Interval Training Runs

Here is a short cut that will get your endurance up and running. Interval runs, that will get your head detached from your body when you run fast. What do I mean my this, interval training is hard and the last time I tried this I was 15 years old. I was in my school's cross country team. Interval training runs requires you to run laps from 400-600m fast with a short rest period before running again. I did this 1 week ago with my son. Yesterday nite, I did it again with 1 lap more to add from 4 I managed last week. A short warm up run was initiated just before the hard 5 laps of 600 m. Each lap will only be described as a torturous bliss, as I literally "flew" from the start go. It felt like you were flying as you raise your knees high and land on your heels only to take off again. The hands raised high swaying from side to side as you breathe in hard with each stride. All you hear as you run is your hard breathing, the soft thud of your stride and the heart rate monitor telling you have gone past your max threshold in your training zone. The stride gets harder as you near the finishing line only to push hard as you detach your head so that you don't feel the pain of exhaustion.

It was great because I managed 5 fast laps finishing between 2 min 8 secs and 2 mins 11 secs for all 5 laps. For once I felt like a champion as I ran fast on each one of these laps. Perhaps as the body get fitter, I will increase the number of laps to 8. For now all I can say is that I am starting to do what I feared for many years,... doing interval training sessions.

Thinking back, I remembered managing 8 laps of 400 m with 8 laps of 200m in one training session as a 15 year old. We trained right up to the stage of seeing stars in our heads. This session was not one of those days but it was still hard for a 38 year old trying to gain his fitness. For one short moment I felt like a school boy. A bearded 15 year old kicking butts like I use to when I was younger. The days when I won cross country races and competeted really aggressively in school.

Interval training session is by far the most focused session you can ever do with your good mate called pain. It amazes how the whole world disappears and all that remains, is the track, the dark shadows of your strides and the sound of heavy breathing. Life momentarily stops for a while as you leave everything behind as you fly in pain. It was torturous to the lungs and legs to say the least but it felt good to do such a session once very week.