On upping my Running Game...

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!