This week has seen a continuation of my 30/20/10 runs. Two out of three were good runs over the same route and the third was a bit more of a struggle.
We have had a long weekend celebrating two birthdays in the family that took us away to stay with relatives. At the evening meal on Friday evening I was sitting at the table of the restaurant overlooking the canal that ambled past the front of the building when it suddenly dawned on me that this was the same canal that went past where we were staying ... so the morning’s run was hatched.
Come Saturday morning I was in two minds wondering whether to reserve the 30/20/10 for week days and just do a 5k at the weekend or stick to the same. I finally decided on the warm up walk to continue the 30/20/10.
I have not run along this route before so the thought of pelting my way down it even just for 10s was adding to a little indecision. The run was mostly good but I sensed that I was struggling more than the previous run. My mouth was dry before I even started and I think a lack of water was playing its part.
As canal towpaths go this was more undulating than my local canal route. Tree roots were breaking through the tarmac/gravel meaning extra care needed to be had. But it was better than running down a busy road and had the added benefit of seeing a startled heron en route.
On the way back I treated myself to a coffee as I walked the last few minutes “home”. A final bit of exercise saw me foolishly walk up the 7 flights of stairs to where I was staying .. come flight 5 I realised how tired my legs were!! At least I didn't get out of breath .. I started running after getting out of breath walking up 1 flight of stairs at the local shopping centre so this is a significant improvement 😊
Happy running everyone.
Written by
Richard7
Graduate10
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Hi Richard. Is it interval running you’re doing? As, if so, you should only do one short run as intervals each week. The others should be your 5k and the last a slow, longer run. I think.
Not sure tbh how you would classify it. In a way probably yes but I don't think it is quite the same. runnersworld.com/training/a...
Funny I cannot find any clarity on what it means when it talks about following the programme. At the moment I am replacing my usual runs with this. Looking at my heart rate and effort it is actually less than normal but what is interesting is that my heart rate is lower for longer. Early days but if this is a trend then it's a good one as usually my heart rate just shoots up.
I created a workout for use on my watch so it does the counting for me. My phone shouts out the last interval duration so I know what's going on and a glance at my watch every now and then keeps me in step. Only thing I have found is that the 10s bit seems to fly by ... not convinced that it really is 10s!!
Thanks for this. I have been looking for more detail - I obviously did not Google the right search text. Reading the text I think I am not in the elite athlete category so should be ok but going to think how I take this forward. Looks like my dilemma was right to consider doing something else. Whether to do 1 X 30/20/10 or 2 per week and add in a 5k seems odd as to me the 5k will be harder than the 30/20/10. Need to put thinking hat on.
And from what I have seen the 30/20/10 is described as a controlled Fartlek. I may be doing it wrong but the 30/20 element is below or at my usual pace and the 10s element is well above my usual pace. This amounts over a 34 minute run to 150s running flat out.
I am not defending this system as I have no reason to .. just want to try and understand whether people think that this specific programme falls into the "don't do this more than once per week" category! And why to help me understand. My goal is to try and improve my running pace as I think if I can do that over 5k I can then run my 10ks at a better pace and then who knows!!
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week3run1 ✅. 3 x 17 mins with 1 min walks. 
How did your parkrun or (not)parkrun go?
