SPEED podcast

[iain-strachan]

Today was the first shot at the C25k+ SPEED podcast, and hence first go at interval training (though I guess you could say the alternate run and walk of Weeks 1-4 are interval training too). Though this of course is all running.

I decided to set out about 9 am this bank holiday morning. Would have preferred to go off at 7 but my son needed the free taxi service to catch an 8:30 train.

However, the run in Albert Park in Abingdon has a lot of shade from the trees and the temp hadn't stoked up too much by then.

I'd thought it'd be no biggie to do this one - the "fast" bits are paced to music at 165 steps per minute, and on the Park Run I was averaging 164. However, it was quite hard work. I think because you know it's a "fast" interval you naturally push harder on the fast bits, and then the slow bits are still running, so less recovery.

I guess I'll have to do this one several times to get the claimed benefits of interval training.

As I'm a number nerd who spends much of the day looking at graphs of medical data (though from sick patients), here's the graph of the cadence and pace from the Garmin Connect app. You can see the warm up jog, and the six intervals very clearly in the Cadence graph. You can also see a little burst at the end - one of my favourite bits of classical music is at Crotchet=180 and I wanted to see how it felt. Not too bad - took very small steps, but got back to the car after 45 seconds.

If anyone else wants to try running to this explosive and joyful piece of music, here it is, last movement of "The Four Sections" by Steve Reich. I wonder if I can one day keep to that 180 cadence for the six minutes or so of the piece.

youtube.com/watch?v=qAFC5Kz...(Not working as expected?)

Oh - the drop out right in the middle of the cadence was when I was trying to avoid an over friendly dog!

[Buddy34 Graduate]

Well done you. It's great to try new things all the time it keeps your running interesting. 😊😊