Speedwork: The I-Hate-Mile-Reps Club

So last night was 1 mile repeats at run club.

I found out something important. I thought I enjoyed mile reps. I don’t. I enjoy mile REP. One of them. For one mile I get to run around the pavements, fences and houses of a 1-mile circuit, making sure I don’t trip over the uneven paving slabs and darting in and out of the shadows from the orange sodium lights. It’s great. In fact it’s fun. And it doesn’t even hurt until you’re 90% done. Then it’s over apart from a breath.

But it’s not. 

I get 30 seconds to catch my breath, walk to the start and then I have to do it again. 

But I don’t. I do it much slower. It’s no longer any fun. The gaps in the paving slabs are bigger. The shadows between the street lights are darker. And my feet are no longer light, but leaden and the breath hurts in my throat.

The 30 seconds recovery speeds past. I stop. Then it’s time to go again. This time the hurt starts earlier. There is something dragging my feet down and the whole loop feels uphill. The holes between the paving slabs are jagged like teeth and the fence slats are crooked like gravestones. I drag myself up the hill and try to run towards the spot-lit gateway which is the finish. It recedes like the light in a dream. I push towards it but it doesn’t get any nearer. I hear feet behind me and make one last push for the finish. 

I’m done.

And I’ve made a decision. I’m not doing mile reps any more. I’m going to do a new session.

Mile REP. 

I’m going to turn up. Do one mile. Thoroughly enjoy it.

Then go home.

Runner's Shame. I'm SO sorry ...

Unluckily I got the dreaded tummy rumble and developed the thousand-yard-stare and stagger of the desperate-for-the-loo-runner while halfway through a speed session.

Luckily there were only two of us running the speed session …

Unluckily there were no toilets around.

Luckily we were running alongside a dark park …

Unluckily I just couldn’t wait.

Luckily it was night time …

Luckily no-one came past.

Unluckily no-one came past to offer me the use of their nice indoors toilet …

Luckily there was a drainage ditch and some heaped leaves.

Unluckily I had to climb into a drainage ditch …

Luckily the leaves were soft.

Unluckily I got sticks and leaves in my running tights and I had to complete a speed session with a leafy undercarriage …

Luckily my running buddy promised to keep the secret and not tell anyone else about the Al Fresco poo.

Unluckily despite my running buddy’s trustworthiness I have a tendency to over-share and it’s now on the blog …

p.s. DON’T let your kids jump in the crunchy leaves in Coventry.

Back of The Group: Trying to Speed up my Running

I was puffing and panting like a steam locomotive. I could just see the back of the next runner as he disappeared around the corner. It was dark, I was in Coventry, I couldn’t see any suspicious looking youths wearing hoodies but suspected there would be some lurking in the shadows thinking stabby thoughts. I sped up. Heart hammering and legs rebelling, I tried not to slow down as I weighed up the pros and cons of heart failure Vs stabbing.

It was Wednesday. I was at running club. My aim for this evening had been to not be dead last in the group interval sessions.

I was last.

I rounded the corner of the dark road, the streetlights making orange pools on the pavement. My legs felt heavy as I pounded up the pavements but my rapist-like panting was at least scaring off any potential attackers. Pumping my arms and scanning the street ahead desperately for any signs of the people in my running group, I tried to urge my legs to move quicker.

The session today was 2 x 10 minutes of effort at threshold pace. I strongly suspected I was in the wrong group. Their threshold pace was clearly way above mine. It appeared I'd stumbled into the session for people whose marathon pace was about the same as my 400m pace. I was to be the Wiley Coyote to their Roadrunner but without the Acme bombs or nets to slow them down. I'd better get running then.

I’d known this session would hurt, but I'd still been looking forward to trying it. In a hurty kind of a way. Every time I have to push myself, every time my legs, my lungs, my heart get used to running faster than they’re used to ... next time it will be easier. I can’t expect to get faster, stronger if I’m not willing to work for it, to hurt for it.

I put my head down and pushed on. I’d had 3 minutes of recovery between the sets but the time had disappeared quicker than a crème egg at WeightWatchers. Really? THAT was 3 minutes? I’ve only just finished running. My heart still sounds like Animal from the Muppet Show is on the drums and my knees are still shaking. And you want me to run AGAIN?

I did it. I was last. AGAIN. But I was smiling. It may have looked like a grimace, but it was definitely a smile. Because now I could stop running. Also I had finished the session and NOT DIED. I may have been last, but I’d survived. And next time it would be easier.

One day I won’t be last. Watch your backs, fast people.

...

Because I’ll be at the back. Behind you. Staring at them.

Sub-20 5k plan: Weeks 3 & 4

Week 3

Mon: rest

Tues: 12 x 400m in 95 seconds, starting every 2 minutes - extra 400m rest in 3 minutes after 6

Wed: 7 miles in 8 min miles

Thurs: 6 miles of alternate one mile at Marathon pace (ie approx 7:45), 10k pace (6:45), HM pace (7:15) with one minute easy between each pace change

Fri: 5 miles easy as feel

Sat: 10 short hill efforts (less than a minute) plus 6 accelerating 200m strides

Sun: slow 90 minutes

Week 4

Mon: rest

Tues: 8 x 200m start every minute, 1600m in sub 6:30, 8 x 200m start every minute

Wed: 8 miles at 8s

Thurs: 7 miles at 8 min miles but for minute of each mile up to 10k pace before back to 8 min miles

Fri: 5 miles easy as feel

Sat: parkun 5km

Sun: slow 100 minutes

How Long Does Speed Training Take to Work?

Goal: 8 miles at 7:30 min/miles (8 miles in 1 hour)

I read somewhere recently that it takes between 10 days and 2 weeks for speed training (intervals and such) to have an effect on your overall speed. I can’t remember where I heard this but I can remember being surprised that it happened so quickly. I always assumed that building up your speed took months of slogging and practising paces and running round the track in fast loops like a hamster on a wheel. I wasn’t quite sure how you knew when you’d reached the right speed. Maybe they’d bring people with pompoms out or something.

However, I now think the interval training takes effect long before that. I think it starts immediately after a successful session – if not during. That moment when you think, “Bloody hell! I just managed to run a 6 minute mile pace!” And because you’ve done it once, you know you can do it again. So you do.

It was a bit like this for my run this evening. It was down on my training plan as 8 miles at 7:30 min/miles. This sounded fast. However this week I didn’t overthink it. I’d done 7 miles at this pace last week – I knew it was possible. And because I knew it was possible, it was a much easier run.

Last week I’d felt as though I was fighting the whole way to keep the pace at 7:30 and pushing every step of the way. This week, it felt more flowing, more comfortable, more possible.

I even hit the heady heights of a sub-7 minute mile briefly, but that was because I was listening to Running With The Kenyans again and got a bit carried away with one of the race reports. Maybe I should listen to race reports during my own races as they always make me run a bit quicker. Maybe I’ll never run with the Kenyans in real life, but in my head I’m matching them step for step.

Distance: 8 miles

Time: 58:39

Average Pace: 7:19 min/mile

Garmin Info here: