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My First set of Intervals (Read 187 times)

ckerr1999


    Did my first set of intervals on Tuesday night. I enjoyed the change up in my running routine, but can't believe how much pain I am in. Last night when I went for an easy run, I could barely move. The pain finally let up a little after about 3 miles, but called it quits after 4 miles. I was really tired, and all the sidewalks were under water from all the melting snow.  What hurt the most was my shins. Never experienced shin splints till yesterday. Even today I am still really sore. Hoping to run tonight but it probably won't be any fun. At least tomorrow is my rest day.

     

     

     

     

      It looks like you might have tried doing them at too fast a pace, since the later ones were a lot slower even with the really long recoveries (easy to do, I have chosen too fast of a pace more than once myself!). It looks like you actually did something more like repetitions than intervals. Did you base the paces on your goal times or on current fitness as measured by recent results? Hope the shins feel better soon.

      PRs: 5K: 21:25, 10K: 44:05, HM: 1:38:23* (downhill), M: 3:32:09

      Chris T


        Yeah, I agree that the pace was too fast. Perhaps even way too fast. I would shoot for 5-10k pace and shorten the rest periods.

        ckerr1999


          I didn't focus on pacing. I just focused on running as hard as I could. Probably not the smartest thing. I would do a 400m interval, and then a 400m rest period, and then repeated this 9x. I was hoping to do it 12x, but ran out of energy after 9 repeats.

           

           

           

           


          an amazing likeness

            Goodness, no.  If you're hurting...lengthen the rest sections.  The goal for dialing in your interval effort is to finish feeling like you could have done at least 1 more rep.  If your last int isn't equal to, or faster than previous ones, need to dial your effort level.

             

            MTA:  The shin splints are probably from foot "slap" of your forefoot hitting the pavement....another reason to dial back to a more fluid, controlled stride.

            Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.

              If I tried to run quarters at my mile pace, I'd be hurting too, and some of those intervals seemed to be way faster than your mile pace. Even the volume of intervals is probably a bit high for the mileage you've been running lately.   Surprised you were even able to go do another run the next morning

              WhoDatRunner


              Will Crew for Beer

                I didn't focus on pacing. I just focused on running as hard as I could.

                 

                The idea behind intervals isn't to run as hard as you can. Depending on the purpose of the interval session they are typically run at either 3K to 5K pace or at 10K pace. Here is an excellent thread that talks about the purpose of intervals.

                 

                Interval Purposes

                Rule number one of a gunfight, bring a gun. Rule number two of a gunfight, bring friends with guns.

                  Did my first set of intervals on Tuesday night. I enjoyed the change up in my running routine, but can't believe how much pain I am in. Last night when I went for an easy run, I could barely move. The pain finally let up a little after about 3 miles, but called it quits after 4 miles. I was really tired, and all the sidewalks were under water from all the melting snow.  What hurt the most was my shins. Never experienced shin splints till yesterday. Even today I am still really sore. Hoping to run tonight but it probably won't be any fun. At least tomorrow is my rest day.

                   

                  As others had already pointed out, you did your interval workouts WAY TOO FAST--particularly for the first one.  Basic goal of interval training is--and I don't know what kind of "program" you are following but--if you want to race, say, 5k race 10-weeks from now, your goal should be to get you used to a fast pace that you'll encounter at the end of 10-week plan.  So if you've been running 10-minute pace all this time, you'll probably want to start out doing, say, 9:30 pace at first and work our way down.  If your goal pace is 8-minute pace, map out so you can gradually increase the speed down to (ideally) a slightly faster than 8-minute pace so 8-minute is not going to be a shock on the race day (as you had found out after this interval workout).  Frankly, trying to run them at 6-minute pace when you are barely "racing" at 10-minute pace is not only unnecessary but also dangerous.

