Interval Training, in a form appropriate to your needs and state of fitness, is the quickest way for an endurance runner to improve. But interval training done badly, or too frequently, is a recipe for progressive decline and injury. One interval session per week is plenty for a novice. An experienced distance runner could manage three good sessions.
Endurance Intervals should be run at only a little above race pace, trying to run quite fast, but smoothly with as little effort and stain as possible (this is also the way to race well).
So the choice of intervals is important.
- A good class marathon runner might choose to do 7 x 1300m in about 4 minutes, with 1 ½ minutes recovery.
- A novice 5k runner could do 5 x 400m in 2 ½ minutes, with 3 ½ minutes recovery.
- A sprinter would do 5 x 200m in 30-45 seconds with 4-5 minutes recovery.
Inveralmond Intervals have 3 possible starts (see map):
Wet weather S1. Just below porch steps.
Dry Weather S2. South end of Willowbank, before narrow footpath between schools.
Or you could start on the straight path at A and run to B, C, or D and back.
The measured turn-points are marked on the ground by a circle with a cross.
We advise you to jog to your chosen turn-point and back as a warm-up.
Please keep to the left, in order to avoid collisions.
Stand on the left when waiting to start, to leave room for finishing runners.
