Still Running (weakly). Issue 13

PAST – inspiration – this week is all about interval sessions, those workouts we all “love,” where we push ourselves hard, time and again, over a set distance, with a set (far too short) recovery in between. The most famous interval session in history was Emil Zatopek’s 60x400 metres, which the Czech four-time Olympic gold medal winner apparently completed on consecutive days before the 1952 Helsinki games. News of what he had done swept across the athletics world at the time, along with the rumour that he had averaged 60 seconds for them. This then switched to 70 seconds. Interviewed in the 1970s, Zatopek admitted that he had only averaged 85 to 90 seconds for them!

PRESENT – perspiration – you may well have watched Josh Kerr’s fantastic sprint to win the World Championships 1,500 metres, ahead of Norwegian star, Jakob Ingebrigtsen. Kerr told the press of one session he did to prepare for such a fast race, running 2 sets of 4x400 metres, with 90 seconds between efforts and 4 minutes between sets. He averaged 54.8 seconds. This contrasts with Zatopek’s session in its relative brevity but hugely higher quality.

FUTURE – suggestion – so what does all of this mean for us, as we contemplate autumnal personal bests and the interval training it will take to get us to them? I have always believed that interval sessions should be hard like Josh Kerr’s (Zatopek’s was really an endurance session with pauses), working around the speeds that your target demands.

For example, if you are hoping for your first sub-30 5km (9:39 per mile pace), then you may work on 400s at a minute a mile faster than that goal pace, 800s half a minute a mile faster, and mile repetitions at goal pace itself. If you want a sub-1:30 half marathon (6:52 pace), you would work at 6:00 or under for 400s and 800s, but around 6:20 for tempo runs of 3-4 miles.

However different everyone’s interval sessions may have in pace, there should be some constants in their structure: you should always plan your interval day well away from other hard days, always warmup well, always be disciplined about the recovery you take between the efforts, try and finish strongly, making the last efforts at least as fast as the first, and then jog a warm-down in that (hopefully) lovely, euphoric, mellow “I’ve done it” glow!