I thought instead of doing regular mileage, I will do 6 to 8 1200 meters at half marathon pace with 400 jog in between. My goal race is half at this time. I will do this on weekends so I can get plenty of rest. I think I can do this Friday to Sunday and recover. I am also planning one quicker and shorter interval on Tuesday or Wednesday. I have solid amount of miles in me already so I am not worried about long runs, etc. anymore. Good or bad?
Good. You're getting 4-6 miles of volume at half-marathon pace. Preparing yourself for that pace, getting the rhythm into your head. Train to race.
there is something to be said for not killing yourself on intervals. running relaxed at a moderate pace is the key here.
the real redux wrote:
there is something to be said for not killing yourself on intervals. running relaxed at a moderate pace is the key here.
Yes AND don't forget muscle memory- if you want to run 5:00 pace for 13.1 miles, 800's in 2:30 will help you develop the muscle memory to do it.
That's a sweet intensity to train at, and I bet you could do it without the 400m recoveries too. One of my favorite workouts is after warming up, a 40 minute easy tempo (Lydiad would call it "strong" or "3/4" effort) run that starts conservatively and the pace gradually progresses so that the second half is similar to a half marathon pace.
8x1200 at half marathon pace is a great workout.
That's 6 miles at race pace, probably more than you should doing in one continuous run week after week. (Six-mile tempos would be a little slower than HM pace usually.)
400m jog is a lot of rest for this, though. 1:30 of active recovery is fine.
Those are called tempo intervals. The interval version of a tempo run.
Thank you all for the vote of confidence on this training plan. Like some of you said, it gives me a chance to work on my form running at the race pace while trying to stay relaxed as possible. I did something similar to this after college and I think it worked out ok.
young master wrote:
8x1200 at half marathon pace is a great workout.
That's 6 miles at race pace, probably more than you should doing in one continuous run week after week. (Six-mile tempos would be a little slower than HM pace usually.)
400m jog is a lot of rest for this, though. 1:30 of active recovery is fine.
Garbage, do it with no recoveries as a tempo
runn wrote:
Yes AND don't forget muscle memory- if you want to run 5:00 pace for 13.1 miles, 800's in 2:30 will help you develop the muscle memory to do it.
Lol 'muscle memory'
ukathleticscoach wrote:
young master wrote:8x1200 at half marathon pace is a great workout.
That's 6 miles at race pace, probably more than you should doing in one continuous run week after week. (Six-mile tempos would be a little slower than HM pace usually.)
400m jog is a lot of rest for this, though. 1:30 of active recovery is fine.
Garbage, do it with no recoveries as a tempo
You seem angry.
10k at half marathon pace is a very solid effort (unless your half marathon is crap, which it might be).
People who advocate that as a weekly fixture are often people with pissant training weeks where that is their main effort.
People running real mileage aren't doing that week in and week out. We know that 8x1200 or 6x1600 HMP with 1:30 rest is right on the money.