Rock n Road Runners – Thursday Intervals

This is a 60 minute coached session suitable for runners of all abilities, focused on building strength, stamina, power and speed through interval-based training. Basically, they can help you to improve your running.

The session is lead by fully-qualified run coaches Dan, George and/or Rik and the 60 minutes includes a thorough warm up consisting of easy running, mobilisation work, dynamic stretching, drills and strides. This warm up also focuses on improving various aspects of your run technique, biomechanics and efficiency. Not only will interval training improve your performance at all distances but it’s a really fun and social way to train. Anyone and everyone can benefit from interval-training regardless of experience level or goals and the coaches are always on hand to answer any questions.

The main set is usually interval-based, meaning that there is some faster-paced running for a set time or distance, interspersed with recovery which is either easy jogging, walking or standing. The aim of each interval session is to improve a certain aspect of our physiology, such as our pace at Lactate Threshold, Vo2 Max or increase our Running Economy and Neuromuscular Efficiency. (Don’t worry if you don’t know what all that means!)

These sessions are also individualised for each attendee. We regularly carry out 3k and 5k ‘time trials’ (or use a recent race result) to ascertain pace zones for different running intensities. This allows you to run at the right effort for your ability and avoid overexerting and overtraining. If anything is ever unclear you can just ask the coach.

The first session is free and all subsequent sessions are £5, unless you are a member of the Rock n Road Runners run club. If you would like more information or are keen to join the club click here or email rocknroadrunnersclub@gmail.com.

Warm-up:
• 05-10 minutes easy running.
• Dynamic stretches and drills (e.g. high knees, A-skips, strides).

Main set:
• 4 x 6 minutes at tempo/threshold pace (comfortably hard, around 80–85% effort).
• 90 seconds jog recovery between efforts.

Speed:
• 4 x 30 seconds at 1500m pace (controlled but fast, around 90–95% effort).
• 90 seconds walking or slow jogging recovery between reps.

Cool-down:
• 5-10 minutes easy jogging.

Notes for the group:
• Tempo pace should feel sustainable – tough but manageable. You should feel like you could do one/ two more reps at the end.
• Focus on good form during the 1500m pace efforts to finish the session feeling sharp but not overly fatigued.
• We will include a benchmark run session in the next couple of weeks to measure you progress and refine your pacing so watch this space.