Heart Speed Sessions
I love a good speed session – I find them so much more enjoyable than long, slow, drawn out runs mainly due to my very short attention span. The chopping and changing of speeds and the short yet intense bursts of speed also favour my naturally sprinty, fast twitch leg muscles. I often attend a local track session with Poole A.C. which is excellent but difficult to attend as my wife’s club night is on the same night (my club night’s a Wednesday night). So yesterday evening with the light fading and a chill setting in, I slipped out of the house for my own speed session.
Track or road , speed sessions are important
Solo vs Group?
First things first… a solo speed session will never, ever be as intense as a group one. I find it impossible to push myself to the same limits when I’m alone, compared to when I have people to race against, so my preference would always be for a group speed session.
The Session
I decided to take a different approach to a standard speed session with the same aim – to run at faster than 10k pace for a minimum of 40 minutes, including rests between intervals. To begin with I ran a hilly 5k in 20:30, this ended on a very steep hill! I then did a set of 10 x 200m repeats at 90% effort, with between 60-90 secs recovery between each. I then finished with a 1km slow warm down – a total distance of 8k in 36 minutes
I would say that this combination of 5k, plus repeats worked my legs for the first 5k (I could feel the lactic acid claiming my leg muscles) and busted my lungs in the 2k’s worth of repeats. I rarely feel my legs tire in a race, it’s nearly always my lungs that are screaming for air so this work on my aerobic/cardio fitness is definitely required!
Next Training:
Club night tonight with Purbeck Runners – need it to be 6 or 7 miles to keep my weekly mileage up to 30 miles although it may be a hills session. You never know!
