Waking up the thread again, because I’ve started doing this in my winter build and am interested to know the effectiveness of it.
Todays session was a 10 minute tempo, averaging about 5:14 a mile, take some time for the HR to get back down, spike up, and then run 2 sets of 3x300m, first set at mile pace (46-47 for me currently) and second set at 800m pace (42 for me currently).
My HR averaged 171 and peaked at 179 for the tempo, and I was probably 90% recovered by the time my intervals started. Does this really do much for my threshold at this duration of stimulus? I can sit around in the 170s for a 60 minute steady state run and still feel like I have a bit more in the tank, so 10 minutes just isn’t much.
Maybe the idea was to introduce fatigue and some lactate into the legs to begin the meat of the workout, but who knows. I’ve been told I should expect a short tempo or aerobic interval session right before speed endurance for the rest of winter, so I’d love to know the merit behind it.