you will also notice that not all workouts are hard. It would make no sense to do 4 training sessions per week of difficulty 4 unless you're trying to injure yourself.

It's better to have regular training over time (even light) than a lot of intense training over a short period and nothing afterwards.

Improving your endurance is a long-term goal that will require patience and motivation, but you will see that the progress is really worth all these efforts. !

Depending on your plan, you will be able to find base endurance workouts in your running training. This type of workout consists of running at ~75% of your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR), you must be able to hold a conversation during this type of workout. This is at this pace that a good base for your endurance will be built.

Granted, at first, it is very confusing to run slowly, but it is by learning to slow down that you will improve your endurance. And like endurance, Low-Intensity Steady State (LISS) is developed gradually, it is perfectly normal to be too fast at the beginning, but patience and consistency in this type of workouts will help you progress in the long term. Training at this pace will gradually allow you to lower your heart rate for the same speed, or even achieve a faster speed. True progress will be noticed when your runs become too easy, you can pick up the pace a bit, and enjoy them - that's the start of the virtuous circle of endurance!

If you have questions about Low-Intensity Steady State (LISS), we certainly answer them here!

Earlier, I talked about running slowly. It will be very important to add interval workouts to your training to see real progress. Note, we're not talking about 50% speed and 50% slow speed, but more about ~30% intensity and ~70% base endurance.

Using a variety of paces will allow you to progress in different ways, and mixing them ensures an improvement in your endurance.

Don't worry if you choose Campus, you won't have to think hard to manage your speed and slower pace workouts; the coach will take care of finding the best balance based on your profile.

If you aren't using Campus, keep in mind the 70/30 ratio we discussed. Be aware that you have the opportunity to test our 12-week training plans for free. For this, you simply need to sign up on the platform.

When we talk about long runs on Campus, we're not referring to 3-hour runs (even for a marathon, we don't do 3 hours of training in a row), because this type of overly long long run can have more negative than positive effects on your body: increased fatigue, and thus risk of injury or longer recovery. We're simply referring to longer runs than the others. There are no set rules as it depends on each individual's level. Over time, you'll be able to work on increasing the duration of this type of long run.

The mechanism is simple: you'll push your body to run longer, and therefore the additional stress on your body will enable you to overall improve your endurance. Don't hesitate to do this type of workout in a group with Campus members, family, or friends. You'll find that it will go much faster! To organize or participate in shared runs near you, simply go to our Discord in your region's thread or to our running groups.

If you want to know everything about cross training, we provide it in the knowledge section of your Campus account. 

We're not teaching you anything, but running can be traumatic for your body and joints, especially if you increase your training volume too quickly. Our philosophy at Campus is a gradual approach. If you want to train more in base endurance, it's possible with less impactful sports like cycling or swimming.

Just like running, these other sports will allow you to develop your cardiovascular and pulmonary capacities and thus improve your endurance in the long term. We strongly advise you to engage in cross training only in addition to your running workouts and not in place of them. To be a better runner, nothing replaces running.

And above all, keep running as your main sport. Each sport has its specifics; cycling will never allow you to work on your running economy or the muscular and tendinous adaptations that your body makes with each stride. Therefore, a balance is needed based on your level and your goal, because too much training without enough progression leads to injury, but too little means you won't progress. (not sufficient in view of the goal)

It's the same for everything: if you’re starting from nothing, improving your general endurance will be quite easy, but the more you progress, the more you'll tend to plateau or progress less. That's when you need to keep your motivation and the desire to break through this new ceiling.

We're not going to reinvent the wheel, these tips are very basic and simple to apply, but put together, they will enable you to improve your endurance sustainably. You shouldn't expect to see results after two days, it's a long process, but trust us work always pays off in the end, so be patient!