Intervals

If anybody actually read this blog they might notice that in my list of recent workouts it says that i did 4800 m today. The m is for "meters", not "miles", which as Kenny Mayne might say would be a record or something. Actually i ran around 5 miles total this morning, but 4800 meters of that was 6 half-mile repeats. In other words, intervals.

Intervals are just what they sound like- fixed length segments of relatively fast running, usually done on a track. The purpose of intervals is to get faster- to run in the anaerobic zone so that you improve your VO2Max and train your muscles to run faster. In the running community, the word is also a sort of code word for suffering. I do not look forward to running intervals, although I almost always feel really good afterward. Although i like the sensation of running fast, a good half mile will start to hurt near the end. I really don't run too fast, around 2:50 for an 800, but at 6:30 on a Monday morning that seems fairly fast.

My aim is to get faster for the Carlsbad 5000 in April. I set my 5k pr at Carlsbad a few years ago, but that was over 19 minutes. I'm shooting for 17:30 this year, but that'll be pretty tough. That's around a 5:40 mile pace (hence the 2:50 intervals), which at the moment seems unlikely. The sad thing is that even if i managed it, Carlsbad is so competitive that i'd barely crack the top 40 even in the masters division.