Interval purposes (side topic from pg3 of "other than experience" thread) (Read 7691 times)


an amazing likeness

    How often is all about recovery and allowing your body to incorporate and onboard the benefits from the stress of the interval workout while you're going about the follow-on easy workouts. One clue is that most formal training plans have 1 or 2 quality workouts per week, and easy days around them.

     

    For me, I'm elderly, fat, and bald so it takes a few days to fully recover from an interval session...

    Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.


    Feeling the growl again

      Just saw this thread.  Thanks, Spaniel, for posting it.

       

      Reading through the only thing I didn't see (and I may have missed it) is how often should one be doing any type of interval workout?  Once a week?  Twice a week?  Depends on how often one is running?

       

      It all depends what you are training for and where in your training cycle you are.  During base phase you may not do any intervals, and instead focus on tempo work, hills, and fartleks.  Most of the time I recommend one interval session per week.  But if you're doing mid-distance or are in the month or 6 weeks prior to a goal 5K/10K, you may do two interval sessions -- usually a #2 and a #3.

       

      Paula Radcliffe did that setup while training to set her marathon WR.  But most of us are not Paula Radcliffe.

       

      As milktruck indicated, recovery is the limiting factor.  In my 20s I could do a hard workout Tues/Thurs/Sunday...and sometimes even a moderate one on Saturday.  Now in my mid-30s -- and probably also because I'm not conditioned to run 100mpw anymore -- I need 2 recovery days between workouts.  I recently read that Meb is on such a schedule too (though I am not Meb, either).

      "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

       

      I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills