I had another great lunchtime run club session with my colleagues this week. I had a really blah run on Tuesday and just did not get into the groove, so it was great to feel back on form and strong by Thursday.
This week’s session was a bit of a mental game, and although we only did six reps in 15 minutes, it was enough to make me feel like I’d worked really hard and challenged myself.
We started on the bottom of a flat piece of grass that had a gradual incline towards the end and then went pretty steep right at the end. The mental piece meant I had to really dig deep to keep going to make it up that steep part of the hill, at points it felt like I was gritting my teeth to climb it!
Repeats were 1 minute hard running and see how far you get, 30 second recovery, 30 second hard back down the hill, then jog back to the start. The key is to be consistent and keep hitting the same place as your first time, which despite having to really push hard, I’m proud to say I achieved! I’d definitely consider doing this session again on my own, but I’m not sure I could push myself as much as I do in these group sessions.
It’s incredible to think how much you can achieve in just 15 minutes, and I can’t tell you how much I love these sessions! I have to be honest, I don’t always look forward to them, even when I’m getting changed I sometimes don’t really fancy it, but I never, ever regret getting out there, even if it means I look a bedraggled mess for the rest of the afternoon!
Do you do any sort of speed or interval or hill training at a high intensity? How many times a week? As I’ve now joined the Monday run club too where we did speed work I’m not sure if it’s considered ok to do two sessions like this in a week, but I figure Thursday’s is so short and they’re well apart it’s probably ok?
My splits:
| Warm up | 9:13 min/mile | 480 ft |
| 1 minute hard | 8:43 | 0.12 miles |
| 30 second hard | 8:10 | 337 ft |
| Jog recovery | 11:36 | 268 ft |
| 1 minute hard | 8:50 | 0.11 miles |
| 30 second hard | 8:11 | 341 ft |
| Jog recovery | 12:14 | 269 ft |
| 1 minute hard | 8:59 | 0.11 miles |
| 30 second hard | 7:35 | 372 ft |
| Jog recovery | 13:40 | 243 ft |
| 1 minute hard | 9:02 | 0.11 miles |
| 30 second hard | 8:46 | 317 ft |
| Jog recovery | 13:12 | 274 ft |
| 1 minute hard | 8:55 | 0.12 miles |
| 30 second hard | 9:00 | 302 ft |
| Jog recovery | 13:44 | 286ft |
| 1 minute hard | 8:45 | 0.12 miles |
| 30 second hard | 8:18 | 339 ft |
| Jog recovery | 12:34 | 239 ft |
| Totals | 9:34min/mile | 1.47miles |
Stripes and Snapshots 
I usually do one tempo session and an interval session a week, and it does make a huge difference. You always feel great after those sessions as well.
Nice work! I think something structured like that sounds great. Often training plans will have intervals, hills and/or tempo runs each week so as long as you feel recovered in that time you should be fine to do them each week.
Yeah I reckon it is definitely OK to do two speed sessions in a week. I used to do a track session on Mondays with intervals, then more intervals on the treadmill on a Thursday so similar to what you are doing. Well done, sounds like a great session! Wish I could fit a run into my lunch break!