Last week was a week of shorter faster runs and I decided to try something new – having read a good post from Twitter about mile long intervals.

2 miles warm-up run, just faster than planned marathon pace, then 1 mile fast (about 1.5 minutes per mile faster than marathon pace) followed by 0.5 mile recovery (about 30 seconds per mile slower than marathon pace) and then repeat the 1 mile / 0.5 mile interval 4 times and then finish with a 2 mile cool down.  10 miles in total.

That was the plan – the first one started a bit too late in the day and had to be back, so had to cut the final 2 miles off or down.  8.3 in total and great average pace – not surprising really with 4 faster miles.  Did the same again a few days later – with the full 10 miles – and a great great run.  Average pace up as well.

Nice way to train, the longer mile intervals get harder during the run – no surprises really – but it’s a good routine.

Lots of articles around about interval training and the longer mile intervals are known to be good for marathons.  Even referred to as the “single most important workout for marathon training“.  More planned for me next week.