Rob's Running Blog

Fast Hard Running – Flying Intervals session!

First intervals session in quite some time. Weather has been mild so put on shorts for first time this year, and light long sleeve running top. Was a bit cold at first but soon warmed up with a gentle 2k, and then launched into 5k of 1km intervals. I set myself a goal pace of 5:30 which would equate to a 27:30 5km and just attempted to run around that pace. Felt I was going too quick at first as the Garmin pace was showing 5:10 per km so I slowed a bit and ended up doing the first one in 5:31 – so far so good. Realised I had found a bit of a circuit so decided to keep going round it for consistency, and by the 3rd km, although I wasn’t running harder, my pace seemed to be going quicker and I had to slow down. Nonetheless, my pace for each km was getting quicker and I even put on some bursts of speed. By the last KM, the Garmin was reading 4:56 per km which was quite astonishing and the last km was the fastest of all, but I slowed towards the end as was feeling it by then.

All in all a fast flying intervals session where I felt good, and the combined time of the intervals was 26:33, so if I can put that sort of pace together consistently without 3 minute rest breaks, my 5k time should start coming down dramatically, and I can start looking forward to a half decent 10k race time over the summer!

Intervals Breakdown:

2k easy run warmup

5* 1k at goal pace of 5:30 with 3 minute rest breaks

5:31
5:18
5:19
5:12
5:11

1k gentle cool down.

Speedwork in the Blazing Evening Sun

Figured if I want to run faster 800m intervals, I needed to work on my speed, so decided to do some speedwork in the form of 400m intervals. It was a very hot evening, so didn’t want to be out for too long, nonetheless I was sweltering a bit after the warmup and struggled a bit in the blazing hot sun!

Did 2k warmup followed by 400m*8 with 2 minutes walking recoveries:

1:57
1:49
1:52
1:54
2:04
1:57
1:53
2:00

It’s hardly surprising that I’ve been struggling to get under 4 minutes for the 800m intervals as I struggled keeping up that kind of pace even over 400m – my average pace was 4:50 per km, odd that I could maintain that pretty much over 10k last year, but am now struggling to keep it going over short intervals, and was flagging by the end of the sprints (though some turned into a jog!)

I guess the positives are that I ran a fairly consistent pace over the 8 intervals, and managed to get my revised target of under 2 minute intervals achieved. I had hoped to try running 1:40 per 400m but after the first one it was clear that wasn’t going to be realistic.

Again, am wondering where my speed has gone – maybe it will come back gradually as I do more intervals and speedwork, one thing I haven’t been doing this year is a lot of 5k tempo/time trial type runs, maybe that could help.

Hopefully all this will pay off with some times as near 50 mins as possible in my 2 10k’s at the end of the month and early september.

As for today, it was hot out there!

Sunny Intervals Turning out a little slower…

Had a quiet day and wanted a training session I could squeeze into a short space for maximum benefit, so intervals it was! Weather was hot and sunny with a little wind, decided to break in the new Adidas Supernova Glide 3s, as I plan to race in them in August, but know that racing in brand new shoes is sometimes not a good idea!

Did a 2k warmup, then set off on the first of the 5*800m intervals on the same route I did my intervals last week. For some ridiculous reason, although I set off at a point further back, I was still going long past the point where I finished the first 800m interval last time, and felt I was going pretty fast, but ended up with a 4:21 opener which was a bit strange, reckon it was more like 900m that one! The second one was the only one I managed to run at target pace, but it felt like I was sprinting hard and did have a bit of a downhill – and I think it did me in as I slowed right down after that.

It panned out thus:

4:21
3:43
4:07
4:14
4:16

And I felt quite knackered by the end! Am a bit concerned that I am running my intervals way slower (30 seconds plus) than I have ever run intervals before. I did figure that this was at the end of my highest mileage week in a while (15.86 miles) which mitigates my disappointment a bit – but the days (2010 lol) when I was running 3:19 and and 3:30 800s and moaning about it being too slow seem a long time ago.

