Restarting

[liv]

Having hit my intermediate goal pace of 5 km in 40 minutes, I now want to aim for a new goal of 5 km in 30 minutes, which is 10 kph. So I decided the best way to improve my speed is to restart C25K, and since I'm mostly running on the treadmill these days I can use it to guide me so that my running intervals are actually at 10 kph. I'm not going to follow the programme exactly, I think I'm just going to alternate C25K workouts with 5K runs at a pace I know I can do or a fraction faster. And move on to the next "week" whenever I can manage the current week comfortably.

So today I tentatively tried week 1. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do 8 x 1 minute at 10 kph, that's faster than I ever run even when I care about going fast rather than being sustainable. Actually it was ok, with the treadmill to keep me at a steady pace of exactly 10 kph I can do 1 minute intervals. And unlike when I started from scratch, I'm fit enough that I can just about recover in 90 seconds of walking. Not completely regularizing my heartrate, but enough to attempt the next interval. Total distance nominally 2.5 km.

I didn't listen to any podcast, neither the NHS one nor the Zombies 5K app, because with the intervals this short and this intense, I needed to concentrate on watching the clock and changing the treadmill settings. I may start using podcasts once the intervals get long enough to be boring.

Comments

[angrboda]

Cool idea. You'll be sprinting away before we know it. :)

[liv]

Thank you! It's interesting that 10 kph doesn't quite feel like a sprint. I thought it might, but it's definitely a pace I can sustain for 10s of seconds and not completely collapse afterwards. So this is promising.

[rmc28]

This is a really good idea and I hope it works out for you.

[liv]

Thank you as ever for your encouragement! It's always good to talk to you and we chat about running a little bit and it gives a great boost to my motivation.