interval training
 

Okay, have another question for you all, particularly folks who do running (either TM or road). How do you all do your intervals? I've done a few interval workouts (always on the TM) and I am trying to do one every week or at least every other week. I ran my last 5k at just over a 10 minute/mile pace, and I'd like to run my next 5k at a 9:30 minute/mile pace or faster in order to get a sub-30 race time, so that's my goal in speed work.

I've heard that the interval part of the workout (between warm up and cool down) should be done different ways: 2 minutes on, 3 minutes off; 1 minute on, 2 minutes off, etc. At this point my sprint has been between a 7:45 - 8:15 minute mile pace, and my cool down an easy jog or even a brisk walk between 12:30 -14 minute mile pace. Just curious what other chickies out there are doing in terms of the ratio of sprint to recovery, and how many repeats, and how often.

i think for a 5k you are goign to benefit from interval repeats of 200m, 400m (1/4 mi) and 800m (1/2 mi). You can do these as straight sets, such as 4X 800m, meaning you run one interval of 800m and then recover for 400 to 800 meters (repeating a total of 4 times), or you can do ladder workouts, like 1X 200M, then recover 200M, then 1X400M, then recover 400, then 1X800M, then recover, and THEN go back down..... keep in mind that for different distances you are going to run at different paces. I would do 800 meters at faster than a 10K pace, and 400M at faster than 5K pace, and 200s as fast as i can.
The correct annotation for the ladder workout i just gave you would be:
200m(200), 400(400), 800(800), 400(400), 200(200) --- with the paranthesis being the rest interval. or you could do 4X800 (400) -- meaning 4 sets of 800meters with 400 meterss rest interval in between.
Hope that helped

Thanks for asking the question blueridgegirl and thanks for the reply, mkroyer. I'd been wondering that myself.

So far I've tried sprinting on a treadmill (2 mins fast and 2 mins at a regular pace) and then i discovered this part of my route outdoors is pretty much 400 m so i walk up one way and sprint down the other. Except I never manage to sprint 400m. It's always 300m and then I feel like dying so I slow down or stop... maybe I should sprint slower... or go out on a less windy day lol.

theres no reason to "Sprint" for intervals-- simply running at an uncomfortably quicker pace is sufficient to make positive gains.....

thanks, mkroyer. This is really helpful.