Running intervals can sound quite daunting, run as hard as you can for a minute, then stop, then go again. Yuck.
Although there is more to it than that. In today's video, I'm going to be going through how to master the
art of intervals, how fast you should be going, how long you should recover for how it should feel,
how many steps and repetitions you should be doing and how often you should be interval training.
I'm going to be on a treadmill using Swift for today's workout because it's easier to maintain a
set pace and overall consistency on a treadmill compared to outdoors.
It's also a lot easier to run without bumping into people.
But you can pretty much do these interval sessions anywhere you like.
Right, let's get into it.
So let's start by outlining what intervals actually are.
So intervals are alternating periods of high and low intensity designed at targeting a
specific pace or energy system in order to improve fitness or to practice at a
specific race pace.
If you're training for an endurance event, there might also be some shorter recovery periods in there, which will
include some light jogging.
But this will usually be shorter than the harder efforts themselves. Adding variety into your training is
key as well as incorporating training at either side of your goal race pace.
So if you're training for a 10-K, then we would suggest incorporating some training at your five K pace
or faster, but equally on the other end of the scale training at half marathon pace or slower.
There's no strict rules for how to structure an interval session but often you'll be looking at hard sets with short
recoveries in between and then a longer recovery between sets.
Here's one way to look at intervals.
In some cases you'll be going further or the same distance as your planned final race, but
split up into chunks with recoveries, the shorter the recoveries are, the more likely it is that you'll be able to
hit your goal pace in the distance you're working towards.
Sometimes though, if you really want to work on speed or speed endurance, you might want to try taking
longer recovery periods in order to hit your target pace. Equally intervals don't just
have to be alternating on and off.
You could try out a more complex interval session where the efforts increase incrementally.
This could involve increasing every minute with short recovery periods afterwards.
Or you could vary intensity and pace throughout the session as well.
Now I've gone through what intervals are, let's hop on the treadmill and give it a go.
There are lots of weekly events on Zwift that you can join in order to complete interval session, today though
I'm gonna be doing a 3 2 1 session which as you can see by the graph is two
sets of three reps, each one getting progressively faster of three minutes, two minutes
and then one minute luckily as well there's lots of nice recovery time in between.
Let's get going.
So I'm all set up on Zwift.
I've made sure that my zones are correct and I'm running in the right paces.
It's very important with intervals to remember to warm up and not dive straight into the
hard efforts to make sure that you're giving yourself and your body enough time to warm up
before you get into it.
So whether you're doing a workout on Zwift where they usually do give you a warm up or
even if you're doing a treadmill interval session off your own back or if you're doing it outside,
make sure to prioritize the warm up in order to give yourself the maximum chance
of hitting the intervals that you want to do.
So I've set this work out to be at my current benchmark
5K pace and it's helping to kind of keep that consistent and keep hitting that what's nice about
Zwift as well is that you could put in a faster 5k time and then it will give you those
paces in order to hit that goal.
Okay, 10 seconds to go.
It says focus on keeping your legs speed high, body tall and chest open for the
let's give it a go.
What are we going up to?
Up to 14. Oh, it's not doing the treadmill challenge.
Okay, three minutes at 14 km/h,
wow, I already feel the difference, my leg speed is turning over so much quicker.
I'm having to use my arms to keep myself going.
I can feel myself wanting to pull myself up a little bit taller in order to hit this speed, but
it feels okay.
I can still talk just so I think we'll be all right.
Heart rate has gone up, which is a good sign.
In the first effort we are up to 176.
The screen just says settle down now and let's get this done.
Yes, let's get this done.
Pain is temporary
5,4,3,2,1
and down we come sorry, the screen
says, focus on your breathing here and take a slip of fluid.
I'm going to focus on my breathing.
Oh, we're up to 14.5 up we go.
So this is 4:08/km2.
It feels disgusting.
The sweat is dripping on my face.
But hey, that's what an interval session is.
If it's not hard, you're not doing it right.
3, 2, 1.
So the recovery is your time.
It doesn't have to be fast.
It definitely shouldn't be fast.
It's bringing your hear rate back down if you need to walk.
If you need to jog really slowly, that is totally okay.
I was going at 4:08 per and my recovery is
at 6:18 That's over two minutes slower per kilometer.
That's what you need in order to recover for the next hard effort
as you can probably tell by my breathing. And we're
off again up to 15,
tempted to just press the button quite slowly so I don't have to do it.
Okay, 45 seconds at four minutes
per kilometer.
Come on, that's what it says on the screen.
Push yourself, push yourself.
Three minutes easy.
Thank f*** for that.
So this rest and recovery between the two sets
is much longer than the recoveries you get between reps.
This is to really bring your heart rate back down, give you a chance for
your legs to stop turning over so quickly and allow you to reset.
I'll be ready to go hard in the next set.
I'm so glad there is still a minute and a half to go because
this is tough, this is really tough and you know,
intervals aren't always enjoyable, but they get more enjoyable,
although once it feels nice and enjoyable, probably means it's time to
ramp up the speed a little bit.
Sorry if I just burst your interval bubble, I've got the interval fear.
Now this one's only two sets.
What you can find with intervals is that if you do three sets in the middle set,
you drop a little bit because you can't even no man's land, but keep
momentum going and here we go again, 14.
Whoa, I've never hated a number more than the number
14. So we are just over 5K
pace again for me.
4:17 per km coming up to I just kicked
over 3.5 K.
That's the other funny thing about intervals is that If I was running a
5K, I don't think I'd usually expect to feel this out of
breath at 3.6 but intervals are brutal.
They don't have to be long to be brutal.
Five four three, two one,
oh my God,
Back down to 6:18.
Heart rate is still at 191, breathing
definitely feels heavier.
But I'm using this in this recovery to breathe nice and deeply.
Yeah, suffering a bit with you can't do this, Sarah.
But I can.
What do you tell yourself in an interval session to get you through the hard efforts?
Let me know in the comments.
I wish I could read them right now.
Okay, two minutes at 14.5 legs
turning over form check, think tall.
Open up your chest, bring your knees up five four
three, two, one and back down we
go. Okay, 10 seconds left.
Zwift says let's crush this finale.
Yeah, come on, one minute to show what you
have got one minute of effort now and then you feel the
pride at the end of an interval sessions, you also feel the sweat.
30 seconds you can do it push it, 5, 4,
3, 2, 1.
Okay, there we have it.
Mhm 5.27 km, 27
minutes finishing up with a three minute cool down
with these recoveries.
This is bringing your heart rate down gently.
Even if at the end of an interval you feel
rubbish, you feel like you're about to throw up, keep yourself moving as much as you can.
Because I'll be way better.
I'm just coming to an abrupt stop.
So that was how to do intervals and a savage example of a 3
2 1 session on Zwift.
If you are on the lookout for any other interval sessions then there are tons that you can find online.
Have a look on Zwift.
Also have a look at the Running Channel website.
We have 5K and marathon plans with lots of interval sessions on there
and let us know in the comments.
What are your thoughts on intervals?
Do you like them?
Do you look like this after them?
We would love to chat to you and we will see you next time on the running channel.
I've got 30 more seconds before I can lie down