Bridge to 10k and intervals

[Beachcomber66]

Have just finished week 1 of Ju-ju's plan with a 5.7k. I did it at a fairly slow even pace and my heartbeat was pretty constant throughout. I even had an unexpected energy surge at about 4.5K; don't know what was going on there but it was welcome! Anyway, I think that running some intervals on shorter runs would help me speed up; I feel ready to do that, but my question is; are intervals on the shortest weekly run in the plan a good idea or is this a separate activity which I should leave until after I (hopefully) manage the 10k?

[Crib Graduate10]

I have also just finished W1 of Ju-ju’s plan after having to restart it. I combined it with Laura’s stepping stones podcast which I found helped. On the short runs day I walked later in the day to get my steps in plus joined a “wrinklies” circuit training class which I do on a shorter run day. I enjoyed this mix & match system this week

[UpTheStanley Graduate10]

I did intervals as part of my short runs and it worked very well for me. No more than a couple of goes at 5 reps of 30:20:10 with a 2 minute recovery between the 2 goes.

Improved my 5k performance in short order 😀

[Beachcomber66 Graduate10 in reply to UpTheStanley]

Thanks for that. Have spent the last hour looking at maps; once I get to7k there is nowhere to go without climbing a major hill! I think I will mix the intervals with walks up these big hills as part of sorting out future routes. Lovely to live on the outskirts of moorland, but you have to get up there to enjoy it!

[BaddieThePirate Graduate10 in reply to Beachcomber66]

Get the bus up and run home? I'm not as daft as I look ☠️

[over61andstilltrying Graduate10 in reply to UpTheStanley]

Hi UpTheStanley, I realise this is rather an older thread, and I expect with some more clicking around i should be able o find the answer, but I wonder if you could explain what exactly are the four speeds/paces in the 30:20:10: and recovery interval thingy? Thank you😊

[UpTheStanley Graduate10 in reply to over61andstilltrying]

Good morning 61 - what follows is my interpretation of something in one of Ju-Ju's posts about making the weekly "short run" in the Magic Plan more interesting by incorporating 30:20:10 intervals as part of it. For my purposes I defined 3 speeds as:

"Trotting" - a gentle jog;

"Cantering" - my regular Parkrun pace;

"Galloping" - eyeballs out sprinting.

For me, trotting was to be around 7'30"/k pace (conveniently, Dexy5's normal running pace at that stage), cantering around 5'00"/k pace, and galloping whatever I could manage (which turned out to be around 3'20"/k pace, but only for 50 metres), but obviously everyone would calibrate these differently according to their progress.

The time it worked best went like this ….

Started with 5 minutes warming up, trotting with Dexy (but could have been trotting or cantering or something in between).

Then 5 reps of 30 secs trotting, 20 secs cantering and 10 secs galloping (as each gallop ended with me gasping for breath, the first half of the following 30 secs trot was more of a stagger).

Then an extended recovery of a couple of minutes working back up from exhaustion to trotting and eventually a gentle canter …..

And then another 5 reps as before ……… .

And then another recovery back to a canter to complete the run (4k total that time).

Before that I'd done a run with just one set of 5 reps, then one with 2 sets of 3. I'd also tried running between lampposts on the prom (they're about 90 metres apart) at the 3 speeds, but found I could only do half a lamppost at the gallop.

I haven't tried it for a few weeks now, as I've crossed the Bridge now and Dexy is working her way towards the far side so I'm running with her. But I felt it made a significant difference to my Parkrunning, more so at that stage than the slightly longer runs I was then doing as I started out on the Bridge. I will do it again in the future.

If you're interested and PM me with an e-mail address, I can send you the pace trace from my Garmin for the run described above …. I've tried to attach it to a PM but can't find a way!

All the best, Chris (67 and still trying )

[over61andstilltrying Graduate10 in reply to UpTheStanley]

Thank you very much for that. I have been incorporating intervals, but my eyesight isn't up to much, so I can only read the minutes, not the seconds on my phone. I haven't really got into pace, still relate to km/h! What fun having so much to find out about.

Yesterday every multiple of three or four mins I would up my speed. I have found it both fun and exhausting to work myself hard! Still aware that I would love to avoid injury. How is Dexy recovering?

Do you set your watch to give you 30, 20, 10 sec then 2 mins recovery bleeps. Do I assume that recovery is slower than your gentle jog? Meant to be washing floors, better go before I get into trouble!

[UpTheStanley Graduate10 in reply to over61andstilltrying]

Hi again

In kph, trotting was 8, cantering 12 and galloping (briefly) 18.

I investigated setting the watch for intervals but gave it up as too difficult - the seconds are the same size as the minutes on my 35, so quite readable for me while trotting and cantering, and I know my gallop will only last 10 secs.

The lamppost variation was to trot one lamppost interval, canter the next, gallop for as long as possible (about half an interval), stagger/walk the other half interval and repeat. The trots and canters did come out close to 30 and 20 secs. But this does need the council to have planted lampposts regularly, and at the right distance apart for your pace

"Recovery" is a progression from a few paces of walking (which is all I can manage when I stop sprinting with no breath left) back to a trot and towards a canter. So not at any particular speed.

Dexy is fit to be tied. The hole in her elbow is still oozing crap and the bandaging means she's got limited mobility of the elbow joint. I did suggest she could maybe still run but received a robust response . The good news is that although it's an injury sustained while running, it wasn't caused by running, so her legs should be good to go when she gets off the IC …...

[over61andstilltrying Graduate10 in reply to UpTheStanley]

Apologies to Beachcomber66 for this conversation within his post.

Thank you UTS for your reply. All very interesting. I do realise that you are a whizzy one! Well done you maintaining your fitness level as the years roll by! Do hope Dexy's wound heals soon, sounds bad. Pass her these 🌸🌺🌼 and say get well soon from me. Thank you again.

[Dexy5 Graduate10]

Well done on completing W1 Beachcomber 👏👏