Running intervals: Hard or soft surfaces?

[Deleted User]

I'm somewhat conflicted about whether I should do my hard running intervals (ex. 3x1 mile @ Z4) on hard surfaces or soft surfaces. So far I've been doing these on the track as a happy medium between the two, but I get the impression that there are pros and cons to both:

• Hard surfaces (ex. roads): Very fast, and helps builds up durability from all the pounding. Also good to be training on roads if I'm going to be racing on roads. A harder surface means more pounding, which means increased risk of injury it seems.
• Soft surfaces (ex. grass): Aside from the risk of tripping and rolling an ankle (I seem to be a pretty "stable" runner), having a soft, cushy surface seems to reduce the risk of injury somewhat just from less pounding I think. However, it's harder to run fast on a softer surface, and I'm not sure how much that affects the training benefit.

Of course, I could always stay on the track, but it'd be nice to break the monotony once in a while and go elsewhere. 

Thoughts?

Coach Rich

You should run on the surface that decreases the chance of injury and keeps you running intervals. For me, I have a mostly flat one mile stretch of road a block from my house that I use for intervals. I'd go nuts on a track and I don't trust my ankle on anything other than smooth roads and sidewalks.

Peter Greagg

x2 what Rich said.
I have a parking lane which is a normal road surface that is about 1 km long which is pretty flat. So I run one way for the first half of each interval and turn and run back to cancel out any (slight) change of elevation. Probably a bit OCD, but that's just the kind of guy I am

ezellrh

For straight up interval workouts, I prefer the track. It allows me to zone out and just focus on crushing my paces without regards to traffic. YMMV

Joseph Lombardi

 I mix it up...I have routes on both well groomed trail/towpath, road, and the track...

Al Truscott

A half  mile uphill from my house is a middle school clay-base cinder track I use when it's dry (End of March-Sept/Oct). Early spring, late fall, I hit up the nearby rolling asphalt bike path which has 0.5 mi and 1 km markers. Truly nasty weather (steady rain, snow, freezing surfaces) sees me on the treadmill.

I believe doing the intervals on a consistent course is critical for measuring and maintaining progress.

Joseph Lombardi

 Good catch Al....I do alot of Intervals on the TM in the winter....love the TM.

Cary Blanco

I've got a flat 1-mile section of lightly traveled road right by my house. I've also got a boardwalk.

I do WU/CD on the boardwalk and use the road for the intervals. Best of both worlds.

cgres123

Since I'm a tad ageing up I had thought to run long on a nice padded local High School track. I do a warm up on the track then I hit the road for about 6 miles of the best hills we have available around here. I will do that loop then finish with what ever intervals are left over on the track. I don't want to beat my body up by doing all street work so that mixes things up for me.

However, you young folks can eat potato chips and run where you want nothing gonna bother ya'll

Unknown

Best thing I did this year was to move almost all my runs to a local soccer field complex. The perimeter is a 1/2 mile loop. Level, tight, bermuda grass. My legs feel better than any previous season when I ran on pavement. Also the level field made it easy to focus on pace and effort without the effect of hills.

Steven Ford

I use a local bike path near my house, flat and they have it measured which make it easy.

 

I do however look for road conditions that mimic what I will be racing on for my A race.

 

 

William Jenks

As a point of reference, I assume everyone knows this, but in case not: smooth asphalt is MUCH softer than cement. You might not notice it in your shoes, but your knees do.

That said, fewer cars drive on the sidewalk.

jhbinsc

Good point. I avoid concrete like the plague. Agree w/ consistency to validate and gains/losses. And staying injury free so you can be consistent!

[Deleted User]

 Thanks for the input everyone!

Mile repeats are the longest I'll go on a track before I want to move somewhere else. Like Al and Jeff pointed out, it's really easy to have consistency in noting progress on a track. If I'm doing say a ~20 min tempo run, I'll move to the roads to keep myself sane. There are actually very few places where I'd want to do hard running on grass due to the potential of tripping on uneven surfaces, and I suppose running in loops around a park brings similar monotony as running in 400m ovals, with the exception of having to dodge little kids and soccer balls...

I usually do any faster running on asphalt vs. sidewalk for the reasons William pointed out. There are some flat, quiet streets in my area where I can do that. I don't like concrete either, but it's somewhat unavoidable at times due to traffic and cambered roads.

rmiller

As William pointed out, asphalt is actually relatively soft compared to concrete. Concrete is a complete solid, whereas asphalt is actually an incredibly viscous liquid lying atop a subsurface, and actually has a lot of give, especially in the heat of summer. Additionally, sidewalk is even better because the asphalt layer itself doesn't have the same base layer underneath that actual road surface does.

Years ago I saw an article similar to this one (http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/general/top-10-running-surfaces/152.html) comparing difficulty of running on various surfaces (considering snow is the lowest number, I think they are accounting for difficulty due to slipperiness as well).