Yesterday I did speed intervals with a local running group that meets weekly here in Bend, for that purpose. This group is organized and led by Max King, a local professional runner. The group met at a place here in Bend called Pilot Butte. It was my first time meeting with this group so I was glad to check it out.
I am new to various different types of training, including these. I have been told that interval training contributes to different physiological changes in the body that can result in better endurance, speed, and overall performance. Here is a link to an article I found that briefly explains it. ‘Interval Training Workouts Build Speed and Endurance‘
So, we did what was called 5-4-3-2-1’s. Basically you run hard for 5 minutes, then a recovery pace for 5 min. – then hard for 4 min. then recovery pace for 4 min. – and so on…
I got there a little early and did a light 2 mile warm up run around the local neighborhood before we got started. The group met at 5:30 pm, then there is some time for warm up, then we met and jogged to a point on the trail. From there we did the 5-4-3-2-1’s
We first ran 5 min. up the Pilot Butte trail/road so that was the 5 min. hard run portion, then the recovery run was a slow pace back down to where we started, then back up for 4 min. and so on. It kicked my butt some. It was fairly warm out, but I have not been doing a lot of different training for running. Mainly just getting out and doing the miles. I trained for 18 weeks for the Bend Marathon and used the Hal Higdon Novice 1 Marathon training plan as a base template for my training, but my goal at that time was to put in the miles and complete the Bend marathon. And it went well, but now I want to up my game some and do some other types of training as part of my overall plan. I am week 3 into training for the Portland marathon in October and took a bit of a break in between, so I need to pick it up and see how I can improve.
So, I was at the tail end of the pack for sure, but I felt a work out and hopefully my schedule permits and I will meet more regularly with this group and incorporate some of what I learn into my routine.
Sounds like a good workout, David. I’ll try that sometime soon. How many repeats did you guys do or miles with the repeats of the 5-4-3-2-1s? Thanks for sharing.
We did only 1 set of the 5-4-3-2-1’s. It was tougher than it sounded. We were going up hill. Several of them finished it off with a 6 min. uphill run. I didn’t do that. But I will try this exercise again and try to meet with that group. I would like to try the 5-4-3-2-1’s on a more level run. The group meets at different locations so I am sure they do some other types of track. It seems like a good workout and I could go faster. But doing uphill runs sometimes is good too. You already know all that with the uphill runs you do.
Thanks for the comment Colleen.