Diary Of A Road Runner

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 5×800m 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

8×400m 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.

6×800m@

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!!