Two weeks in and im finally starting to see some great results – for me anyway!

Before we get into that; I thought it’d be a good idea to take a look at the type of running I’ve built into “the plan” (feel free to comment if you have any advice and/or pointers). As I mentioned before; there are three sessions per week and they are broken down as follows:

The interval run

Interval training is no longer a new concept in the fast moving world of “popular fitness”. The basic principle is that working out at a continuous pace/effort/intensity for all your sessions is not always the best way to get results. The most common aspect of this is HIIT (high intensity interval training) and was also popularised through Tabata (a Japanese set of exercises that relies heavily on hiit). The most common way it makes it’s way into workout programs is a way to burn max calories with less time spent on cardio – that’s definitely the way I had utilised it in the past. Its more than just about weight loss/ fitness though and in the context of running; the idea is to run at a faster pace for a fixed period (e.g 10 minutes), followed by a rest period – repeating for a number of “sets”. The aim is not to run at maximum sprint (unlike hiit) but the theory is that by incorporating this type of training, you train your body to recover faster from running, strengthen your heart and cardiovascular function and also build speed.

The “tempo” run

This is the part which a lot of people may disagree over – I certainly have found some very different ideas on this on the internet. This was introduced to me by Dharmesh and the idea is kind of similar to the interval run in that you run at a higher pace than normal (but not as fast as the interval run) for a longer set period. Depending on your fitness level, the most common theory may be the maximum pace you can sustain for 20-40 minutes. The theory is focused on lactic acid and the idea that by running at the threshold of where your body produces and clears lactate, the body becomes better at the process and therefore you’re increasing your endurance and more specifically muscle endurance.

The long run

This is the easiest one to understand – essentially a long run at an easy pace to put some mileage in and also build fitness/endurance “the old fashioned way”. It’s all very well doing intervals and tempos but at some point you have to cover the distance right?

Results

So this was a much much better week, I still had a few days where I was too sore to stick with the plan but I managed to cover:

1 x interval run (pace 6.15m/km)

1 x tempo run (pace 7.15m/km, 32 minutes)

2 x resistance sessions

1 x core session (Pilates)

1 x cycling session

So not a bad result at all but aiming for 100% completion in my final week before rest/ test week!

Stats

Max distance run: 5km

Average pace: 7:15m/km

Fastest pace: 6.15m/km

Longest continuous running: 32minutes

Final note: I have never successfully run for more than 10 minutes at a time. Ever. In my whole life. I understood the idea around lowering your pace etc but it wasn’t until I really committed to a structured plan that I was able to achieve this so yay for me but also if I take one lesson away from this then it should be that a detailed training plan really can make a huge difference. Go figure.