Interval pace. Confused.

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Jun 2022
3:00pm, 23 Jun 2022
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RooA
I think I will just continue running how I feel for the intervals aiming for roughly the pace I acheived yesterday. Monitoring how I feel the day after and being aware that I can probably run them a bit slower and still get the benefit (if I'm having a shitty hormone day for example!)... I think I'm still in the phase where ANY speed work confers benefit rather than needing to be very precise about optimising things.

I'm afraid I am too ignorant to know that intervals are for training V02 max or anything like that. :-) I'm like at caveman level... want run fast, so run fast. *grunt*
Jun 2022
3:08pm, 23 Jun 2022
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MudMeanderer
Pace and the resulting stimulation isn't binary. It isn't a case of 'go faster than 5km pace you'll improve, slower you won't'. At a high percentage of VO2max pace, you're still very much challenging your system, and so inducing it to improve.
SPR
Jun 2022
3:15pm, 23 Jun 2022
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SPR
Agree again MM.
Jun 2022
3:48pm, 23 Jun 2022
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larkim
MM - but that doens't quite make sense to me - if you can run a 5km at a pace, then running slower *won't* stimulate the physiological adaptations - you've already done it. That's the point at working at faster than 5k pace (hence why I don't agree with P&D) as far as I can see ).
P&D specifiy 800m to 1 mile intervals at faster than 5k pace. So what do you disagree with?
Jun 2022
3:52pm, 23 Jun 2022
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larkim
(I take it back, just dived into the book and they specify 5k race pace for marathoners).
Jun 2022
1:09pm, 24 Jun 2022
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RooA
For interest (perhaps), yesterday's run after the intervals the day before was quite hard. Not heavy legs but not springy. And over 10minute miles for an easy kind of effort that would usually see numbers starting with 9s...

Could have overcooked the intervals or could just be running 4 days in row, which is new, or could have been the heat, which is very rare! I had also skipped breakfast as few more pounds of fat off will probably gain me more speed than any amount of intervals!

Not conclusive but an observation. Will see what the threshold/tempo type run feels like tomorrow. I'm going to go run up the "big hill" and see if I can go up it faster than my horse. :-)
Jun 2022
1:17pm, 24 Jun 2022
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larkim
Heat (and humidity) is the absolute killer for me. Yesterday ran 10m with a BPM at 150 for a pace which just 3 months ago I'd have been knocking out at about 130bpm or lower.
Jun 2022
1:19pm, 24 Jun 2022
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rf_fozzy
Roo - don't worry about any one run or session pace.

You're looking for where you'll be in 10 weeks time, not the next immediate run.

As you say, a wide number of variables could have affected any one particular run.
Jun 2022
1:23pm, 24 Jun 2022
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paulcook
For interest (perhaps), yesterday's run after the intervals the day before was quite hard. Not heavy legs but not springy. And over 10minute miles for an easy kind of effort that would usually see numbers starting with 9s...

Could have overcooked the intervals or could just be running 4 days in row,


Someone else might chime in differently, but I personally see absolutely no problem with that RooA.

Keep the hard days hard, and the easy days easy. As long as you don't do hard days too hard near a race or other goal, then sticking to the mantra will improve you.

Not point making the easy days too hard that you're too tired or sore on the workout days. But there's nothing wrong with being tired or sore on the easy days and making a gentle saunter even gently and sauntier.
Jun 2022
2:04pm, 24 Jun 2022
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RooA
Definitely. Thanks. I'll see how it goes. :-) will try not to over-analyse!

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About This Thread

Maintained by RooA
I'm a bit confused about what pace I should be running intervals at.

I always thought it was "as fast as possible while making the last interval as fast as the first". I did that today and felt awesome about it. Even did the last interval a few seconds faster than the first so wasn't flagging at all.

But I've just put my recent 5k into Project Joker and it gives me a pace for intervals much slower than that.

For reference.

5K time - 24m10s.
Recommended time for 80...

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