Run 27…”Hill, Hillier, Hilliest”…a27 minute Hill Speed Interval Workout! OMG…intervals on a hill/incline with Coach Sally McRae.
So even my warm up walk was uphill…5 minutes up the road, then I turned and jogged back. In my head I had envisioned me channelling my inner Kate Bush and running up the hill “with no problem” 🎶
The theory was that I would be running up fast, and running down slow…so the recovery was twice as long as the preceding run to end up back at the bottom…
In reality my ‘running’ up the hill was slower than Coach had bargained for, and even though I ran really slowly down hill for the recovery part…I ended up further and further down the road… 😂🤦🏻♀️🙄
We got there in the end…and I guess it was fun…but jeez my legs were burning 🔥😬
The Strava stats were much better than the NRC ones…average pace of 9:35/km (elapsed was 10:51/km)…🤷🏻♀️
For the technically minded: 5 minutes warm up…1 minute at 10k pace…2 minutes recovery, 45 seconds at 5k pace…90 seconds recovery, 30 seconds at 1 mile pace…1 minute recovery, and repeat 3 times…
So NRC gave me 11:04, 9:52, 11:42 at 10k pace/effort…9:10, 11:07, 11:19 at 5k effort…10:50, 9:09, 10:06 at 1 mile effort…yeah…I have no idea either 😂😂😂
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LottieMW
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I did that run a couple of weeks ago. Loved and also hated it! I loved it really-properly hard though. Well done!
I noticed some of the same as you-I had a little longer to catch my breath at the end of the longer recovery intervals. I didn’t mind that at all! Instead of going further down the hill, I just wandered about a bit on the spot.
I don’t think the NRC app is great at distance/timing accuracy. I had one flat out sprint on the flat the other day where it thought I was going at a pace of about 14min/km which I know is a fair bit slower than I walk. I had a bit of a grump that my stats wouldn’t show my Herculean effort so what was the point of having done it. The. I had strong words with myself and shook it off!!
You should be mega proud of that run today. Those hill sprints take some serious guts to take on and make it through 🏃♀️💪🗻
Thank you. I was seriously amazed (and impressed!) at the times on Strava…I know it was a speed run…but it was up hill after all!!!
It’s basically up hill all the way from my house once I hit the main road…that’s the pic on the right. On the left is the bit I planned on running up…I think I got to the top once, but ended up further and further down the main road 😂😂😂
Crikey Moses that sounds fun but hard, that's on your 10k plan? I better do that plan before the HM one, that's the summer organised, but very well done you
There’s a lot of cross over with the 10k and HM plans. I’ve done this run as part of the HM plan. It’s mainly how long the long runs get that’s different.
I absolutely love the speed runs. To some extent, they can be as hard as you want to make them depending on how much you decide push yourself that day. The coach often says “it’s time for your 9/10 effort” (or whatever) but there’s nothing to stop you just picking up a little bit if you wanted to take it a bit easier. I usually walk all the recovery intervals if it’s a flat interval run. Sometimes I might skip the last few if I’m too tired or short of time. Absolutely nothing wrong with adapting for the effort you’d like to give that day. I always make sure that I’ve got a recovery day planned for days after intervals and really stretch well before and afterwards.
That's helpful to know, after a very lazy winter I'm building back up and maybe I'll try the HM plan as I've been planning for it for over a year, along with retirement and time to fit the longer runs in, while still working I'm just increasing the days I go out
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Another Sunday morning run
An Early morning 3K Recovery Run 