                   

                  Again, like I said, I don't know what kind of a plan you're following but if you had been working on "building the base" up till now and now getting into "speed development", then more of a reason why you start out gradually.  Think of what you have developed till now and what you hadn't worked on till now--you have a good endurance base (if you did it that way) but you lack speed.  More of a good reason why you should try to start out with an interval workout with high volume at slower pace.  If you're used to, say, running 10 or more miles at 10-minute pace; then your first interval workout should look more like 6-8 X 800m at 9-9:30 pace.  Sure you may feel it's slow or easy pace; but THE GOAL OF YOUR WORKOUT--ANY WORKOU--SHOULD BE TO DO WHAT YOU CAN DO; not to kill yourself so you'd have to take 3-4 following days just to recover.  That workout would get you to a good-stead for next week; that next week you can do 5 X 800m at 8:45 pace (note that you reduce the volume as you increase the speed).  THE SUCCESSFUL WORKOUT IS THE ONE YOU FEEL POSITIVE AND GOOD ABOUT WHEN YOU'RE DONE; not discouraged and sore.

                   

                  Actually this is why I like the Lydiard approach; you'll insert some hill exercise to strengthen your legs BEFORE you do interval training.  By the time you step on a track, or wherever you intend to do them, you'll be ready to actually run fast without killing yourself.  All these should be lined up and sorted out in a balanced way BEFORE you start a training program.  Just throwing a tough workout here and there is nothing but a crap-shooting.

                  ckerr1999


                    How fast should my  intervals be? I did a 5-mile Tempo run 2 weeks ago with an approx  pace of 7:50/mile or thereabouts. In a run last week my fastest mile was 7:10. And I think my intervals from Tuesday night were at the 6:00 mark. So shouldn't my intervals be considerable faster then my  7:10 mile.?  I am targeting a marathon pace of 8:00/mile for the fall. I generally do my easy runs and long runs around 9:30-9:50. For my tempo runs I target 7:30 -8:00/ mile. So according to the McMillian Calculator my 400m should be between 1:39-1:45. So I was a little too fast at 1:29???? Should I specifically target 1:45+? Last week I was at a conference for work so I didn't do much running, but the week before I hit 40 miles for the first time ever. Sorry for all the questions, still trying to figure out proper pacing.

                     

                     

                     

                     


                    an amazing likeness

                      Keep experimenting....you learned from this week's session that you ran them too hard. There's been some excellent discussions of intervals here at RA.  Here's a link to one of them.

                      Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.

                        How fast should my  intervals be? I did a 5-mile Tempo run 2 weeks ago with an approx  pace of 7:50/mile or thereabout. In a run last week my fastest mile was 7:10. And I think my intervals from Tuesday night were are the 6:00 mark. So shouldn't my intervals be considerable faster then my  7:10 mile.?  I am targeting a marathon pace of 8:00/mile for the fall. I generally do my easy runs and long runs around 9:30-9:50. For my tempo runs I target 7:30 -8:00/ mile. So according to the McMillian Calculator my 400m should be between 1:39-1:45. So I was a little too fast at 1:29???? Should I specifically target 1:45+? Last week I was at a conference for work so I didn't get much running, but the week before I hit 40 miles for the first time ever. Sorry for all the questions, still trying to figure out proper pacing.

                         

                        Normally, interval paces are based on a recent race that you've ran... you need an honest race to gauge your fitness on. In general though, a good rule of thumb is 5K race pace.  Your interval pace should have nothing to do with a goal pace - those are often dreams that never materialize and training at a goal pace is normally much faster than our current ability. It should be based on your current ability, TODAY...the day your running your intervals.

                         

                        You really shouldn't use the McMillan calculator in reverse fashion... that is, don't plug in what you think was a tempo effort, and find the corresponding race time. That's assuming you know what a tempo effort feels like, and it takes a pretty experienced and advanced runner to do that.   Still, let's say 1:30-1:45 was accurate for a 400m interval. 10 seconds too fast is substantially too fast, especially over 400m.

                          How did you choose your target marathon pace, was that chosen based on a recent result?

                           

                          It works better if you train at paces that are reasonable based on where you're at, not based on a goal that may not necessarily be realistic at this time.

