I woke up early this morning excited to get our for my intervals workout. The plan was for 5 sets of : 2min I pace + 1 min jog + 1 min I pace + 30 sec jog + 30 sec I pace + 30 sec jog. My I pace is currently 6:32 min/mile. So, after going 2 miles straight at 6:38 pace, I figured this workout would be a cinch. Here’s how it went:
Set #1
2 minutes (.31 miles) at 6:22 pace
1 minute (.17 miles) at 6:00 pace
30 sec (464 ft) at 5:50 pace
Set #2
2 minutes (.31 miles) at 6:25 pace
1 minute (.16 miles) at 6:05 pace
30 sec (422 ft) at 6:20 pace
Walk break
Set #3
2 minutes (.32 miles) at 6:15 pace
1 minute (.17 miles) at 6:00 pace
30 sec (419 ft) at 6:26 pace
Walk break
Set #4
2 minutes (.32 miles) at 6:19 pace
1 minute (.16 miles) at 6:16 pace
30 sec (425 ft) at 6:14 pace
Set #5
2 minutes (.31 miles) at 6:25 pace
1 minute (.16 miles) at 6:11 pace
30 sec (393 ft) at 6:46 pace
So, based solely on the paces of the intervals, things went pretty well I suppose. It’s just that those two walk breaks were “unauthorized”. I was stitchin up both times. I will say that set #4 felt this best. I tried t orelax and not go too fast in that one. I think with intervals, I have a problem maintaining the appropriate pace. It’s especially bad when I’m running time instead of distance like today. I never really relax into the pace, but rather keep checking the watch. With my first 5K of the season 2 weeks away, the lesson here is to relax early. My total run today including warmup, walk breaks and cool down was 6 miles in 49:42.
walk breaks are unauthorized? after a sprint period i normally at least stop, catch my breath, and then start the ‘recovery’ period. shoot, i do that now on an easy run after dragging myself up a long hill (or at least most of it). i’m definitely gonna have to translate the intervals from “x-min at t-pace” to whatever distance that corresponds when that phase rolls around for me. hopefully in the next 2 weeks you’ll get more comfortable with these paces and relax on race day! can’t wait to see how it goes for you.
I usually do translate the time to miles for the tempo runs, but these intervals were so short that I thought it would be stupid to do so. Heck the 30 second intervals didn’t even come up as fractions of a mile in the Garmin!