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There's a route round my village is exactly 3.5 miles, which is a tad short for a 'proper' run but probably ideal for a 'maximum benefit from minimum time' interval run on a lunchtime when time is limited. I hate interval training, it hurts (which I guess is the point). I've tried the sprinting between lampposts, but want something a bit more structured.
I dug out my old Garmin watch (405cx) which has an programmable interval mode which can be set by time or distance. Just wondering if anyone has any advice on what to set it to? Inputs are no. of reps, distance/time of rep & rest period. The warm up/cool down part is manual and you just press a button to switch between warm up and intervals.
Thanks
Bump for the evening crowd
Haven't a clue, not heard of that watch.
But, when I run intervals I never use the watch anyway, it's too much faff! Pick some strava segments (or make some) of a suitable length and cool down in between.
One interval training session I use is warm up, 1 mile hard, 2 min easy jog, 1km hard, 2 min easy jog, 800m hard, 2 min easy jog, 600m hard, 2 min easy jog, 400m hard, 2 min easy jog, 200m hard, 2 min easy jog, 200m hard, cool down. Quite good as you don't need a big loop for it.
I've got a forerunner 645 and used Garmin connect to plan it, not sure how easy it would be to do on your watch though.
Maybe jog the 3.5 mile route to warm up before doing a number of 1 mile tempo/threshold efforts with jog recoveries in-between then jog the 3.5 miles to cool down.
Just wondering if anyone has any advice on what to set it to? Inputs are no. of reps, distance/time of rep & rest period.
You could do 10x(1 min / 1 min recovery), for example. In training last week we did 4x(2' / 1' recovery), recover 3', then repeat. Those would be sub 5K pace intervals. Recovery is at a gentle trot (or worst case, walking), never just standing around.
Longer, slower intervals would be something like 3x(5' / 2' rec) at 10K or HM pace, again as an example.
If your watch allows you to mix up interval length you could do things like 4x(2'/1')+8x(1'/30"). Lots of possibilities 🙂
(And that's ignoring just using your phone - if you're carrying it anyway it no doubt has more capable and easier to use apps available).
Edit: forgot to mention warm up / cool down: this is obviously vital, aim for at least 20 min gentle run before hand, with 3 or 4 progressive 100m sprints, and another 15-20 min gentle jogging after.
Maybe jog the 3.5 mile route to warm up before doing a number of 1 mile tempo/threshold efforts with jog recoveries in-between then jog the 3.5 miles to cool down.
OP says time is limited, that's upwards of 90 mins all in.