UKC

…for trying to get 5k/10k time down.

Pre lockdown I was doing a lot of track sessions and just going off whoever was blowing the whistle, but new baby and altered track schedule means I’m struggling to get to them.

I just about have the discipline to do an interval session on my own and have a good flat 1k.  At the moment I’m going off 90s which feels about right but I have no idea really about whether shorter (or longer) would be beneficial.  Difficult to measure progress without any races.

 I do longer efforts as well.  Used to do shorter ones on the track (which were helpful I think) but I can’t really be bothered to do 400 reps on the road on my own.

In reply to gazhbo:

6 or 7 * with one minute is the standard.  Desired 5k race pace.  

Yes, the shorter ones can be very useful for 5k- on a track, 4 *400m , 100 jog (or one minute) as a set, 3 sets of.

In reply to gazhbo:

I am no expert but I would have thought vomiting inducing 400m reps were the way to go. Hopefully this will bump your question up for a more authoritative answer. 

In reply to SouthernSteve: lo

I am no expert but I would have thought vomiting inducing 400m reps were the way to go.

Definitely, and I like doing the short distance track sessions.  As soon as I can get back to the track I’ll do them.  But it’s really hard to do something like that on your own on the road.

In reply to gazhbo: I'm no expert , but if you can't get that 6 *1km session down pat, at race pace, then you're going to struggle a wee bit at 5k.  The 1 min rest is important - I know a lot of people who can do the reps, in the time, but with lots of rest and invariably can't race the pace.

The main issue people have off the track is getting the pace hard enough.  It should be pretty tough.  If you're struggling for pace the 400m reps session is a classic 1500m session, and is likely to leave you vomiting but will get your legs going

I wouldn't recommend going longer than 1km for reps, especially alone, as it's again hard to get the pacing right.  I did races instead of 2 km or longer reps

In reply to wbo2:

That sounds about right.  My reps are probably about 5s quicker than 5 k pace so I maybe need to slow down a bit and shorten the recovery (which I suspected was too long).