WP, well done getting back out there. I thought only Yorkshire men wore skorts.
Dave, I have reached the point where just passing someone is a thrill.
I took the dog for a walk in Alehouse weather, 1c, foggy and damp, all bundled up. Got back changed into shorts and t-shirt and ran 5.4k singing along to the goldie oldies in 20c and 45% humidity. Ok I'm a wimp.
Good to see you guys all ticking over nicely and I see from Strava Welsh Poppy is going again - happy days!
Main thing to report from me as alehouse asked - Parkrun has returned! First Parkrun for so long - did the Cornwall Park one 27.48 average heartrate 166 - max heartrate 176.
I did some decent long runs in December as the Auckland marathon is now on end of January - not sure if I will do it or not - it is so hot here but am up for a long walk/run on Thursday - should be fun with lots of drinks and snack stops.
NZ is now over 90% vaccinated so we are doing pretty well - though I will keep my fingers crossed - vaccine passes are required everywhere except for essential services and masks are required there.
Indeed, good to hear from you, NZC! Not remotely jealous of your warmth...
Yes, managed 68 (+2) this morning. Nice and gentle as my M76 neighbour held me back, I'm pleased to say!
Back on it tomorrow please, Birch. A nice gentle leg loosener, which is exactly what I will be doing. Then a long stretch in the evening: uni fitness suite reopens tomorrow.
No visit to the alehouse, but had three off- spring and their partners around for a Chinese takeaway which I washed down with various liquids!
Progress is rarely a straight line. There are always bumps in the road, but you can make the choice to keep looking ahead.
Dave apologies for the reference to the footie - but I was once able to console myself by how far S'land had fallen. Not surprised you have creaky legs after that solid start to the year - parkrun effort and all! Haha at your instinctive reactions during the parkrun - old habits do die hard
alehouse it's all time on one's feet that counts - it still requires effort to remain vertical and moving.
NZC good to hear from you again and it's even better to see you are still running well despite the heat! Great parkrun result.
Mick can't blame you on ducking out of the weather outside. The USA seems to be getting a lot of snow - is it heading your way as well?
well I had alehouse legs after preparing dinner for 10 persons on Sunday - moving was barely possible on Monday morning. I have had an extra rest with a Hash due this evening in freezing conditions with snow/ice on the ground - lovely !! I may layer up to alehouse standards................
Hope the Hash was good and you stayed on your feet, both whilst running and in the bar, TS!
3.4 km recovery run then an hour's stretching. Hopefully the former will gradually increase and the latter will become more frequent. Been rather slack with stretches over the Festive period.
Progress is rarely a straight line. There are always bumps in the road, but you can make the choice to keep looking ahead.
TS, I agree about time on your feet, after watching the Chelsea game where they had 12,000 people standing for the whole game, had me wondering whether I could still do that. We have had one minor storm that involved me and my snow blower but nothing in the forecast. My snow blower has shear bolts in the impeller and auger and of course I managed to shear them blowing the ice from the end of my drive. So tomorrow I will be in fixit mode, so I'm glad we have nothing in the forecast.
A bit nippy for my run with the boys today but they were most impressed with my heated mitts. It was around -13c with the wind chill so I felt like a hero just being out there for 7k. No inside dining as from tomorrow so one of the boys has volunteered to let us go to his place for drinks and snacks.
Mick I am glad your heated mitts worked well that was cold!! enjoy snacks with the gang.
TS Hope the hash went well.
I ran Monday 5 miles and all went well kept to cycle path.No run yesterday as per plan.So today is run day and 2 degrees out so need to get some warm clothes on first.Wish me luck!
ALF: Always a little further Miles makes smiles. Progression
Mick at least it has given you something to do - hope you get it fixed before more snow comes. 7K is a nice number to get under the belt Your mitts sound just the job and I could have done with them last night.
-2C when I left home and the car had only just warmed up when I got to the venue in K'boro so a return to the steep paths up the riverbank. A keen wind was also blowing so the wind chill was considerable but I was nicely layered with fine merino base layer, a wicking top and my new Higher State windbreaker jacket - plus gloves of course. However a beautiful clear night, dry roads and paths made for an enjoyable outing over just on 3 miles of stiff up and down. I was moving quite freely for once and surprised some younger hashers by overtaking them on several occasions just to remind them of their place - they had got used to leaving me behind
Out early this morning into a very clear & chill dawn sky and did 3.2 miles in 35:20 with 85m more of climbing.
