One thing moving to London has done for me is get me back into running again, or maybe it's not moving that's the cause, maybe it's just time of life, I don't know, but I'm up for a bit more!
Heading back to Park Run twice in the last month and getting a 23.20 for the 5K was encouraging, even though last time I was doing Park Run I was aiming for sub 20, but that was pre-covid, and damn it, that's almost FIVE YEARS ago now!
My current strategy is to run both slower and faster....
Slow runs at around a 6.00 - 6.20 pace are apparently perfectly good for building up one's aerobic capacity, and intuitively it makes sense to me to do this to build a decent aerobic base...
I've never really done this before and I kind of like it, zone 3 take it easy, and now I've done a few of these now, no stress, just get out, walk occasionally to keep my heart rate below 150 and just enjoy it.
It took a few of these to get used to running slower, and the thing I didn't realise is that it works your legs more, as you spend more time with your feet on the ground, I think, but less impact....
Anyway this is the basis of my new strategy.... a couple of these a week, minimum of 6K and then a longer run of 8K or more, depending on time.
Then there's intervals...
I'm well into these at the moment, but not at full-on max, and I've now changed from my standard 400s to 1K intervals. NB I have only done ONE of these so far, and it was basically one warm up at around 4.30 then three at 4.25 - actually the last one was 600 metres, given that this is more intervals than I've done in ages I wanted to ease myself in.
The first goal here is to get up to 4 in total - 4.30 warm up and then 3*4.20 pace, and gradually lift this pace....
I'll play it by ear whether or not I'll add another K in there, I'll see how much I gain on this...
I might first add in three 200 metre sprints at the end....
I'll do a couple of these a week, occasionally I'll swap one out for a traditional 400 metre session, I used to do 6* 400, i think I'll aim for 7 next time I do a swap out.
My aim is to do interval - easy - rest - repeat, or if my legs are feeling it - interval - easy - interval - but I don't think I should do more than 3 days before a rest day.
Anyway, that's it, happy running all!
