Last week I moved out of the base building phase of my marathon plan and this meant introducing intervals for the first time this year. Intervals are generally running at a high tempo pace for given distance or period of time, followed by a slower recovery period. This is then repeated a number of times, preferably with some warm up and cool down kilometres. There are a lot of scientific and physiological reasons to incorporate some interval training into your plan. This study showed that high intensity interval training resulted in greater mitochondrial function, which relates to better energy conversion in the body which will improve overall performance. It can also provide a nice balance to the long, slow runs that comprise of most training schedules. Pushing your body to a higher limit will force it to adapt and will benefit all your running, not just short distance sprints. Personally I have also found the recovery period quite useful. It forces my body to recover from a high intensity period of running without completely stopping. This might mimic a difficult part in a race such as a hill or strong wind where you will use a bit more energy to get through it. However you need to just continue on with the rest of the race afterwards.

Interval training can vary and this mostly depends on what you are training towards. Short interval periods (30s – 1 min) are better for very short races while longer periods (>1km) are more suited to long distance running. Last summer I tried interval training for the first time and did it once every two weeks. The plan was 4 x 1km intervals and to run them under 4 minutes. I decided to stick to the same plan this year although I changed my location for the training. On Monday morning I got up nice and early and headed up to Phoenix Park on my warm up. There is a lovely, mostly flat path that was perfect to run on and at that time was mostly abandoned. There were some deer that didn’t understand the concept of interval training and kept coming back to the spot I had scared them away from. It was however the day after Storm Ciara had hit Ireland which meant there was a lot of water around the park.

I tended to start a bit too fast on each of the first three intervals as you can see the pace drop off as I went through each of them. I finished the first three in 3:56, 3:59, 3:53 meeting that sub 4 goal. As I turned to start the final interval I made a snap decision and decided I was going to set a new fastest kilometre PB on my Garmin. This was previously 3:33 although was recorded in dodgy weather and the GPS may not have tracked correctly. This time I wanted the time to be official. I didn’t drop off the pace this time and with a last push at the end, finished the kilometre in 3:32.6 and with a new PB. It was a nice way to finish off a very successful and enjoyable training session. Last year on the day of my intervals and the day after I tended to feel it in my legs. But as a demonstration of how much stronger they have become this year, I felt great afterwards and continued the rest of my week with a 9km slow run, 8km tempo and 16km slow run the following days.

I plan to stick to this Monday morning plan for my high intensity training although I will alternate between intervals and hill repeats each week. I might write about hill repeats in the future as its a new addition to my training plan so there might be some things to figure out. At least for now I like my 4 x 1km intervals which I think fills the gap in my training nicely and should help to prepare me for Manchester.