If you’re looking for a casual program, then I don’t recommend this. It’s hard. Like really hard. This program is designed for functional fitness athletes who want to focus on running, but don’t want to give up on their WODs and lifting sessions. Keep reading to see if this program is right for you.
I wrote this program with several different types of athletes in mind. I have a lot of folks in my home gym who enjoy running, anything from 5k races to marathons, and they always have a hard time integrating functional fitness work into their running program. This program is for them.
Athletes that have a specific deficit in running ability (cough, cough, myself) will also get a lot out of this program as well. Lastly, it is probably a good starting point for people who will be taking fitness tests for the police or military, and have been running already.
It’s important to point out that I don’t think this program is good for someone who has never run much before, without some modification. I’ve tested these workouts, and they are very hard intervals.
Someone brand new to running is going to find running this hard nearly impossible. Remember, you can always slow the intervals down, add more rest, or cut a few reps if you want to continue on with this endurance based program. You can also start with my aerobic capacity program first, and build up to this. Click below for the the PDF Download.
DOWNLOAD THE 12 WEEK FUNCTIONAL ENDURANCE PROGRAM HERE
12 Week Functional Endurance Program (Week 1)
This week is our testing week where we will determine your current levels of strength and endurance. On the endurance side of the house, we will be testing your 1 mile run time, and your 5k time.
I chose these two as they are easy to test, and they translate into running performance at any distance. Plus, marathoners can run a 5k, but most 5k runners don’t want to run a marathon! Check out week 1.
You can also see that we are still testing our strength in the three rep range on power clean, squat, and strict press. I find, as a coach, that these three strength moves are the most important for the vast majority of WODs.
For metabolic conditioning, we will be testing Fight Gone Bad and a little WOD I made up with power snatches and burpees. I chose these because FGB really tests your physiological endurance, across all muscle groups, in a long time domain. The second WOD is much shorter and will really test your power output.
12 Week Functional Endurance Program (Week 2)
It’s important to note that you will need to enter your 5k run time into this calculator, which will determine your running paces for the duration of this portion of the program. This takes all the guess work out of your running pace. You can monitor your running pace either by using a running track, or a smart watch like this Garmin Fenix. You can also download any number of running apps that just use your phone to measure speed and distance.
You can see that this program is five days per week as written. Thursdays are the only day that would require two workouts per day. This can be an early morning run, and an afternoon workout, but you don’t have to do it this way. You can easily move the easy run to the weekend, but you’ll only have one day off. Make your choice, and live with the consequences!
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12 Week Functional Endurance Program (Week 3)
This is where we really start to add in the volume to our program. The pacing remains the same, but we add in some additional intervals. It’s important that you maximize your rest for these running workouts. I recommend walking at a moderate pace during the rest intervals.
You can see that we are also increasing our strength work in a linear fashion. Resist the temptation to work to max efforts on the strength work. Stick to the numbers!
Realistically I expect that many of you will set some strength PRs, but the stronger you are going into this program the less strength you will add. In other words, if you are already very strong this amount of strength work will maintain your strength, but you would need much more emphasis on lifting to gain strength. Remember, this is an endurance biased program.
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12 Week Functional Endurance Program (Week 4)
This week we see a change to our Monday workouts. Instead of that last mile interval, we have replaced it with two 1200m intervals. I can tell you from personal experience that those long intervals after the 800s are pure murder. You’re welcome!
For those paying close attention, you will notice that many of the WODs use movements that complement the strength move. Most muscle groups need 40-60 hard reps per week to make progress and you’ll find, with a little bit of math, that your muscle groups should be averaging about that amount of volume.
12 Week Functional Endurance Program (Week 5)
This is our highest volume week, prior to our deload in week 6. You’ll also notice that this is the first week where we have decreased the time requirement for our intervals. By this point in the program you should be feeling confident in your ability to run at the pace you’ve been using. That means it’s time to make the workouts a little harder so you can progress.
It’s ok if you are feeling a little achy and not one hundred percent this week. This is a common occurrence, which is why we are taking a deload. You have to stress your body over it’s current capacity, and then give it enough rest to adapt by increasing in capacity.
12 Week Functional Endurance Program (Week 6)
As promised this is our deload. Here you will notice that we have much less volume, but the intensity is actually a little higher for the running workouts, as the running pace is increased.
Make sure you spend some effort this week trying to relax. You’ve put a lot of strain on your body these last several weeks and this is really where your gains come from. Prioritize your recovery efforts!
Nutrition
This is a big piece of success for this type of endurance program. You need to eat a lot of carbs. That’s the bottom line. I know many athletes like to stay low carb, and keto, and paleo, and carnivore etc. These diets are empirically worse than a higher carb diet for endurance work.
Rest assured, you won’t be getting turbo fat just because you are actually eating potatoes, and gasp, the occasional sweet. I highly recommend you read this article and download the calculator. It will give you total calories, macros, and more. Use the muscle gain tab to ensure you are getting enough food.
Final Thoughts
As the title implies, this is the first part of a two part series. I would expect that you should be feeling very good by the end of the deload. Your WODs should be faster, and your endurance should be increasing weekly.
Make sure you are consistent with your workouts and recovery. If you’ve come this far you can start part two of the 12 Week Functional Endurance Program. Now get out there and start working!
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Hey, love your posts! Not sharpshooting, just not sure if I missed something! It’s referred to as a 12 week program, but only written as 6.
No worries Brett. There will be two parts. Each part is 6 weeks in length. Part two is coming soon.
Hey Jake, super informative article man. I’m just starting the program and was wondering if part 2 will be out soon. If not thats totally cool, just curious
Yep it’ll be out in a few weeks. Stay tuned!
Hey Jake, do you think someone could substitute another form of cardio instead of running?
Josh you could do any cardio you wanted. You would just need to keep the interval times equivalent. I.e a 400m run might take you 1:40 so you would need to do the same amount of work on a bike or rower etc.
Hey Jake,
Would you recommend this program for someone who loves functional fitness and has started training for an Ironman. Just splitting the cardio work between the three sports
Really depends on the volume of your TRI training. I generally don’t recommend my programs for very specialized events like an iron man. It might work well for a pre or off season, but you need to focus on your sport when getting ready for a particular event.
Awesome thanks for the reply Jake. A year ago your beginners functional fitness program started me on this journey of learning and enjoying getting fit and becoming the fittest I’ve ever been so huge thank you for that really appreciate it!.
Yea I’m in the off season at the moment and looking to build some more strength while getting some WOD’s in before going into ironman specific training with a coach in a few months time.
Really love this program – have you done anything similar? I’m finishing up my second round of 12 weeks and would like to continue training similarly.
This is fairly similar. Have fun. https://www.tierthreetactical.com/the-15-week-lift-heavy-run-fast-program-for-functional-fitness-part-1/