Putting intervals into your long runs
Intervals and long runs. They have different purposes, so why put the two together? Read on and find out. From a physiology perspective, long runs are all about your aerobic fitness and muscle endurance, whilst intervals are more about how hard you can push your heart rate and muscle strength. Combining the two, carefully and sparingly, can create a powerful impact on all of these elements, plus some other psychological benefits.
Benefits of intervals in long runs
Interval training has well-documented benefits on muscle adaptation as well as cardiovascular fitness. Slow runs often end up with us running with lazy technique though, so by adding in a little bit of faster running, we can influence the form of the easier miles. Ever noticed that your cool down mileage feels a lot more free-flowing than your warm-up did? You’ve run faster with better form, now you’re using that form in your easier running.
Aside from the physical and technical benefits, mentally you also gain from these sessions. When you’re running long runs, you settle into a rhythm and can run on instinct to a degree, so mentally they don’t stimulate you all that much. By adding pace changes to a speed at, or slightly faster than, marathon pace, you shift to actively having to think about your running style and effort, something that on race day you’ll have to do for several hours. If you can push your mind on a solo or small group run, you can do it when it really matters with crowds and a race clock to help.
What a long run with intervals might look like
A run I’ve used in the early stages of mileage increase towards a marathon was this;
3 mile warm up. 7 miles as 1 mile at 10-mile pace (15 seconds/mile faster than target marathon pace) with 1 mile recovery at target marathon pace plus 75-90 seconds/mile. 3 mile cool down.
It’s a tough session, and pace differences may be greater or smaller based on your fitness and experience levels.
Paces I use for you to gauge your pace adjustments
WU and CD 7:45/mile
10 mile pace 6:00/mile
Recovery pace 7:30-7:45/mile
Target marathon pace of 6:15 for 2hr 45 marathon
Tips for intervals in long runs
– Keep the pace sensible. Never faster than your current 10 mile pace to avoid over-reaching.
– Stick to around 13 miles maximum, longer and you’ll potentially do more harm than good.
– Use gels or fuelling as you’ll go through a higher proportion of carbohydrate on these runs. Run these without food and you’ll burn through more muscle and protein than we want.
– Use them rarely. The frequency will depending on too many other factors to give specifics, but I’d suggest maybe once per month, on a lower mileage week, potentially on your drop down week if using a 3 up, 1 down mileage method for marathon training.
So, there you have it. Try adding intervals into your longer runs every now and then and you’ll notice some benefits by the time you reach the latter miles of your next marathon.
Written by Kyle Brooks, Running Coach based in Norwich, Norfolk
