UKH

My running 'career' has historically involved plodding slowly around the hills with the occasional fell race thrown in. However, time constraints have meant that, after a bit of a break earlier in the year, I signed up for my first road race which will be a half marathon in November. I've got a modest time goal but mostly my training so far has just been building up the distance on the road. I'm now starting to throw in weekly tempo or interval runs but am not really sure how to plan interval sessions effectively.

I reckon my intervals generally end up being run at a bit faster than 5k pace. E.g. this week I did a track session of 4x800m with equally timed rest at perhaps 10s/km faster than 5k pace. My plan would be to increase the number of intervals in a session, and possibly increase the interval distance (although 800m felt like a nice, fun distance)

What I'm wondering though is whether I would be better off running slower, possibly longer, intervals that are nearer to my 10k or goal half marathon paces. Anyone got any thoughts?

In reply to Stuart Williams:

Don't you need a bit of both and where the emphasis might be depends on your background, where your strengths lie and how fast you are hoping to run?

I'd recommend buying a decent off-the-shelf plan. I'm in week 12 of a 16-week High Running marathon plan that's based roughly on my target time and therefore overall volume, with the workouts similarly tailored https://higherrunning.com/half-marathon-plans/

You can get conversion charts with pacing, but how many reps and resting periods obviously depends on where you're at. It's quite interesting following the sub-elites doing e.g. Kipchoge style 15 x 1Km repeats with 1 mins float, compared to the toughest interval session in my plan (8 x 800m with 2 mins jog).

https://capitalarearunners.com/interval-pace-chart/

In reply to Stuart Williams:

What about Yasso 800s (Google it). Realise it was originally for Marathon but I know people using variations for half. https://www.runstreet.com/blog/yasso-800s

Disclaimer: I'm fat, slow and out if shape and haven't run half recently but mulling over the idea of getting back to it, so thread caught my eye

In reply to Stuart Williams:

I've used a Higherrunning plan and they are good and very comprehensive. Annoyingly they don't have an Excel version of them (I like a spreadsheet!)

Also decide what you want. I race ultras fairly well (podium potential but not winning) but have a poor 5k pace compared to the hours I run. 

Kipchoge is not "sub-elite"!

In reply to Stuart Williams:  You  need to reduce the pace a bit and reduce the rest a lot.   I ran a couple of good 1/2's of good 5 and 10km fitness... so a typical session might be 

5 or 6 times a km with 1 minute rest at a desired 10km pace - 5 km session

3 * 2 km at 10k pace with 1 minute rest, then probably some 200ms on top at 1500 or 3 k pace (though the latter bit isn't relevant to you)

You don't really want to be doing this more than once a week, and you're better off training at 90% than really going for it and getting injured/tired/overtrained

And ditto - Kipchoge sub elite?

See this is fixed now   But you can have an interesting discussion on how the elite train, and how applicable this is to people who are non elite, and don't have all day to just sleep and recover

In reply to Herdwickmatt:  

Sorry, that’s not what I meant. Some of his fabled interval workouts are completed by sub-elite athletes, but the duration and number of interval reps depends on your experience/speed/goal race pace. I won’t be trying 15 x 1k anytime soon!

In reply to Herdwickmatt and Tom Briggs:

I'd not come across Higherrunning so I'll take a look, thanks. I'm using one of the generic Garmin plans at the moment but they don't seem all that good so I've been amending and adapting it as I go.

I suppose that's the thing. I've no interest in short fast races, and once time allows want to be back out doing long runs in the hills, so I'm not sure how much value there is in short fast intervals. On the other hand, they are a bit of a fun novelty and I'm in no danger of winning anything so nothing to lose in one sense!

If he is sub-elite then that puts me in about the same category as slime-moulds!

In reply to wbo2:

That's helpful, thanks. That broadly chimes with my suspicion that what I was doing lacked specificity for longer distances.

Don't worry, I'm pretty cautious about increasing intensity and volume too quick and have no plan to do more than 1 fast workout a week max. My climbing career was littered with overuse injuries so that lesson has been learned the hard way already!

In reply to Stuart Williams:

It's by a guy called Sage Canady (might have spelt that wrong) who has some decent form and talent. They seem well thought out.

Megan and David Roche's podcast is pretty good source of info. They are stupidly positive and it's sorta lovely to listen to despite being a dour sarcastic Brit.