Tag Archives: Mile intervals

Another barrier cracked – 100 minutes

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Back under 100 minutes for the 1/2 marathon today.  A good result and my best time since the end of 2008 – and my third fastest 1/2 marathon.  Still a bit off my best time of 1:33:53, in the first Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon in 2008, but getting there.

A week of more fast runs this week:

  1. 10 miles with 4 x 1 mile intervals
  2. 6 miles with 5km fast
  3. 10 miles at (slow) recovery pace

And then 1/2 marathon on day 4.  Not much rest this week so far but good runs and under 100 minutes for the 1/2 marathon after 3 consecutive days running.

A great day to run today and the perfect weather, no more long sleeves and hat needed.  Sun out and blue skies.  Nice!

Rest day tomorrow, as in no running but a Lego-tastic day planned, at Legoland Windsor  for their Star Wars Invasion Weekend, complete with the guys from the UK Garrison (part of the 501st Legion) and a squadron or two of Stormtroopers and the rest of the gang.  Happy days!

Probably the most important workout for marathons?

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Last week was a week of shorter faster runs and I decided to try something new – having read a good post from Twitter about mile long intervals.

2 miles warm-up run, just faster than planned marathon pace, then 1 mile fast (about 1.5 minutes per mile faster than marathon pace) followed by 0.5 mile recovery (about 30 seconds per mile slower than marathon pace) and then repeat the 1 mile / 0.5 mile interval 4 times and then finish with a 2 mile cool down.  10 miles in total.

That was the plan – the first one started a bit too late in the day and had to be back, so had to cut the final 2 miles off or down.  8.3 in total and great average pace – not surprising really with 4 faster miles.  Did the same again a few days later – with the full 10 miles – and a great great run.  Average pace up as well.

Nice way to train, the longer mile intervals get harder during the run – no surprises really – but it’s a good routine.

Lots of articles around about interval training and the longer mile intervals are known to be good for marathons.  Even referred to as the “single most important workout for marathon training“.  More planned for me next week.