Maybe I am just getting old 🙁 Anyway, I will have less running this week due to busy schedule, hopefully next time I can burst out of the blocks and these sessions will pay off with some more speed endurance 😀

Rainy Intervals – Or so I thought!

It was a very gloomy day today, with some torrential downpours early on. Looked nice and cool, an ideal day for my first intervals session to start putting an edge on to my fitness to hopefully run a sub 50 10k by the end of the summer, as it was intervals that helped me to my sub 50 last year – mind you I think it was trying to do my intervals at too fast a pace (together with trying to run too many one mile time trials) that also led to my injury.

I got my kit on, Garmin at the ready, and headed out without baseball cap, or shades, so dark was it, and just a dash of sun cream on my ears, nose and top of head – as I know I can burn on the cloudiest of days, but figured a dash would be enough for my intervals session.

My legs ached a little on the 2k warmup I did, just did a very easy pace then took a breather. My plan was to try to run just under sub 50 10k pace for 5*800m intervals, so roughly just under 4 minutes per 800m, nothing too ambitious or crazy like the 3:30 800s I was aiming for last year when I ended up injured (a good pace to aim for, but no need to go totally flat out on intervals, it can lead to injury!)

I programmed the Garmin for 3 minute rests, took a few deep breaths, and set off. Probably went a bit quick at first, but not having done intervals lately I had nothing really within recent memory to compare my pace to, I ended up doing the first 800 in 4:05, so not far off my target, but now I was locked into my Garmin intervals, of course the cloud broke and the sun came out, and there was me without my baseball cap, shades, and only a little sun cream! eek!

Did the next 800 quicker, and started to remember just how hard intervals can be. Started to long for the rest periods and by intervals four and five I was fairly shattered and my legs felt a bit rubbery – decided to run the last interval as a bit of a cool down, but ended up doing it in 4:05 despite feeling like I was running through treacle and my lungs had been removed by that point.

So my first 800m intervals session in a very long time looks like this:

4:05
3:53
4:03
4:14
4:05

Average pace 5:04 per km. That is something I will need to improve on to run a sub 50 10k or even a sub 25 5k, but running consistently under 4 minute pace for each interval is an achievable goal I can set myself in the short term.

5 x 800m Intervals – bugger!

Intervals session:

2k warm up

5×800@

3:19
3:36
3:34
3:49
3:35

with 3 minute walking recoveries

Took ages to recover from first one and never quite got back into it – I would start the laps off at decent speed and at about 400m I just hit some kind of treacle or force field and started slowing down and my gasping rate was off the scale. I was giving it everything put just couldn’t a) push the pace up and b) maintain anything much under 7 minute mile pace.

Cooldown – walked, couldn’t be arsed by that point! ➡

Not done intervals for a while so maybe speed edge goes off quickly – or i just need more rest after park run on Sat and a higher mileage week (for me!) last week, will probably take week easy now and let the batteries recharge ready for Bolton 10k.

Sunny Intervals session

Thought it was about time I did another intervals session to build on recent progress and see if I can improve my running further.

Did a 2k warmup that felt easy paced enough, but was actually 5:25 and 5:20 – so not far off 10k race pace! But it felt sustainable, more like a jog – be interesting to see if I can keep that up in my upcoming Salford 10k race!

Anyway then did 5x800m with the following splits:

3:18
3:34
3:16
3:37
3:21

Didn’t manage to run any quicker than my last intervals session (apart from the Garmin showing best speed as sub 3 mins/k!!!) but over the 5 intervals my average pace has gone up a notch – and looking at it, I was running at just over 21 minute 5k pace for 4k, even with breaks, this astonishes me a bit, and has me wondering if at some point I will be able to do that over 5k, and sustain it? I also remember easing back on the throttle a bit in the penultimate interval, to save a bit for an all out final effort – and was running 45minute 10k pace fairly comfortably (at least compared to the 4 mins/k all out pace the rest of the intervals were at).

