Intervals

I might consider renaming "Tuesday" to "Intervals" - any objections? On my current training plan, I do intervals every Tuesday. I typically try and work in speed training at least once a week, sometimes twice (see fartlek training). So some people might ask why I do speed training when I'm training for endurance events. Simple - interval/speed running is at anaerobic pace, it's pushing my body in a different way than just doing a long run.

Interval pace is faster than your lactate treshold pace (I'll explain this on a later post). It is the pace at which you feel lactic acid building up in your legs. You will not be able to hold this pace for miles and miles without having to slow down. This helps to improve oxygen delivery to the muscles. The more oxygen which is delivered to your muscles, the faster and the further you will be able to run.

The last few weeks I've been doing 1/2 mile intervals with 1 minute rest between. Since I don't want my body to get used to the same interval distance, I decided to try 1 mile intervals this morning with 2 minutes of rest in between.

Started off with 1 mile warm up at half-marathon pace. Then 10 minutes of drills (butt-kickers, shuffles and grape-vines). Then it was on to the intervals...here's my mile times:

(1) 6:57
(2) 7:07
(3) 7:28
(4) 7:47

Followed by a 10 minute cool-down and stretching.

It's pretty obvious from the times, that I cannot sustain the pace I ran in the first two intervals. I had to really push it on the last one to keep up a fast pace...my legs were screaming at me! I wish I had worn my heart-rate monitor, I'm sure that I was in the 180's on that last interval!