Monday NIght Cardio Torture: Interval Training 1 K × 7 Sets

In exactly 41 days from today Sansurp Chiba Marine Marathon takes place in Makuhari, Chiba Prefecture. I'm running half marathon. I did interval training to improve speed.

Interval training consists of two components:

1) A one kilometer run at a faster pace than your usual running pace

2) A two-minute slow jog

1) and 2) makes up one set. And you repeat it until you hit seven sets, except that 2) is often skipped after the seventh 1 k fast run.

Today's result is as follows:

Round 1: 4:06

Jog: 2:00

Round 2: 4:02

Jog: 2:00

Round 3: 4:10

Jog: 3:00

Round 4: 4:11

Jog: 2:30

Round 5: 4:26

Jog: 2:30

Round 6: 4:26

Jog: 2:00 

Round 7: 4:16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NosuyJe5pdU&feature=youtu.be

As you can see, I rested longer after the third round. This is because breathing became difficult,

and I needed longer for recovery. In the past I would push myself, but these days I don't. It's important to slowly raise the level of intensity. Otherwise, you could meet unconscious resistance later, and motivation can go down. In endurance sports such as long-distance running, training consistently over a long period of time is more important than doing something very challenging once and taking a long break until doing another big one. Therefore, keeping the level of challenge at a manageable level is vitally important.

Anyhow, after taking a little longer jogging break three times, I felt I was strong enough to push myself, so I cut the jogging to two minutes again, and did my best to improve my time from the previous two sets. I reached the goal ten seconds earlier, and today's training was over.

I am going to give myself a complete rest on Tuesday. And hopefully on Wednesday morning if I get up early enough, I would like to go for a one-hour jog. If I don't, I'll hit the road after coming home from work.

I am going to combine interval training and long distance jogging like until the race in January. At some point along the way I would like to run 30 k once or twice, because I am running a full marathon in Tateyama, Chiba at the end of next January, a week after Sansupo Chiba Marine Marathon. There isn't much time to do any major training between the two races, so I am hoping to do some good endurance training before it's too late. I guess during winter vacation is probably the best timing as when I have more free time than usual.