How are you using sprints/speed work in your training?
Hi folks, I've been going back to regular running after a couple years' break and I'm hoping to get back to my lockdown level of fitness, which was reasonably high. Back when I started running as an adult it took me a long time to even be able to complete 5ks while now, going back, it's been smooth sailing. So smooth that I'm trying to add structure to my training and this is where I'd love your input.
Back in 2020 I was running mostly on vibes and at some point discovered that doing sprints once in a while gave my pace a huge boost. However I never really researched how to do this properly - how often it's best to do it, how to combine it with existing training schedules etc. Since it worked for me then I want to try doing it again and get my pace back up to how it used to be (metric system but back in 2020 my 5k pace was ~5'10", my 10k pace was ~5'45" while now I struggle to run faster than 6'25" at all).
So far I've been told about the Norwegian 4X4 but to be honest I don't think I'm able to run at max for full 4 minutes at this point, much less do that 4 times.
Does anyone have an established system that they would like to share?