I have gone through some links on Interval training which they say, will help me increase my pace in running during the race and longer distances (For Long runs coupled with endurance runs as well). In the internet i had got lot of information on the Interval runs. Like you can do 400m repeats or 800m repeats or some experienced will be even doing a mile repeats in the interval run patterns.
To start with, what do we do actually in the Interval Runs. Apart from the technical Jargans of VO2 Max and the Lactate thresholds, we can check out the impact and the output from these Interval Runs. Its all in terms of the Old proverb, "Practice Maketh a Man Perfect". When i had started running, i was not even able to complete 1km with lot of problems. Everything takes time in running and ROI you get out is massive. Now when we do regular long runs we tend to inform the body about the time and effort we are putting in and this we usually call as Muscle Memory.
Likewise for pacy runs, they say we need to increase the Lactate threshold limit as percentage of VO2 Max after which the body fatigue sets in. And the Blood lactate production is not to be able to keep up with the clearance in the Lactate production. I promise not to have more of these in this blog after this. Because this is really important for us to understand why the Fatigue sets in and what is in our hands to prolong the time before the fatigue sets in!
So to increase this Threshold limit, Interval trainings will help. My typical interval training would be like this:
- 2Km of warm run
- 400m repeats * 10 (400m at say 150% more than your comfortable pace/ 400m at jogging pace)
- Followed by 1km or 2km cool down run.
This is how i had started carrying out my interval runs say for a month. What did i get out of it?
Have i started running at 5min/km pace for 25kms? Or have i c0mpleted 10km run in under 45minutes? Answer to all these is a BIG NO. But what did i get out of this famed Interval run. The magnitude of the numbers that you see further in this blog may be small but in Running Persistence will get us to places which we dream of.
Now after the Interval runs, i have started to run 10km runs at a pace of 5:35min/Km which means i was able to nearly take away 4 minutes out of my previous 10km timing. Approximately i was able to run my 10km in the range of 56:30minutes to 57 minutes in the SnT run 2011 (Projected timing from a 9.6km run). So this is the improvement i have seen in the past month after i have started the Interval training. Above all i was able to do at this pace at a good level of comfortability. Earlier i had to admit that to run a 10km i had laboured a lot to finish it in 1h 02m to 1h10m.
Also experts mention that Intervals are best done in the tracks. Because it will be easy for runners to measure the distance. So we need to take up easier places to run so that the distance is accurate. It is important to run these interval runs quite honestly for us to see the results.
So i am really happy to have attempted this sort of Interval runs. All these Tempo runs, Intervals, Farltek, Cross Trainings, Runners keep talking about are not something that an elite runner can think of. If administered properly in our trainings as well, definitely we are in for seeing the results for ourselves. Definitely i will have to take this step by step towards my dream of doing 10km run in Sunfeast World 10k in May within 53 minutes to 55 minutes. Lets see how this goes. So friends and fellow runners, all things that you think of, like Body weight, Amount of water intake, Alcohol intake, food intake, Rest everything has a say in our running form.
It is left us to connect the dots and take our running performance to higher levels. Next time will
come to u with another experience of mine. Until then all have strong legs.
_MJV_
