Intervals, baby
Distance: 6 miles
Time: 44:36
Route: Portobello
It was that time of the week again, when the JD schedule called for intervals - 4 min hard, 3 min recovery, although my recovery tends just to be normal running pace. It was wet, windy and cold, but I managed to shave another minute off my previous fastest time for this route. The Portobello route is an out and back route, and I find the interval sessions tend to have three parts - first couple of miles I enjoy getting out and running and moving fast, second couple of miles the intervals begin to hurt and I realise there's still a long way to go, last couple of miles I know I'm heading home and I have the incentive of checking my watch for a possible new fast time.
Speaking of which, since the new year my times have been steadily falling each time I've pushed the pace on a particular route - on the Portobello route and the Arthur A route I've effectively shaped 5-6 minutes off each. The times can't keep falling so rapidly so quickly (at the moment I'm cutting time on an almost fortnightly basis) - there will come a point before too long where I will plateau at a certain level of fitness, and it will take much longer to see much smaller drops in time I'm sure. When will that point arrive? I don't know, but hopefully I'm not quite there yet.
On Sunday I move into Stage III of the JD marathon training plan - this is where things are supposed to get tough. The weekly long run really is long, and includes more threshold running. And the schedule introduces an semi-long run into the week which I am please about (at least in principle - I suspect when I'm actually doing it I won't be quite so happy) as I have not really progressed any of my runs (apart from my Sunday long run) beyond 6 miles. On the other hand, this new semi-long run takes the place of my interval session, which I will kind of be sad to see disappear.
Today my number arrived for the Edinburgh half marathon (yes, that's right - no pre-registration and no chip timing...). Its only a week away and I'm starting to wonder what strategy I should adoptt. The conservative 8 minute+ early miles, aiming just to creep under 1:45, or straight into 7 minute miles and hang on for dear life as things get tough. Both have their attractions and at the moment I have no strong preference.
Time: 44:36
Route: Portobello
It was that time of the week again, when the JD schedule called for intervals - 4 min hard, 3 min recovery, although my recovery tends just to be normal running pace. It was wet, windy and cold, but I managed to shave another minute off my previous fastest time for this route. The Portobello route is an out and back route, and I find the interval sessions tend to have three parts - first couple of miles I enjoy getting out and running and moving fast, second couple of miles the intervals begin to hurt and I realise there's still a long way to go, last couple of miles I know I'm heading home and I have the incentive of checking my watch for a possible new fast time.
Speaking of which, since the new year my times have been steadily falling each time I've pushed the pace on a particular route - on the Portobello route and the Arthur A route I've effectively shaped 5-6 minutes off each. The times can't keep falling so rapidly so quickly (at the moment I'm cutting time on an almost fortnightly basis) - there will come a point before too long where I will plateau at a certain level of fitness, and it will take much longer to see much smaller drops in time I'm sure. When will that point arrive? I don't know, but hopefully I'm not quite there yet.
On Sunday I move into Stage III of the JD marathon training plan - this is where things are supposed to get tough. The weekly long run really is long, and includes more threshold running. And the schedule introduces an semi-long run into the week which I am please about (at least in principle - I suspect when I'm actually doing it I won't be quite so happy) as I have not really progressed any of my runs (apart from my Sunday long run) beyond 6 miles. On the other hand, this new semi-long run takes the place of my interval session, which I will kind of be sad to see disappear.
Today my number arrived for the Edinburgh half marathon (yes, that's right - no pre-registration and no chip timing...). Its only a week away and I'm starting to wonder what strategy I should adoptt. The conservative 8 minute+ early miles, aiming just to creep under 1:45, or straight into 7 minute miles and hang on for dear life as things get tough. Both have their attractions and at the moment I have no strong preference.
posted by edinburghrunner at 9:44 pm
2 Comments:
Whatever strategy you adopt for the half marathon I hope it works well and you have a good run.
Sounds like your "fit as!" :-)
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