So I had to try it for myself.
What is the Sugarcane (or Sugar Kane) workout?
The Sugarcane workout is a series of intervals described by Andy Galpin (on Hubermans podcast).
workout.Here is the clip in which Galpin originally describes the workout.
as far as you could in two minutes.
Note the distance you covered.
Rest two minutes
Round 2: run (or bike, row, etc.)
for the samedistanceas round 1.
Expect this to take slightly longer than round 1.
Round 3: run (or bike, row, etc.)
for the sametimeas round 2.
Aim to beat your original distance from round 1.
Youll then need to run for 2:05 in the third round, aiming to cover 401 meters or more.
Should be pretty simple, right?
Just a nice little evening of running intervals.
Welp, I ran into a few problems.
But I cant program the second interval as distance-based when I dont know the distance ahead of time.
So I programmed it into the Garmin anyway.
I decided I was not going to slack.
I would do my best to run each interval at a near-maximal effort.
I tried to stop my watch at 2:06 but actually stopped it at 2:07.
I did make the 0.27 mile target, though.
Thats about 434 meters.
I give myself an A+ on pacing.
Thats almost exactly the same as my average pace over the three Sugarcane intervals.
Why didnt I just dothat?
Another way to do intervals is to make them time-based.
Two minutes hard, two minutes recovery, repeat.
If youre using a running watch, you could choose a target pace here as well.
In my case, my two-minute interval pace will be almost identical to my 400-meter pace.
How do you progress the Sugarcane workout?
Heres a point of confusion.
Galpin describes adding more work or additional rounds, but his answer is pretty clearlynotapplicable to the Sugarcane workout.
It doesnt have a built-in progression scheme.
It also seems to fall apart pretty easily if you dont push yourself on each round.
Just add a round each time you do the workout, until youre doing about 8 at a time.
How often should I do the Sugarcane workout?
Huberman suggests doing it once every two to four weeks because its so intense.
Or, better yet, once in your life and then move on to normal intervals.
How does the Sugarcane workout double-check you work hard?
It doesnt, really.
Maybe that takes you five minutes.
Thats not three hard intervals, thats one hard interval and two leisurely strolls.
Again, regular intervals would work better for this.
