8x30-30/36:51 (3½ miles)

First day of speed work - very strange.

Last year, I did all my intervals on a stationary bike (that is, my usual bike mounted on a cycle trainer) - my ankle and knee were just too painful to even think about running them out. Doing intervals on foot is a very different experience!

What the notation means is eight repetitions of 30 seconds of increased effort (to push the heart and the muscles), followed by 30 seconds of reduced effort (to let the body recover). The workout sequence is that you warm up for ten minutes (that is, about a mile) of your usual relaxed pace, then you do the intervals, then you cool down with another ten minutes or so of normal pace.

The goal, which I quite thoroughly failed to manage today, is to have a consistent level of effort: it's not just that you should make more of an effort for the "on" part of an interval, but that the pace for the first interval and the last interval should be the same. I'll need to work on that one... I set out too fast on my first interval, basically. The overall result of the run was a completely normal time though, so on average I was about on pace!

But I do feel as energised after the intervals as I had hoped. Also, my quads and hamstrings are complaining, which they would not normally do after only a 3½ mile run.

However, I need to change watches over. I have two running watches: a Timex Ironman I bought three years ago, and a Freestyle Predator I got last year as a spare. The Predator is the one I usually leave at work, because it's a less comfortable strap. But for the intervals I need a timer which will repeat automatically, and the Predator doesn't do that. It was absurdly frustrating to keep on having to hit the start button! So, need to bring the Timex in for next week's intervals.

But, it was a good session. I am actually rather looking forward to next week when you will see "10x30-30" up there.

Posted by Dunx at May 18, 2004 04:32 PM