4x1 mile at 5k pace w/ 3 min rest

has anyone done this? wrote:

5k pr is 17:45 (5:45ish pace)

Did 4x mile with 3 min rest between each interval

5:37

5:50

5:40

5:50

Hilly course (probably 15 meters of incline and 15 of decline) so say I take 5 sec off for hills, that makes it 5:32, 5:45, 5:35, 5:45 so a little fast. Overall felt pretty comfortable, I pushed a little hard on the uphills so that wasn't comfortable, but it was good. Is that a good workout or were the rests too long? It was like a 300 meter jog (slow, probably 8:45-9 min pace) for recovery and then standing the rest of the time.

A solid effort, that first mile is fast, that should have been the third mile but unless the miles were over the same topography all okay. Always too easy to go out fast.

has anyone done this? wrote:

5k pr is 17:45 (5:45ish pace)

Did 4x mile with 3 min rest between each interval

5:37

5:50

5:40

5:50

Hilly course (probably 15 meters of incline and 15 of decline) so say I take 5 sec off for hills, that makes it 5:32, 5:45, 5:35, 5:45 so a little fast. Overall felt pretty comfortable, I pushed a little hard on the uphills so that wasn't comfortable, but it was good. Is that a good workout or were the rests too long? It was like a 300 meter jog (slow, probably 8:45-9 min pace) for recovery and then standing the rest of the time.

We run a model to assess workouts where we adjust the speed for various variables. Five seconds off about right for those 15 meters on a mile loop.

I did something similar on track about a year ago - 4x1600 between 5'45 and 5'40, 400m jog and some 30" idle till to get to 3' recovery. I ran a track 17'46" two weeks later without killing myself. I am 47

It would have helped you more if you had run them in 5:50, 5:50, 5:40, 5:37 order but we all know how hard it is to pace a random mile loop.

Good for a first attempt. Next time can jog a slightly short version of the 300 a second time during the 3 min rest? Looking for a 530 m jog in 3 min for 9 min pace.

*&hu8er4ut90 wrote:

It would have helped you more if you had run them in 5:50, 5:50, 5:40, 5:37 order but we all know how hard it is to pace a random mile loop.

Good for a first attempt. Next time can jog a slightly short version of the 300 a second time during the 3 min rest? Looking for a 530 m jog in 3 min for 9 min pace.

IMHO, this is over-complicating things. If you are moving (jogging or walking) - and let's be honest, our jogs tend to be slow enough to be considered a walk most days - then you are fine. There's no need to pin-point the effort expended during your recovery. It's an imprecise science. Deal with it.

what shape do you guys think I am in off this? I pr'd at 17:45, but that was a month ago and I've been at about 50 mpw

That is a pretty standard workout and while the pace of recovery was a bit slow, it is not a big deal. The main reason to have an active recovery is to keep your heart rate elevated between intervals so that when you start the next interval, you get up to near max heart rate more quickly (since your heart rate is already elevated relative to where it would be had you stood around during your recovery), and thus you get more adaptation out of the workout. So going a little faster probably would be a good thing, but we are talking about relatively small degrees of improvement on a good thing here.

The amount of recovery was right, assuming that you were doing these at vo2max pace - less than 3:00 would make this a more stressful workout than necessary to achieve the goal of the workout.

The one thing that concerns me is that you say that it felt pretty comfortable. Were you starting at the same place each time? Because you really did not maintain a steady pace. I get that it is on a course and not a track, but you should really try to lock your pace in more. Also, if you are truly doing these at vo2max pace, they should not feel easy at all - you should be feeling challenged enough that you are using Jedi mind tricks on yourself to get through the workout ("Okay, I will get at least three intervals in and see how I feel about the fourth." "Okay, I have done three, so let me at least do another 800m, and I will see how I feel then . . ."). If these were being done at "comfortably hard" pace, then these really were more cruise intervals than vo2max intervals, and the rest should have been shorter - 60 or 70 seconds as you would have been seeking a different adaptation altogether.

Stop... what you mean is that the aerobic system kicks after about 1 minute... so when he rests completely his first minute of the new rep is anaerobic.... maybe also that when he jogs his rest he can flush out lactate quicker....

yeah lol okay it wasnt easy, but i didnt feel like oh this is hard. After the second I was like "ok ill get through 3" and then the 4th I was like "worst case I drop out 800 meters in". But when I was doing it I felt good, not easy though.

Sounds like you had a really solid workout then. It is funny how we all do the same things as runners.

As I said then, the only constructive feedback I would give you would be to try to run the intervals more consistently. Aside from the vo2max adaptation, one of the benefits of this workout is to help you lock into what 5k pace should feel like. Ideally, you should know instinctively that you are running 5k pace, without looking at a watch, but rather by the feedback your body is giving you (okay, my stride is open to such a degree that I am getting good knee lift, but not so open that I am kicking myself in the butt; my arms are comfortable, but not being used to drive me forward; etc.). That is hard to do, but over time it should come easier, and the way to make that happen is to get your intervals to be consistent at 5:40-5:45 or so instead of letting them bounce around a little.

But again, that is advice that goes to fine tuning. You have the core ideas covered well. Nice workout.

I think that 4x1600 at 5km pace is a very good workout, actually quite challenging. Anytime you can rack up the race distance at race pace, on little enough rest that it's challenging, you are doing something right!

I'd actually see this as a good late-season workout/test, and for 5k pace pace work through the season would cycle through things like 8x800, 6x1000, 5x1200, 800/1200/1600/1200/800 etc etc. Would also be good to do this early on and return to so you can gauge progress. Not a weekly thing, though!

If you were truly doing this at 5k pace, you'd need longer than 3 minutes bruh. So this could be 2 things: one you are not doing this at your true 5k pace or two you are much faster than you've been racing. You pick

lol i pick the latter. Do you think im in better shape than ive been racing? I think so too.

While 3:00 rest is definitely on the shorter side of the spectrum for rest for these intervals, it is still well within the standard range. Especially for someone relatively young who will recover between bouts more quickly than someone late in their 30s or older.