Time To Run
With my wife currently training for the London Marathon and two little kiddiewinks in the equation, finding time for the 10k training regime I’ve set myself is tricky, particularly in these dark winter evenings…
So this is how I found myself pacing up and down our hallway all dressed and ready to run at 8:45pm on a Thursday evening, waiting for the car headlights to appear on our drive. At dead on 9pm, my wife returned (she’d done 8 miles) and in a quick change of shift I ran out of the door in to the brisk night air.
The Interval Session
The problem with our village is that only certain streets have been deemed important enough to have streetlights. It’s for this reason that I was wearing a headtorch, although there’s something about being the only patch of light on a long dark street that makes you feel a bit exposed – it did make me run a bit faster though!
The aim for tonight was to get in some high paced intervals with a few hills chucked in for good measure. Tonight was essentially about making my breathing as laboured as possible, consistently for at least25-30 30 mins. I ran a 1k easy warmup before hitting a nice long flat road which is sprinted down for 2 minutess. At the end of this was a nice steep hill of 200-300 metres or so which I ran down and up and then (after an easy 2 mins recovery) sprinted back the way i’d just come.
This was followed by a series of intervals of increased pace before returning to the hill at the beginning for a sprint up it.
I was well and truly SHATTERED! Job done! Disclaimer: This isn’t how you’re meant to do an interval session – this on Run Britain is how you’re meant to do an interval session. It should be a lot more scientific with a specific pace (often your goal 10k pace) for the faster bits, but hey, it was dark and I couldn’t see my watch so I just did it based on perceived effort.
Next Training:
Easy 30 mins this evening, followed by Poole Parkrun tomorrow morning. Then a 90 minute run on Sunday. I may even join my wife for her 18 miles marathon training run on Sunday morning, eek!
