Aerobic Base drill
Pitch-Length Long Intervals
Develop aerobic power with longer efforts held at your maximal aerobic speed.
- Time
- 30 minutes
- Players
- 1 to 30 players
- Intensity
- High
- Equipment
- None
- Space
- Pitch length, out and back
- Positions
- All positions
Setup
Try line to try line and back, no cones. Work out your target distance first: MAS in m/s x rep length in seconds. At 4.0 m/s, 90 seconds at 100% MAS is 360m, or about three and a half lengths.
How to run it
- Run out and back along the pitch, aiming to arrive at your calculated distance exactly as the clock hits 90 seconds.
- Rest 90 seconds, then go again - 4 reps makes a set.
- Do 2 sets with 3 minutes between them.
- The first rep must feel comfortably hard rather than fast; if rep one is your quickest, you have paced it wrong and the session has already failed.
Coaching cues
- Even splits or nothing
- Land on the distance, don't overshoot it
- 100% of MAS is your best 5-minute pace, not a sprint
Common mistakes
- Going too hard on rep one and degrading across the set, which turns an aerobic session into a lactic one
- Guessing the distance instead of calculating it from a current MAS
Related drills
- Four by Four Aerobic IntervalsRaise VO2 max with four long, hard intervals and a steady jog between them.
- Pitch FartlekBuild an aerobic base with varied-pace running that needs no equipment and no measuring at all.
- Bronco TestTest rugby-specific fitness with the shuttle test widely used in rugby.
- MAS Time TrialMeasure your Maximal Aerobic Speed, the number every other conditioning session in this library is built from.
- Maximal Aerobic GridHold time at or above your maximal aerobic speed, which is the single biggest driver of aerobic power.
- Eurofit 15:15 IntervalsBuild aerobic power with short, fast repeats that feel manageable and accumulate brutally.