                          PRs: 5K: 21:25, 10K: 44:05, HM: 1:38:23* (downhill), M: 3:32:09

                            Normally, interval paces are based on a recent race that you've ran... you need an honest race to gauge your fitness on. In general though, a good rule of thumb is 5K race pace.  Your interval pace should have nothing to do with a goal pace - those are often dreams that never materialize and training at a goal pace is normally much faster than our current ability. It should be based on your current ability, TODAY...the day your running your intervals.

                             

                            You really shouldn't use the McMillan calculator in reverse fashion... that is, don't plug in what you think was a tempo effort, and find the corresponding race time. That's assuming you know what a tempo effort feels like, and it takes a pretty experienced and advanced runner to do that.   Still, let's say 1:30-1:45 was accurate for a 400m interval. 10 seconds too fast is substantially too fast, especially over 400m.

                             

                            This.

                             

                            Intervals aren't about what you can do. Intervals are about what you should do. If you really are comfortable doing tempo at 7:45 pace then 1:40-1:50 is probably a safe range for your 400m intervals but you want your first interval to be your slowest and your last interval to be your fastest.

                            adavis58


                              Speaking from experience, I would not recommend running on a sore shin.

                              Take a day off let it rest and quit hurting or I guarantee you will be taking a day off, because it will hurt like heck just to walk.

                              If you are wanting to do intervals I would suggest getting a gps watch like a garmin and gradually working your pace up.

                              Art

                              http://fitatfifty-art.blogspot.com/

                                How fast should my  intervals be? I did a 5-mile Tempo run 2 weeks ago with an approx  pace of 7:50/mile or thereabouts. In a run last week my fastest mile was 7:10. And I think my intervals from Tuesday night were at the 6:00 mark. So shouldn't my intervals be considerable faster then my  7:10 mile.?  I am targeting a marathon pace of 8:00/mile for the fall. I generally do my easy runs and long runs around 9:30-9:50. For my tempo runs I target 7:30 -8:00/ mile. So according to the McMillian Calculator my 400m should be between 1:39-1:45. So I was a little too fast at 1:29???? Should I specifically target 1:45+? Last week I was at a conference for work so I didn't do much running, but the week before I hit 40 miles for the first time ever. Sorry for all the questions, still trying to figure out proper pacing.

                                Frankly, I can't really get a clear picture here.  You posted your PR races as 10k in 1:01 last September, a half marathon in 2:12...and you do your runs usually at high 9s to 10-minute pace.  That seems to me to be your "most recent" race times.  And you "train" most of your runs at or faster than your half marathon race pace and your 5-mile tempo run at 7:50 pace???  And your goal is sub-20 minutes for 5k???  Something just don't add up.  What makes you think you can (miraculously) improve your 10k time by whopping 15-minutes?  Just because you "try" to do certain workouts FAST/HARD, that does NOT guarantee a fast time or impressive improvement.  Did you get that McMillan calculated pace based on your "recent" race time or your "wishful" race times?

                                 

                                Based on your 1:01-10k time, your long run pace should be 11:35 per mile pace; tempo run at 11:00 pace; your first interval session, if done in 400m, should be in 2:19 (done 12-20 times, not 9).  And you can expect a full marathon time of 4:27.  IF you want your target marathon time of 3:30 (8-minute pace you think you can do), then you should be running 2-hours on weekend at 9:40 pace; even then your tempo run, not 5-miles but more like 8-10 miles, at 9-minute pace; and EVEN THEN your 400m intervals should be run in 1:50.  In other words, hate to say, but doing a 5-mile tempo run at 7:50 or doing 400s in 1:30 would probably do very little for your target 3:30 marathon.  Furthermore, some people mentioned your 5k race pace being your interval pace.  Realize 20-minutes 5k is approximately 6:30 pace.  So doing 400s in 1:30, again, probably has very little to do with your goal 5k performance.  Running is like a math.  You build a gallon bucket, you can expect to store a gallon.  If you don't do it right, you may not even get a gallon; but you do have a potential to get a gallon.  But to do the work to build a gallon bucket and you can NOT expect to get 2 gallons.  That's what you're trying to do.

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