TS - nice evening/morning double there - well deserved m.pie & h.choc ! . . . and well done gently demonstrating your rank
WP - good 5 on Mon; hope you remained non-frostbitten today!
Mick - good test for the mitts; unlike you, still allowed to dine here, so as its first Thursday of the month tomorrow, its "lads lunch" - which I categorically state will not extend to 10pm, as did our Christmas lunch . . .
alehouse - good family celebration for the "68" - and considerate of your neighbour to make the pace a little easier. Must try to follow your example re stretching (I moan enough about my "tinman" legs)
Took your advice re a gentle leg loosener yesterday, with a 3 which fitted the description. An unexpected 8 this early evening; legs felt fresh, by the usual standards, so added on at the end of a planned 6. Was bloomin' cold though . . . . .
TS suitably refreshed with some Winter staples and showing the whipper snappers there place in the pecking order.
Dave: Great work especially in the cold weather as never easy
I never made it to the running stage I walk 1/4 mile to start point and in front of me a runner went down after helping him up I turned around and came home.No point adding to injuries so did 2 TBP workouts instead.
ALF: Always a little further Miles makes smiles. Progression
Snow turning to rain here. Earlier it was bitterly cold on my short run and was wishing I had Mick's gloves.
Lunch out here as well: my little twins are 32! And in other news I am due to become a grandfather in June: younger twin and her partner are expecting a baby then!
Progress is rarely a straight line. There are always bumps in the road, but you can make the choice to keep looking ahead.
Dave excellent turn of mileage there - well done good of you to try and maintain the hospitality industry on your own
WP a faller on the ice?
another crisp, chill start to the day which has now turned to snow flurries under a grey sky The same 3.2 miles done in 35:19 so I had speeded up by one second over yesterday aaahh well.
Nice to see that Djokovic is getting the proper treatment down under!!
alehouse many congratulations Is that your first g'child?
If so prepare yourself for the onset of a whole new raft of coughs, colds and other ailments as they are proper bug spreaders which us oldies have no immunity to!!
Alehouse - exciting news! We have 3 grand daughters - 24, 22 and 12.
Looks like you had a recent birthday too but no new age-group! Sounds like your old mate is helping you get some decent mileage in.
Torque Steer - sounds like you enjoyed passing those young hashers and I'm sure they would have noted your flash gear.
Welsh Poppy - what a good, kind runner you are helping that person that went down. Sounded like awful conditions - think you made the right call.
Birch - well done on the 8 - always impressive because I know those are miles!
Mick - sounds like you have having some quality time with your friends.
Well we did the 42 km walk with our 42 year old son. Ten of us, all family, including George the dog, all did parts of it with him. Started at 5.30 am to beat the heat. The first 20 km wasn't so bad though it included a couple of volcanoes. Then it was time to switch groupings and have coffee - some had a full breakfast but I just had an iced coffee and a pastry.
It got very hot in the second half. Son had his booster shot yesterday so was not feeling too great. So glad to see the end of it. Instead of a barbeque we opted for takeaways.
Four of us completed the full distance, our son, our grand daughter's boyfriend, my husband and I.
Well done on the marathon walk, NZC! Memorable for your son! And send warmth please!
Yes, TS, will be the first grandchild. I am, of course, familiar with the coughs, colds etc as I often work with 25 to 30 under 5s! The three year olds are the worst!
Hope lunch has finished, Birch! Mine was good, albeit non-alcoholic.
Hope you find your little pony, WP!
Progress is rarely a straight line. There are always bumps in the road, but you can make the choice to keep looking ahead.
Alehouse, Well done, all the glory is yours with none of the responsibilty. My eldest daugher is 50 this year and my grandaughter is 23, not that I am trying to one up you or anything.
WP, so now we know how you manage all those miles, you are on horse back.
TS, Impressive couple of days for a wrinkly.
I took the dog for her walk this morning and found the footing a bit dodgy so opted for a row. 5k done listening to my favourite piece of classical, Mozart Concerto for the Clarinet. Maybe I should try classical over pop on the treadmill as it felt much easier today. The snowblower is back in action. It is always touugh working on frozen metal and I could not use my mitts as I was deaing with small parts. I sometimes wonder what households do who do not have an over educated engineer available 24 hours a day. There is always something that needs fixing.
.Been back a few days and all went well,but glad to be back.Far to hot to run as it was 27 degrees most days so didn’t bother.To much has gone on for me to comment on but will post later.
Comments/advice invited please on intervals. This would be for the purpose of 5k. Does/has anyone use them? I've just started 500 metre ones at 5k pace minus 10 seconds with a 2 minute rest. I managed 6 and kept a constant pace. Does that sound about right? Happy running!
Intervals: love them...but only because over the years this has become a misused term! Intervals are the break between fast bursts of running, hence my reason for liking them. I don't like the reps though! Repetitions, or reps: I use one of the following: - Up to 4 x 1 km with 50% recovery eg rep is 4 minutes, recovery is 2. - Up to 15 x 30 secs with one minute recovery, ideally on a slight incline Both sessions are run at slightly faster than race pace.
These sessions need building up to, so I would be starting at something like 2 x 3 minutes, or 6 x 30 secs and building week on week, with the occasional cut back week.
The above sessions are based on some research that I was involved in in the 70s (I was one of the guinea pigs!): an exercise physiologist at Leeds Carnegie was working with someone at Exeter College to identify the most effective training sessions. I am sure that that research will have been superseded but it will do me!
Just started sleeting here so my run will be much delayed!
Progress is rarely a straight line. There are always bumps in the road, but you can make the choice to keep looking ahead.
Thanks Alehouse! That's really interesting, especially your personal involvement. Leeds Carnegie had a very good reputation for sports science, I believe. I might add the incline ones at some stage which I'm assuming are not quite 'hill reps' in the accepted sense.
PS thanks for the slight correction on the term intervals. Always learning!
NZC that's one way to celebrate a birthday - not one I would like to emulate nowadays, far too many miles!! Nice to hear of warm weather just now.
Ray welcome back Did you enjoy the island? I had a booking for it some time ago but cancelled at the first sign of Covid.
Mick cold metal and bare skin - what, you don't have a heated garage ?? Well they use piped classical music to keep vandals away from public spaces so it may give you a lift
Know the feeling about fixing things particularly as I have families living nearby who think I am also on call for them. I switched on the cloakroom light yesterday, which is actually a back lit wall mounted vanity mirror and it promptly started spluttering from inside. Mrs TS said buy another one (!! they are expensive) but it now lies waiting for me to open it up and try and find out what's wrong.............
Less of the wrinkly please - I have a pleasantly unlined face! The old bit I can't do much about however
alehouse of course you get a regular introduction to the newest bugs going round in a school - lucky you
Dave sounds a good day out putting the world to rights - and getting home safely!
John welcome to the house of knowledge It depends what you want intervals for - or at least, as alehouse pointed out, what the bits between the intervals are for. Even in a 5K there are two component parts - improving overall speed over the duration - improving final speed, kick at the and of a race (glory hunting etc)
For the first one it's all about improving high end aerobic efficiency (you will have heard those words before) and that entails buffering one's ability to tolerate muscle fatigue.
What is/what causes muscle fatigue? It's a condition of the muscles in which its capacity to produce maximum voluntary action or to perform a series of repetitive actions is temporarily reduced. It results when muscle activity exceeds tissue substrate and oxygenation capacity.
A lot of muscle fatigue is derived from tissue oxygen deprivation which is why so much focus is on improving VO2 max levels and the ability to both absorb and tolerate higher levels of lactate in the bloodstream as a result of anaerobic respiration.
There are other factors at play such as glycogen or phosphocreatine depletion, proton build-up, exhaustion of neurotransmitters and a breakdown in the calcium metabolism but that latter one gets quite complicated
alehouse's examples are fairly typical but I would suggest that the interval recovery bits are actually too long as they give the body the ability to dissipate lactate naturally and one needs to have sufficient levels in the bloodstream when starting the next session so that the body has to immediately start to compensate for and dissipate the lactic build up as efficiently as possible.
Otherwise one uses the first part of the running session simply building up the lactate levels again.
