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Interval pace. Confused.

9 watchers
Velociraptor
Velociraptor
Jun 2022
2:04pm, 23 Jun 2022
58,538 posts
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Velociraptor
[I'm enjoying the discussion. This sort of stuff is really useful.]
RooA
RooA
Jun 2022
2:05pm, 23 Jun 2022
1,878 posts
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RooA
I'm sure it was fozzy, but I found it amusing. You clearly weren't around on the heartrate thread at the time. :-)
larkim
larkim
Jun 2022
2:05pm, 23 Jun 2022
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larkim
I struggle to see how 8x400m or 5x800m should be hard for someone who has run a 5k though? Surely if the logic is that you can run a 5k at whatever pace, then running less than 5k, broken down into chunks, at a slightly faster pace than 5k race pace should be in everyone's capability?

Obviously if you haven't raced a 5k or are out of shape for whatever reason then that would change things.

Interesting history of intervals there SPR, thanks!
SPR
SPR
Jun 2022
2:05pm, 23 Jun 2022
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SPR
So the question here is what is Project joker based on?
rf_fozzy
rf_fozzy
Jun 2022
2:07pm, 23 Jun 2022
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rf_fozzy
No.

I don't train to HR. I train to paces as defined by Daniels as that works.

At least for me and a lot of other people I know.

Some complain it's a bit heavy and it can be when starting, but you've got to put in some work to get the benefits is how I see it!
SPR
SPR
Jun 2022
2:07pm, 23 Jun 2022
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SPR
Intervals as originally designed involved stressing your HR to 180 then having a break of up to 90 secs. Also interval referred to the recovery as that was the important bit.

Should add recovery was to 120 with 90 secs the max allowable and if you went over you stopped the session.
SPR
SPR
Jun 2022
2:07pm, 23 Jun 2022
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SPR
120 HR.
RooA
RooA
Jun 2022
2:14pm, 23 Jun 2022
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RooA
It probably depends if you've raced 5K or covered the distance of 5K at a run, larkim. I started with 4x400m and that was enough to begin. I added a rep every two weeks and I got a tiny bit faster on each rep but the biggest improvement was that I could do another rep at the end. Then another, then another.

I don't know if that makes sense.

I was able to run 5K pretty hard before I started but still would have struggled to do more reps at the faster pace.

I don't know. I also lost two stone so I don't know how much speed gain to attribute to what but last year I ran til I almost spewed for 5K and got just under 28 minutes. And now I'm gunning for a sub-24 hopefully in the next few weeks. And was not at spew point.

I've also done "threshold/tempo/another can of worms probably" runs. Which are much more unpleasant than even the fastest intervals!
larkim
larkim
Jun 2022
2:15pm, 23 Jun 2022
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larkim
Having never encountered a plan which says 4k of intervals at slower than 5k race pace, I'm intrigued by Fetch's logic here too!

On HR training - I'm not a slave to it, but I do find it particularly helpful for easy running as it sets me an upper limit that I should be staying under, rather than my usual tendency to get home a bit quicker. But even if I don't train to HR, I certainly measure objective improvement in fitness via it now that I "know" what my various HRs are at various levels of pace and intensity.
RooA
RooA
Jun 2022
2:21pm, 23 Jun 2022
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RooA
Put it this way fozzy, training to pace is far better for me both mentally and in outcome than heart rate training ever could be. Probably because I'm female and not an elite athlete, but my resting heart rare is naturally very low so the numbers didn't add up for me and I practically had to crawl my long rubs to get my HR low enough and just got slower and slower and slower! I was "encouraged" to stick with it but it sapped all the fun out of running! To be totally fair I never really got onto the speed work part of the training so I may have missed something...

But nope, not for me. Hence me asking pesky questions about pace rather than sticking a heart rate monitor on for a more definitive, I suppose, answer.

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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