Hsu Kuo Feng Workout Generator
Hsu Kuo Feng Workout Generator
How this workout generator works
This is a pure calculator: you give it a set of inputs and it works out one complete workout — how long each segment runs, how fast, and where the heart rate should sit. You can save it to your own workouts and sync it to a watch.
It does not read your training history and it does not decide for you what today should be; the same inputs always produce the same workout. What it does is convert Coach Hsu Kuo Feng's training logic into numbers you can go out and run.
If you are not sure what to run today, use Hsu Kuo Feng x AI Today Workout instead — that is the one that decides for you from your training data.
What you fill in
Training Runlevel
A number from 20 to 90 representing your overall running ability, which decides how fast each intensity should be. The system fills it in when it has your runlevel on record, otherwise it starts from the default, and you can change it to try other values out. For a workout you actually intend to run, set it at your own ability — set it too high and every pace-based segment comes out beyond what you can hold.
Training Point
The training load of this one workout. The higher the intensity, the less time the same training point converts into. Warm-up segments do not count towards it, so everything you set here goes to the main set.
Target Intensity Zone
Decides which pace and heart rate range this workout lands in. There are 17 to choose from: recovery run, easy run, aerobic run, aerobic endurance, LSD, marathon pace, half marathon pace, ten kilometer pace, five kilometer pace, lactate threshold, VO2max and anaerobic, plus five intensities used only by intervals. Each structure opens its own subset of these, not all 17.
Warm Up Duration
Anywhere from 0 to 15 minutes, your choice. A cool-down is not included in the workout — arrange that yourself.
The six workout structures
The structure decides the shape of this workout — how the effort is distributed from start to finish.
- Aerobic — A single continuous long segment, run to heart rate throughout. Builds the aerobic base, aids recovery, and develops long-distance endurance.
- Tempo — One unbroken segment, never subdivided, held all the way at race pace or lactate threshold pace. Develops race-pace feel and staying power at threshold.
- Interval — A rep of running plus a rest, repeated. Intervals are not the same thing as hard: aerobic long intervals and cruise long intervals are available while you are still building base, and only high intensity, VO2max and speed short intervals sit in the high intensity range.
- Progression — Starts at the easiest pace and climbs step by step in one direction to a peak. Trains progressive acceleration and the feel of a finishing kick.
- Varispeed — Easy segments and the target intensity alternate, with an easy segment at each end. Trains recovering while still moving, then returning to target pace.
- Pyramid — Climbs step by step to a peak, then descends symmetrically. The hardest of the six — what it trains is holding yourself together on the way back down from the high point.
Does the workout go by pace or by heart rate?
- Always heart rate — all five aerobic-structure intensities (recovery run, easy run, aerobic run, aerobic endurance and LSD), plus the aerobic long interval.
- Always pace — every intensity of progression and pyramid; the high intensity, VO2max and speed short intervals; and varispeed at five kilometer pace, VO2max or anaerobic.
- Decided by your runlevel — all four tempo intensities (marathon, half marathon, ten kilometer and lactate threshold), the cruise long interval, and varispeed at marathon, half marathon, ten kilometer or lactate threshold. Below runlevel 39 these are delivered in heart rate; from 39 upward, in pace.
When you get a heart-rate workout, as long as you have set your maximum and resting heart rate in RQ the exact bpm range is shown, worked out with the Karvonen formula. Without them you only see the zone numbers, so it is worth filling them in under your personal settings first.