I used to run interval/tempo workouts of 4- 6 x 1 mile with 2 min jog recoveries when reasonably fit and younger a few years back! So if I was at 1:35 HM pace the miles would be run at around 7:00 - 7:15 m/m pace.
These would be alternated (different weeks!) with high end VO2 max runs of 400 - 800m x 4->6 with longer recoveries of 4-6 min walk/jogging as they would be at near maximum effort - around 6:00 m/m pace.
Do not overdo them and build up the intervals gradually!!
An example of the fully developed VO2 max intervals below
Just as I went out it started snowing/ sleeting which fell onto frozen pavements and promptly formed ice - not the best surface for one with dodgy knees!
So a very cautious 3.2 miles in 36:38 . No damage to report to knee thankfully although it stiffened up quite quickly as soon as I stopped moving.
rest day tomorrow after all these exertions
Just realised that those interval records were from 6 years ago!!! It was the last time I was running reasonably well before being afflicted by my spine and subsequent thyroid issues - ye gods where does time go?
I was trying to keep things simple, TS! When I was doing the Km reps in the 70s (yes, where did those 45 years go?) we were operating at between 2:40 and 2:48 per k, so only getting about 80 seconds recovery...which I never found enough. Can't imagine how we ever ran that quickly...which in reality wasn't that quick! In recent years I have had some success with working up to the 4 x km in 4 minutes or just under when advising people trying to get below 20 minutes for 5k, with 50% recovery. It is, of course, part of a bigger picture as part of a week/month/3 month schedule. At times in the past I have been barely able to walk the next day after some sessions, never mind run. Not good and certainly led to injury. I think that whatever JB, or anyone else, does needs to be backed up with a strength and stretching routine. Which I currently seem to be neglecting: only seem to be doing my exercises once a week rather than most days!
Weather foul here also so just another short recovery run. Will see what tomorrow brings!
Progress is rarely a straight line. There are always bumps in the road, but you can make the choice to keep looking ahead.
TS-Our stay was on island called Boa Vista which is a combination of volcanic rock and pure white sandy beaches which go on for miles.Our hotel was very isolated which was some 40mins drive from the airport with absolutely nothing in between.Had two runs I think in very hot conditions,then just stuck to swimming in the sea and pools.
Comments
WP,
well done getting back out there. I thought only Yorkshire men wore skorts.
Dave,
I have reached the point where just passing someone is a thrill.
I took the dog for a walk in Alehouse weather, 1c, foggy and damp, all bundled up. Got back changed into shorts and t-shirt and ran 5.4k singing along to the goldie oldies in 20c and 45% humidity. Ok I'm a wimp.
Mick
still no gloves required. 10 miles already bagged in 2022
Was supposed to be 68 minutes today but that is going to wait until tomorrow. I did 67 minutes on the same day last year and 66 the year before...
Main thing to report from me as alehouse asked - Parkrun has returned! First Parkrun for so long - did the Cornwall Park one 27.48 average heartrate 166 - max heartrate 176.
I did some decent long runs in December as the Auckland marathon is now on end of January - not sure if I will do it or not - it is so hot here but am up for a long walk/run on Thursday - should be fun with lots of drinks and snack stops.
NZ is now over 90% vaccinated so we are doing pretty well - though I will keep my fingers crossed - vaccine passes are required everywhere except for essential services and masks are required there.
Let's hope for a better 2022 for the whole world.
hope the 68 mins went well, alehouse - celebratory visit to the alehouse also?
decided on a rest day today. I think the "80% effort" parkrun has had a disproportionate effect on my legs, after he 5 yesterday.
Dave
Yes, managed 68 (+2) this morning. Nice and gentle as my M76 neighbour held me back, I'm pleased to say!
Back on it tomorrow please, Birch. A nice gentle leg loosener, which is exactly what I will be doing. Then a long stretch in the evening: uni fitness suite reopens tomorrow.
No visit to the alehouse, but had three off- spring and their partners around for a Chinese takeaway which I washed down with various liquids!
good start to the year
Dave
apologies for the reference to the footie - but I was once able to console myself by how far S'land had fallen.
Not surprised you have creaky legs after that solid start to the year - parkrun effort and all!
