Speedwork / Intervals

claralara

Just a quick one - I did a search but pretty much everyone's log came up so I'm taking the the lazy start-a-new-thread option :cool:

Tomorrow is to be my first attempt at any actual effort with speed / interval work. I was planning on going to the UCD track after work but judging by tonight's late night in work I ain't gonna make it. The session will therefore have to be in the early am getting to UCD and then to town and ready for work will be a bit of a logistical pain.

I was just wondering whether the treadmill is any use for this type of session or would that be a cop-out? I could get to the gym far easier. Or would I be better with this type of fartlek session that I've heard so much about? Or should I just get out of bed even earlier and go to the track?

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

menoscemo

I have done speeedwork on the treadmill a few times (but I hate it). Track is great for ease of measuring distance, but you can do speedwork anywhere. Obviously a quiet (and ideally flat) stretch is best. I sometimes do intervals along the new canal pathways, sometimes in a park.

claralara

Cool thanks a mil. So I think for tomorrow I'll get onto map my run and get a 500m stretch on the road at home and see how that goes... I should have thought about that before posting - pretty obvious if I wasn't so lazy!

BeepBeep67

keep it simple initially - run faster for 3 lamp posts or to the next corner for example and then jog to recover - no need to get technical yet.

robinph

Don't really know anything about speedwork/ intervals myself, but the search I can help with. I've often had the same issue with everyone talking about everything in every log making it tricky to find what you want in the main forum.

Select the Advanced Search option and untick the "Also search in child forums" box below the forum selection list so that it doesn't search the Training Logs or other forums.

menoscemo

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

keep it simple initially - run faster for 3 lamp posts or to the next corner for example and then jog to recover - no need to get technical yet.

Exactly, or you can do the old simple technique of run fast for 1 minute, jog 1 minute recovery- Repeat. As you improve you can: do the fast parts for longer/take less recovery/do more intervals/find the time to go to the UCD track

huskerdu

menoscemo wrote: »

Exactly, or you can do the old simple technique of run fast for 1 minute, jog 1 minute recovery- Repeat. As you improve you can: do the fast parts for longer/take less recovery/do more intervals/find the time to go to the UCD track

Thank you. This is exactly the advice I have been looking for.
A simple technique to start doing interval training.

I am guessing that my first time out, I repeat this as often as I can and build from there.

If anyone knows of a good beginners guide to intervals, it would be a useful addition to this forum to have a link to it.

Thanks.

AdamAntsy

If you are in town, then the road to Chapelizod outside the Phoenix part is marked in 100m increments by the local running club. Also handy and you can warm up/cool down in the park which is nice this time of year. Might save a trip out to UCD.

Tec Diver

I've had to use a treadmill a couple of times in winter. I ended up making up an interval type run out of boredom:
2km warmup at about 9km/h
1km at 10km/h
1km at 11km/h
1km at 12km/h
then back down...
1km at 11km/h
1km at 10km/h
and then bring it back up. I did that for a total of about 8k and then did a 1k warm down.

Eoin

Sport101

For interval work I'd recommend joining an athletics club if you can. Speed intervals are tough on your own and very hard to stick to recover times, especially towards the end of a session. Running clubs are usually well organised and good value (~<EUR 100 for the year), and have a wide range of people training at different levels, catering for elites to novices.