Twenty minutes of running, no slow down, an increase instead!

[Gazter]

So, i have been focusing on just maintaining nice 20 minute runs, with five minutes cool down and warm up, totaling 30 mins. I have found though, that focusing on this time has allowed me to improve my speed at a steady rate.

My end goal is to be able to run steady at 10kph for a sustained period, first of all thirty minutes and then over time to increase this to an hour. The first goal, at thirty minutes would be 5km, and then at an hour would be 10km.

I'm not a million miles from the first goal, but a long way from the second.

On thursday I was pleased with myself, i managed twenty minutes at 9kph, though half way through i had to drop the speed down a couple of kph to recover for a minute and then put it back up. Easily the best times I had done so far.

Today, following my pilates, i repeated the twenty minute run, and at the same point i was contemplating dropping the speed back down, but thought, why not up it. I pushed it up to 11kph and ran that for about five minutes. Then dropped it back down to 9kph and finished off the last five minutes.

It felt really good, and utterly exhausting. With a lot less weight it takes an awful lot more exercise to burn the same amount of calories! Still, that was a good 400+ calorie burn out.

[happierswimming Graduate]

if you have a target, it's best to think distance first and speed later and use intervals to reach your goal. Why not try the podcasts again, running at your usual speed during the walking parts and increasing to your target speed for the running parts. That's how I plan to continue, although I don't want to increase my distance to 10k. You will be ready to start your 10k preparations when the new podcasts are issued

[Gazter Graduate]

Doing fast intervals resulted in me putting my back out. It is still a bit sore. The pain comes back if i do sustained running for more than the twenty minutes. The ache creeps in. I am trying to avoid it. It's either do twenty minutes or do nothing....

[KANdoit]

What do you use to check your speed as you go?

[Gazter Graduate in reply to KANdoit]

lol, a treadmill...

[Heartboy Graduate]

I've started Suz's bridge to 10K although found the first one very difficult it got better once I got past that. Her voice is irritating but thankfully she doesn't speak much. I still prefer Laura but I have found thishelpful so far. I've only just finished week 2 (after not doing anything last week because of the heat) - today did 4 x 12 minute runs with 2 min walks in between and running around 4.5miles. I'm now finding the first 36 minutes much easier and although slow by some standards have speeded up naturally without trying to.