We outline some typical interval sessions and suggest who they are suitable for.
Before adding interval sessions to your training, it is best to have 18 months running behind you. If you are still improving with Chatty running, you don’t need to start interval training however.
When you are ready to add intervals you need to plan it carefully. Let’s imagine you are aiming to run a fast 5km or 10km race. Add interval training two months before the race for four weeks. Then stop with four weeks to go. You can only train the anaerobic energy system for a short period of time. After four weeks you will no longer see any improvement in the speed of your running.
The structure of interval training or repetition running.
The repetitions are the fast efforts and the intervals are the recovery sections. Having recovery time in between repetitions allows you to do faster running for a short period without getting too tired. Sufficient recovery times are important as they enable you to achieve a certain volume of faster running in a session. Recovery times should always be at least the same time as the repetition. It is the volume at a consistent pace that is the key to improvement.
What speed do you need to run at?
Your body uses the most oxygen at a pace you can maintain for ten minutes. However, in order to play safe the repetitions are best run at 15 minute pace or slightly faster than Parkrun pace. Running repetitions at this pace will generate enough acidity in the body to make you a faster runner. It is better to hold back at first as you get used to running interval sessions because it is very tiring.
Typical Interval session warm up
The warm up is very important as you need to build up your running speed to prepare your body for faster repetitions.
Walk for 3 minutes, run Chatty for 8 minutes, run ‘breathy’ for 5 minutes.
Stop and do two Sparkles with a walk back recovery.
Jog a lap of the track or run Chatty for at least 3 minutes.
Two more Sparkles with walk back recovery.
Jog a lap of the track or run Chatty for at least 3 minutes.
Interval session for ‘first timers’
Run for 2 minutes at a pace slightly faster than your fast Parkrun pace.
Run Chatty for 3 minutes to recover.
Repeat this twice more.
Interval session for experienced runners
Same warm up as above but you could add a couple more Sparkles.
Run for 3 minutes at your 5km pace.
Run Chatty for 3 minutes to recover.
Repeat four times.
Why run time based repetitions rather than distance based repetitions.
Running for time allows everyone in the group to get the same recovery and ensures that their body gets the same training stimulus. That is not too much or too little.
Recovery is always at least 1:1 recovery. Sessions that only offer very short recovery intervals will result in runners not being able to maintain the speed to generate the acidity in the body. You want your body to get used to this acidity so that you can run faster. It will make your legs go heavy and make you breathe hard and fast. Colin demonstrates this here in an episode all about breathing.
Golden rules
Always stop before you get too tired or if your repetitions are getting slower.
Conisitent pacing is key.
The session should make you feel weary but not exhausted.
Do a long cool down. At least ten minutes of Chatty running.
One or two sessions a week are enough with at least two days in between. It will take two or more days for your body to recover. Remember that it is during the recovery that the adaptations happen in your body that will make you faster.
Start with a little and gradually increase the number of repetitions if you are new to this type of training.
You will improve rapidly but only for four weeks. So there is no need to do interval sessions all year round.
Interval training is just the icing on the cake before you want to race.