Running-Clock Intervals: Go Every 90 Seconds

200-meter intervals with a fixed start every 90 seconds: the rest is whatever time is left after finishing each rep. Faster runners rest longer, and students learn to choose a speed that lets them finish every rep with the same quality.

How to play

1. Mark a 200-meter course with cones and keep a large clock or the teacher's stopwatch visible at the start (2 min).
2. Each student picks a target time for 200 meters that leaves at least 30 seconds of rest and tells their partner (2 min).
3. First block of 4 reps: start at seconds 0, 90, 180 and 270; the partner records the finish time (6 min).
4. 3-minute walking break and adjustment: anyone who didn't get 30 seconds of rest slows down, anyone with lots of extra rest can speed up (3 min).
5. Second block of 4 reps with the adjusted target (6 min).
6. Partner analysis: which rep was most consistent? Did the rest hold up? (6 min).

Rules

• If someone doesn't make it back to the start in time, they skip that rep and join the next one: no penalty.
• Starts are staggered in groups of five so no one runs bunched up.
• At the finish, walk away from the line so you don't get in the way of incoming runners.
• The goal is consistency, not beating anyone.

Variations

Adaptations

• Low fitness: runs 100 meters and fast-walks 100 meters on each rep.
• Visual impairment: runs with a guide who calls out the seconds left until the start.
• Wheelchair user: completes the reps in the chair on a flat course adapted to their target time.

Learning goals

• Learn interval training with fixed-time starts.
• Connect running speed with the recovery time available.
• Adjust one's own pace using data collected by a partner.

Equipment for a class of 25

• cones: 10
• stopwatch: 1

Teacher tip

If you have a track, use the curve and half the straightaway so the 200 meters are measured accurately. A large wall clock or a tablet stopwatch at the start saves a lot of questions.

More main activities for High School