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Intervals again - gosh! They are hard!
HK Pink Lady
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in Training
What are your experiences with ramping up training intensities after long periods away? I'm a 52 yr old competitive runner and am finding it hard to get back, at least to where I was.....
My last race was last May, and since then have had issues such as broken toe and surgery on my oesophagus (for Achalasia), so have taken time off etc etc. Returning to running was hard work, and I have just been 'general running' to build some base for around 3 months. 3 weeks ago, added some weekly tempo runs (3-4km) incorporated into 10K steady runs, and also some fartlek to push myself a bit. Found out speed is not my friend!
Today I decided to try 4x800m after a 3km warm up. Gosh! It was hard! And to think I used to do stuff like 10x1k reps, 6xmile reps etc. I had to rest a bit on THREE of the 800m reps!!! I suppose I shall just have to persevere. Plan to try this session again next week until I can complete it, then increase the reps. Is that the way to do this?
Oh, and it's getting rather hot and humid here in HK (today was 85% humidity at 29 degrees). Next race is actually an Autumn hilly HM in the UK, in the town I grew up, Harrow. Actually looking forward to this, but do want to feel good, rather than struggle through!
My last race was last May, and since then have had issues such as broken toe and surgery on my oesophagus (for Achalasia), so have taken time off etc etc. Returning to running was hard work, and I have just been 'general running' to build some base for around 3 months. 3 weeks ago, added some weekly tempo runs (3-4km) incorporated into 10K steady runs, and also some fartlek to push myself a bit. Found out speed is not my friend!
Today I decided to try 4x800m after a 3km warm up. Gosh! It was hard! And to think I used to do stuff like 10x1k reps, 6xmile reps etc. I had to rest a bit on THREE of the 800m reps!!! I suppose I shall just have to persevere. Plan to try this session again next week until I can complete it, then increase the reps. Is that the way to do this?
Oh, and it's getting rather hot and humid here in HK (today was 85% humidity at 29 degrees). Next race is actually an Autumn hilly HM in the UK, in the town I grew up, Harrow. Actually looking forward to this, but do want to feel good, rather than struggle through!
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Comments
AIM: 6x800m at RPE (as suggested), run by feel
RESULT: I did it!
Had a wobble at #3 when I lost concentration, and #6 when I didn't want to pass a runner I knew in front.
Didn't have a target pace, and found out that my ran around 10secs above last week's effort (where indeed I did to go out too fast, as I neglected to take into account my present fitness level), but was satisfied with this pace, as I didn't bonk and die, and it felt good to have done it! HAPPY!
Shall I repeat this next week, or mix up with some other types of reps, like 5x1K, or fartlek, and then do 800m reps again in a while and measure if I got fitter? Hmmm!