So last intervals session – 4:28/k, this one 4:16/k – definite improvement, and it did hurt, but I felt like I’d worked hard, and am starting to reap some rewards now I’ve upped the training intensity a little bit.

Jogged an easy 1.5k cooldown and could have kept going as still felt fresh 🙂

Intervals – some progress!

First intervals session since last summer. Felt tough but good to push things hard. Set off with a 2k warmup, then set the Garmin for 5x800m with 3 minute walking recoveries. Wasn’t sure how to pace it so went pretty much flat out then adjusted as I felt the pain! The interval splits were:

3:35
3:49
3:24
3:47
3:12

The slower legs were with the incline at the end. In any case, my two fastest splits would make a 6:36 mile, and the last split was very encouraging, as sooner or later I will need to run sub 3 for 800 if I am going to run a sub 6 mile. But it’s promising to be more or less where I peaked last summer, right at the beginning of the running season as spring starts to wake up the world 🙂

Speedwork – 400m intervals – progress!

First proper speedwork session and the results were interesting:

2k warm up

8x400m at

1:35
1:36
1:52 (uphill section)
1:35
1:37
1:47 (uphill)
1:30
1:38

with 3 minute walking recoveries

2k cool down.

Means I averaged 6:36/mile for the 2 miles, obviously with breaks, but if I can run 1:30 for a quarter of a mile it means with some work I should be able to get to 3:00 for half a mile, then 6:00 (or 5:59) for a mile! I have the speed, and with more intervals and I can find the endurance. Cool down felt nice and easy, legs were tightening a bit but lungs felt fine. Enjoyed being able to just go flat out then rest. Then flat out again. Got pace per k down to 3:44/k which is starting to seriously motor for me – the only trouble is at that pace it’s more tricky to avoid prams, bikes, pedestrians and car doors opening suddenly in front of you!!!

800m Intervals – Hard Session, but very good!

Hard shorter intervals session, pretty much flat out at times, although cruising speed was still well within sub 50k pace which bodes well, in fact my cruising pace seems to be getting faster, 4:40 k’s now feel a lot easier than sub 4 minute k pace (which I hadn’t dreamt of running before today!)

1.8k warm up.

6x800m@

3:28
3:46
3:36
3:48
3:42
3:26

with 3 minute recoveries

1 mile cool down 10 minutes jog.

Splits put together would result in a 22:30 5k, so not bad going – on the last k went flat out for about 400m of it and the Garmin for the first time showed me actually running at sub 4 mins/k at about 3:55/k, which I don’t think I have done before, certainly haven’t seen it on the Garmin except for the dubious “fastest speed” which could have only been for 10 seconds!. Slowed a bit towards the end, but the first and last 800m put together would make a 6:52 mile more or less, which isn’t bad considering there were a couple of hard miles in between. Found it hard but could almost feel instant results – psychologically as much as anything else, the next thing will be to keep this up and start reducing the recovery times, although 3 minutes feels just about right at the moment, can work on that, getting it shorter, and the ultimately put it all together for some new mile, 5k and 10k PB times 🙂

My First Proper Intervals Session! 3 quick miles!

First really proper intervals session. I have put it off for some time, but once improvements stopped coming with the running training I was doing, it was time to add something new into the mix if I want better times! Decided to try 1 mile intervals to start with, and try to run each sub 7:50, so within sub 50 10k pace.

1 mile easy warmup

3 x 1 mile at:

7:46
7:34
7:47

with 3 minute recoveries

1 mile cool down 9:18

The middle mile felt the most comfortable and was the fastest. Was starting to really feel it by the end of mile three, but the recoveries really helped, although they seemed to tick down quicker and quicker as the run went on!

The 7:34 maintained over 10k would mean a 47.01 10k, even the 7:47 (which was coasting speed really) would be 48:22 so if I can just string together some more sessions like this, add in another interval or 2, do some shorter, faster intervals, then put it all together on race day, that sub 50 is going to be well and truly shattered. I live in hope!!