Running

Thank you! I've got the Hackney Half next week, and then I think I'm going to try and focus on the 20 minute parkrun after that. Might have a week off after Hackney to drink and chill out.

Intriguingly i can see wu & wd on Strava but nowt else, hope it went well?

As part of my newfound quest to try some structured running for the first time with a target of a 40 minute 10k, I tried some 2 mile intervals today. Rough plan was to attempt 3 x 2 miles at 10k pace (6:26 min/miles) as per the article @HatBeard linked to

I managed the first one - 2 miles in under 6:26 pace - but it completely destroyed me. Almost threw up at the end and had to sit down. Gave it 10 minutes walking to recover, but could only manage another rep at 7 min/mile pace.

Mixed feelings - happy that I could manage one interval at pace, but to run that pace for twice more the distance feels like a very very big ask.

I think with any interval training, the first session is always by far the worse. You're asking your body to adapt to a completely new type of training and its first instinct is invariably, "Nope".

Rest, recover, allow for some adaptation and try again. It'll be tough but I guarantee it won't be as bad as today.

Well done to both @Pifko and @dubkev - some solid times there.

I agree to @andyp - I suppose you’re looking to put extra stress on the body to condition it for the faster, more intense workload. 1 interval achieved on target is better than them all done at a much lower intensity IMO

I think that I'll have to disagree. better to do all reps at a consistent pace.

well done on your time btw!

a better warmup

What should I be doing for this? Guessing heading straight into a 5k effort like it's a 10tt isn't great.

40 miles on the Ridgeway today. 27 of them fine, then the marathon caught up with me and everything shut down. Luckily it wasn't a race!

Saw that on Strava, looked brutal.

Clocked 16.29 for 5k this evening. Went out hard, 3-4.5k were tough. Final Sprint left me seconds outside a road pb. Next time!

Going through it myself I had the same thing with the first session (I think @TW was with me at mile end track when we did it, if he can remember i am sure he will attest).

it did get easier.

here's the gpx from when I did it. from the notes i had a knee twinge so cut some of the sessions short and did a few out of order but the progression every couple of weeks is in there still.

in date order:

https://www.strava.com/activities/199394950/overview

https://www.strava.com/activities/202462879/overview

https://www.strava.com/activities/205370470/overview

https://www.strava.com/activities/213669036/overview

https://www.strava.com/activities/210846397/overview

https://www.strava.com/activities/218952865/overview

https://www.strava.com/activities/216300446/overview

https://www.strava.com/activities/221414149/overview

https://www.strava.com/activities/221414149/overview

you can see I went from 3 x 1mi at 7:10 to 3 x 2mi @ 6:55/mi only other sessions I did were social group runs at tempo pace or slower up to about 8 miles and the odd easy 5k.

first attempt at sub 45 10k was mo-run in greenwich and went out too fast and blew up on the hills. stupid course to try to run it.

https://www.strava.com/activities/224499868

had a crack the week after in regents on much flatter course, felt like death the entire time around. had a major wobble at mile 3 and was certain I wouldn't make it. ran fastest mile in mile 6 and sprinted the final quarter mile 50 secs faster than that pace.

https://www.strava.com/activities/227062588/overview

I miss being able to run like that :(

What's your current 10k /5k?

Going through it myself I had the same thing with the first session (I think @TW was with me at mile end track when we did it, if he can remember i am sure he will attest).

It was a "fun" session.

I'd already been doing a lot of interval / speed work, and suffered when I expected to suffer (in the last third).

I was training for a marathon at the time iirc. In hindsight, I should have been running more race pace 5k & 10k efforts, and more long threshold efforts.

As it was, I was just getting much better at intervals.

Fairfield Horseshoe yesterday, 10 miles/ 3150ft, 152/305. Time was 2.03.49 or thereabouts.

Did my best but didn’t feel great after eating dinner too late and too little, and then had a bad nights sleep. Struggled on the climbs and just couldn’t descend with any decent speed at all (usually my forte).
But I’m in the lakes and the sun is out, every cloud eh!

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@andyp - although my head agrees with you, the rest of my body is less convinced. But, yes, thats been my experience cycling with a powermeter; when you start on something new, the first couple of times feels unnatural (for want of a better word).

@HatBeard - nice. hopefully i'll match your progression

@TW no current 5 or 10k. ive basically run once or twice a week for a year, just as a complement to fairly structured cycling. I'll do a few weeks structured running to get a sense of what's realistic then do (likely) the regents park 10k at the beginning of June for a baseline

Why wait?

A parkrun this Saturday* will give you a good baseline.

You're fit, and not a stranger to running, so a 5k race isn't likely to do you any harm.

* Or 5k at race pace this evening.

Another 10 miles/3150ft today having a look at the start of Ennerdale. Had to make it a loop so only covered the first 5 miles. Looking out and being able to see the whole route ahead is both awesome and terrifying!
Plan is to head back this weekend and have a bash at getting round in a gentle manner (I’m not sure 22 miles and 7500ft can ever be gentle!).

Hi - I’m not sure what a 5k gives me that i don’t know from the 2 miles on Saturday?

I’ll get round to doing a parkrun, but 9am Saturdays are difficult coz kid commitments. Though we do the 2km junior run on Sundays! (4 year old hoping to crack 14 minutes next week...)

Ordinarily, taking your pace for a leg of a rep session isn't going to give you a sensible baseline for the rest of your training.

But, seeing as you look like you spanked yourself in the first leg, you can probably treat it as a standalone race-pace session, and use it as a bench mark.

If you plug that into one of the training pace calculating spreadsheets, it suggests that you are currently around a 42:45 10k or 20:30 5k*

The idea then is to use that baseline to set your interval & threshold paces (for example, Daniels Tables gives paces of 4:43 /km threshold and 4:02 m/km interval)

* Assuming you have the base miles in your legs for those distances

Yes - I know I can do 6 miles at 7 min/mile without too much stress, and that I could not do 10k in 40 mins. So ~43 mins feels about right

I’ll focus on some structured training for a couple more weeks and then go out and see where I stand.

I want to have something to focus on - a goal that’s a little out of reach - to give me the motivation to focus on running over cycling for a while

Yesterday went to run a fast 5km and then do hill reps (2.5km) and a warm down run home (2.5km). Ended up running a pb 5km (22:20) and a pb 10km (47:35)

This makes me think, I could run faster at 5km and quite a bit faster at 10km.

That's exactly my 10 km best, and my 5km is 21:45, so you should definitely be able to take time off the 5 in a race.

I'm aiming for around the same time Kev. I'll try to stay close to the 1:50 pacer as long as I can. If you see me, don't expect conversation - i'll be pushing it just to hit this pace! And if it's hot weather I'll be lucky to stay below 2:00. I am really not made for running in heat.

The loop in the elizabeth olympic park is 1km but has and 200m uphill drag I'm going to aim to just run 5 laps of that and just go fer it

Coming back to this, there is absolutely no chance I could go out and run 2 mile reps in training at 10k race pace. Not sure I could even do 2 miles at my HM pace.