Haha at your instinctive reactions during the parkrun - old habits do die hard
alehouse
it's all time on one's feet that counts - it still requires effort to remain vertical and moving.
NZC
good to hear from you again and it's even better to see you are still running well despite the heat! Great parkrun result.
Mick
can't blame you on ducking out of the weather outside. The USA seems to be getting a lot of snow - is it heading your way as well?
well I had alehouse legs after preparing dinner for 10 persons on Sunday - moving was barely possible on Monday morning. I have had an extra rest with a Hash due this evening in freezing conditions with snow/ice on the ground - lovely !!
I may layer up to alehouse standards................
3.4 km recovery run then an hour's stretching. Hopefully the former will gradually increase and the latter will become more frequent. Been rather slack with stretches over the Festive period.
I agree about time on your feet, after watching the Chelsea game where they had 12,000 people standing for the whole game, had me wondering whether I could still do that.
We have had one minor storm that involved me and my snow blower but nothing in the forecast. My snow blower has shear bolts in the impeller and auger and of course I managed to shear them blowing the ice from the end of my drive. So tomorrow I will be in fixit mode, so I'm glad we have nothing in the forecast.
A bit nippy for my run with the boys today but they were most impressed with my heated mitts. It was around -13c with the wind chill so I felt like a hero just being out there for 7k. No inside dining as from tomorrow so one of the boys has volunteered to let us go to his place for drinks and snacks.
Mick
TS Hope the hash went well.
I ran Monday 5 miles and all went well kept to cycle path.No run yesterday as per plan.So today is run day and 2 degrees out so need to get some warm clothes on first.Wish me luck!
Miles makes smiles.
Progression
you are on your way to becoming Mr Bendy
WP
enjoy it out there
Mick
at least it has given you something to do - hope you get it fixed before more snow comes.
7K is a nice number to get under the belt
Your mitts sound just the job and I could have done with them last night.
-2C when I left home and the car had only just warmed up when I got to the venue in K'boro so a return to the steep paths up the riverbank.
A keen wind was also blowing so the wind chill was considerable but I was nicely layered with fine merino base layer, a wicking top and my new Higher State windbreaker jacket - plus gloves of course.
However a beautiful clear night, dry roads and paths made for an enjoyable outing over just on 3 miles of stiff up and down.
I was moving quite freely for once and surprised some younger hashers by overtaking them on several occasions just to remind them of their place - they had got used to leaving me behind
Out early this morning into a very clear & chill dawn sky and did 3.2 miles in 35:20 with 85m more of climbing.
Enjoyed my hot choccie and mince pie on my return
WP - good 5 on Mon; hope you remained non-frostbitten today!
Mick - good test for the mitts; unlike you, still allowed to dine here, so as its first Thursday of the month tomorrow, its "lads lunch" - which I categorically state will not extend to 10pm, as did our Christmas lunch . . .
alehouse - good family celebration for the "68" - and considerate of your neighbour to make the pace a little easier. Must try to follow your example re stretching (I moan enough about my "tinman" legs)
Took your advice re a gentle leg loosener yesterday, with a 3 which fitted the description.
An unexpected 8 this early evening; legs felt fresh, by the usual standards, so added on at the end of a planned 6. Was bloomin' cold though . . . . .
Dave
Dave: Great work especially in the cold weather as never easy
I never made it to the running stage I walk 1/4 mile to start point and in front of me a runner went down after helping him up I turned around and came home.No point adding to injuries so did 2 TBP workouts instead.
Miles makes smiles.
Progression
3 miles this morn here - no ice, but very cold again. Forecast indicates I could get wet walking back from lunch . . . .
Dave
Lunch out here as well: my little twins are 32! And in other news I am due to become a grandfather in June: younger twin and her partner are expecting a baby then!
excellent turn of mileage there - well done
good of you to try and maintain the hospitality industry on your own
WP
a faller on the ice?
another crisp, chill start to the day which has now turned to snow flurries under a grey sky
The same 3.2 miles done in 35:19 so I had speeded up by one second over yesterday aaahh well.
Nice to see that Djokovic is getting the proper treatment down under!!
many congratulations Is that your first g'child?
If so prepare yourself for the onset of a whole new raft of coughs, colds and other ailments as they are proper bug spreaders which us oldies have no immunity to!!
Dave
enjoy lunch
Were as I have lost my flipping horse!
Alehouse Congratulations on new addition to family later this year.
TS Yes good new in Australia!! Well done on a quicker run today even if 1 second still something to build on.
Boot camp day but I cancelled and went back to bed for 3 hours! Anyone seen my Horse
Miles makes smiles.
Progression
Looks like you had a recent birthday too but no new age-group! Sounds like your old mate is helping you get some decent mileage in.
Torque Steer - sounds like you enjoyed passing those young hashers and I'm sure they would have noted your flash gear.
Welsh Poppy - what a good, kind runner you are helping that person that went down. Sounded like awful conditions - think you made the right call.
Birch - well done on the 8 - always impressive because I know those are miles!
Mick - sounds like you have having some quality time with your friends.
Well we did the 42 km walk with our 42 year old son. Ten of us, all family, including George the dog, all did parts of it with him. Started at 5.30 am to beat the heat. The first 20 km wasn't so bad though it included a couple of volcanoes. Then it was time to switch groupings and have coffee - some had a full breakfast but I just had an iced coffee and a pastry.
It got very hot in the second half. Son had his booster shot yesterday so was not feeling too great. So glad to see the end of it. Instead of a barbeque we opted for takeaways.
Four of us completed the full distance, our son, our grand daughter's boyfriend, my husband and I.
Yes, TS, will be the first grandchild. I am, of course, familiar with the coughs, colds etc as I often work with 25 to 30 under 5s! The three year olds are the worst!
Hope lunch has finished, Birch! Mine was good, albeit non-alcoholic.
Hope you find your little pony, WP!
Well done, all the glory is yours with none of the responsibilty.
My eldest daugher is 50 this year and my grandaughter is 23, not that I am trying to one up you or anything.
WP,
so now we know how you manage all those miles, you are on horse back.
TS,
Impressive couple of days for a wrinkly.
I took the dog for her walk this morning and found the footing a bit dodgy so opted for a row. 5k done listening to my favourite piece of classical, Mozart Concerto for the Clarinet. Maybe I should try classical over pop on the treadmill as it felt much easier today.
The snowblower is back in action. It is always touugh working on frozen metal and I could not use my mitts as I was deaing with small parts.
I sometimes wonder what households do who do not have an over educated engineer available 24 hours a day. There is always something that needs fixing.
Mick
.Been back a few days and all went well,but glad to be back.Far to hot to run as it was 27 degrees most days so didn’t bother.To much has gone on for me to comment on but will post later.
I've just started 500 metre ones at 5k pace minus 10 seconds with a 2 minute rest. I managed 6 and kept a constant pace.
Does that sound about right?
Happy running!
Intervals: love them...but only because over the years this has become a misused term! Intervals are the break between fast bursts of running, hence my reason for liking them. I don't like the reps though!
Repetitions, or reps: I use one of the following:
- Up to 4 x 1 km with 50% recovery eg rep is 4 minutes, recovery is 2.
- Up to 15 x 30 secs with one minute recovery, ideally on a slight incline
Both sessions are run at slightly faster than race pace.
These sessions need building up to, so I would be starting at something like 2 x 3 minutes, or 6 x 30 secs and building week on week, with the occasional cut back week.
The above sessions are based on some research that I was involved in in the 70s (I was one of the guinea pigs!): an exercise physiologist at Leeds Carnegie was working with someone at Exeter College to identify the most effective training sessions. I am sure that that research will have been superseded but it will do me!
Just started sleeting here so my run will be much delayed!
TS - impressive increase in speed
Mick - my brain can't compute having a 50 year old "child" . . . .
NZC - great to hear the walk accomplished - no doubt the takeaways were savoured !
WP - 3 hours extra under the duvet sounds good ! was tempted myself today, but resisted
lunch was enjoyed, thanks - world put to rights of course, and back home in good order
so, will run later, as been sleeting (and snowing for a while) most of morning here.
Dave
PS thanks for the slight correction on the term intervals. Always learning!
stable ???
NZC
that's one way to celebrate a birthday - not one I would like to emulate nowadays, far too many miles!!
Nice to hear of warm weather just now.
