Interval training is the process of alternating short, high intensity bursts of speed with slower, recovery phases through a single session. Intervals do not have to be run on a track and can be performed on any surface that works best for you such as road, trail, grass or even beach.
Interval work is something I have performed a great deal of over the years and couldn’t imagine getting to the level I am at today without it. Elite athletes across the country perform intervals week in week out during their build up to racing. Interval training is not just specific for marathons and is beneficial to all distances no matter what races you are targeting in the future. Applying interval training to your programme provides variety and reduces the repetition of just plodding along also.
Regardless of how fast you are I firmly believe that intervals can help you, it’s just a case of adapting the session to suit your ability level. We have a huge range of paces taking part in our group sessions on a Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evening at UTS Run Club.
Interval training can be defined as:
“Training that works both the aerobic and the anaerobic system. During the high intensity efforts, the anaerobic system uses the energy stored in the muscles (glycogen) for short bursts of activity. Anaerobic metabolism works without oxygen, but the by-product is lactic acid. As lactic acid builds, the athlete enters oxygen debt, and it is during the recovery phase that the heart and lungs work together to “pay back” this oxygen debt and break down the lactic acid. It is in this phase that the aerobic system is using oxygen to convert stored carbohydrates into energy.
It’s thought that by performing high intensity intervals that produce lactic acid during practice, the body adapts and burns lactic acid more efficiently during exercise. This means athletes can exercise at a higher intensity for a longer period of time before fatigue or pain slows them down.”
This is a fairly scientific definition of interval training but to put it simply, as a result of undertaking interval training your body adapts and increases your body’s efficiency to deliver oxygen to working muscles. This then allows your muscles to perform better and for longer durations during races leading to improved performance.
Once you have decided to include some interval training into you weekly routine you then have to decide what type of intervals to include. You can modify your efforts by changing the speed, duration, duration of rest and the number of repetitions. Over time its important to progress and develop your efforts. This can be done by increasing speed, reducing recovery and increasing the amount of repetitions. However you don’t necessarily have to progress all of the variables at the same time. Remember it is important when marathon training to undertake sessions at your 3km, 5km and 10km race pace. For example if you had a 10km personal best of 40:00 minutes and you were planning on running a session of 1km intervals you would be looking at approx 4-minute per effort. You don’t necessary have to run intervals to a set distance and running to a time is perfectly acceptable and frequently used. Key sessions could start at 10x1mins @ 3km pace, 5x2mins @5km pace and 3x5mins @10km pace. This is just a guide and runners of different levels and abilities may wish to run longer or shorter intervals.
Often I recommend to clients to have a go at running some mixed pace sessions, such as 1x5mins, 2×2.5mins and 5x1mins. This then enables the runner to run at 10km pace for the 5min efforts, 5km pace for the 2.5min efforts and 3km pace for the 1min efforts. This is a great way of covering all three paces within the same session and something I have found especially beneficial in my own training.
Michael Dunne who recently broke 16-minutes at the Christleton 5k for the first time runs a lot of intervals, many of which around Botanic Gardens in Liverpool, known for its miss behavior of Garmin’s due to its tight approximately 700m circuit inside a walled garden’s. In these sessions Michael doesn’t get caught up in pace he simply runs to feel and has seen great improvements as a result.
A few quick tips before you start interval training:
- Have a good warm up before you start running faster efforts
- Start off slowly and build up, such as 2mins run, 2mins walk etc
- Run at a steady but challenging pace
- Invest in a heart rate monitor
- Build up over a period of time
- Progression is key to improvement
For more help in building intervals into your schedule please don’t hesitate to get in touch and see how a personalised training plan can help you achieve your goals and targets.