Ray
welcome back
Did you enjoy the island? I had a booking for it some time ago but cancelled at the first sign of Covid.
Mick
cold metal and bare skin - what, you don't have a heated garage ??
Well they use piped classical music to keep vandals away from public spaces so it may give you a lift
Know the feeling about fixing things particularly as I have families living nearby who think I am also on call for them.
I switched on the cloakroom light yesterday, which is actually a back lit wall mounted vanity mirror and it promptly started spluttering from inside. Mrs TS said buy another one (!! they are expensive) but it now lies waiting for me to open it up and try and find out what's wrong.............
Less of the wrinkly please - I have a pleasantly unlined face! The old bit I can't do much about however
alehouse
of course you get a regular introduction to the newest bugs going round in a school - lucky you
Dave
sounds a good day out putting the world to rights - and getting home safely!
John
welcome to the house of knowledge
It depends what you want intervals for - or at least, as alehouse pointed out, what the bits between the intervals are for.
Even in a 5K there are two component parts
- improving overall speed over the duration
- improving final speed, kick at the and of a race (glory hunting etc)
For the first one it's all about improving high end aerobic efficiency (you will have heard those words before) and that entails buffering one's ability to tolerate muscle fatigue.
What is/what causes muscle fatigue?
It's a condition of the muscles in which its capacity to produce maximum voluntary action or to perform a series of repetitive actions is temporarily reduced. It results when muscle activity exceeds tissue substrate and oxygenation capacity.
A lot of muscle fatigue is derived from tissue oxygen deprivation which is why so much focus is on improving VO2 max levels and the ability to both absorb and tolerate higher levels of lactate in the bloodstream as a result of anaerobic respiration.
There are other factors at play such as glycogen or phosphocreatine depletion, proton build-up, exhaustion of neurotransmitters and a breakdown in the calcium metabolism but that latter one gets quite complicated
alehouse's examples are fairly typical but I would suggest that the interval recovery bits are actually too long as they give the body the ability to dissipate lactate naturally and one needs to have sufficient levels in the bloodstream when starting the next session so that the body has to immediately start to compensate for and dissipate the lactic build up as efficiently as possible.
Otherwise one uses the first part of the running session simply building up the lactate levels again.
I used to run interval/tempo workouts of 4- 6 x 1 mile with 2 min jog recoveries when reasonably fit and younger a few years back!
So if I was at 1:35 HM pace the miles would be run at around 7:00 - 7:15 m/m pace.
These would be alternated (different weeks!) with high end VO2 max runs of 400 - 800m x 4->6 with longer recoveries of 4-6 min walk/jogging as they would be at near maximum effort - around 6:00 m/m pace.
Do not overdo them and build up the intervals gradually!!
An example of the fully developed VO2 max intervals below
Wednesday 11 June 2016 (200m walk recovery)
01 1:29 128 145
odd ones slightly downhill, even ones back up slight hill!!02 1:37 140 156
03 1:28 136 153
04 1:39 136 156
05 1:28 134 154
06 1:37 142 160
07 1:28 136 154
08 1:37 143 161
09 1:27 138 156
10 1:39 143 162
Just as I went out it started snowing/ sleeting which fell onto frozen pavements and promptly formed ice - not the best surface for one with dodgy knees!
So a very cautious 3.2 miles in 36:38 . No damage to report to knee thankfully although it stiffened up quite quickly as soon as I stopped moving.
rest day tomorrow after all these exertions
Just realised that those interval records were from 6 years ago!!!
It was the last time I was running reasonably well before being afflicted by my spine and subsequent thyroid issues - ye gods where does time go?
In recent years I have had some success with working up to the 4 x km in 4 minutes or just under when advising people trying to get below 20 minutes for 5k, with 50% recovery. It is, of course, part of a bigger picture as part of a week/month/3 month schedule. At times in the past I have been barely able to walk the next day after some sessions, never mind run. Not good and certainly led to injury.
I think that whatever JB, or anyone else, does needs to be backed up with a strength and stretching routine. Which I currently seem to be neglecting: only seem to be doing my exercises once a week rather than most days!
Weather foul here also so just another short recovery run. Will see what tomorrow brings!
So back to reality 6miles today 8:45 pace overall