Week 7: Friday - pyramid intervals
Fading fast
I had been dreading this workout for ages, more so the closer it got. When I first spotted it, a few weeks ago as I unwisely scrolled well into the future to see what Runna had in store, I thought the paces looked crazily ambitious – but – I thought that about many workouts in the first 5 or 6 weeks, and Runna had been right. It’s making me improve.
Thing is, at the start of the week I still thought it was crazy ambitious – like, there’s no way I’ve improved that much.
Then, much to my surprise, I woke up this morning feeling great. Legs felt strong. I was like, y’know what? Maybe I can do this. Trust the process!
Pyramids
So what am I on about? Pyramids are intervals where you start fast and short, gradually get slower and longer … and then shorter and faster again. I was to do:
- 2km warmup conversational
- 200m @ 4:05/km, 60s walking rest
- 400m @ 4:15/km, 90s
- 600m @ 4/30/km, 120s
- 800m @ 4:35/km, 120s
- 1km @ 4:35/km, 120s
- … and then back down …
- 1km cool down
I paused the warmup after only 150 metres to see if I could get into the settings and turn off auto-lap. I couldn’t. Oh well. I’d figured out a 2km route that gets me to the entrance to Broadwater Park where my “favourite” 200m stretch is, and from then on I was thinking of mostly running up and down the big straight road that goes next to the park. But the route’s not important, the intervals are.
| interval | actual pace |
|---|---|
| 200m @ 4:05 | 3:35/km(!) |
| 400m @ 4:15 | 4:18/km |
| 600m @ 4:30 | 4:50/km |
| 800m @ 4:35 | 4:45/km |
| 1km @ 4:35 | 4:52/km |
| 800m @ 4:35 | 4:53/km |
| 600m @ 4:30 | 4:50/km |
| 400m @ 4:15 | 4:35/km |
| 200m @ 4:05 | 3:55/km |
Lots to type about here!
So, the 200s. I was always, always, always just going to hammer my way through those. I cannot AND WILL NOT moderate my pace on 200 metres, it’s daft.
First 400 went well!
The 600, well, that’s where the wheels came off. Started well, tailed off, and basically finished it early. Here’s where auto-lap really messed me up - with about, I dunno, 50 metres left my watch beeped and I slowed to a walk… before noticing that it was just telling me how long it had taken me to cover the most recent 1km, NOT that the rep was finished. Argh! So maybe I’d have done a bit better than 4:50/km, but even so I wasn’t gonna hit 4:30/km.
So, yeah. 800, 1k, 800, 600, all the bloody same. Recover, start at close to target pace, fade horribly, get confused by so many watch vibrations - pace alerts, 1km splits, blah.
Hell for leather on the final 200m was 20s/km slower than the opener, but it was nice – and felt like a bit of a “fuck you!” – to get back under pace and indeed under 4:00/km.
I hated this workout though. Brutal, physically and mentally. For the cool down I jogged through the park and around the lake, and finished off walking through the autumn leaves.
This also gave me the opportunity to tick off my weekly to-do item of “check if the huge tree has shed its giant pinecones yet”.
It has not.
The moment Runna noticed that I’d finished the workout, its AI got going and a very polite notification appeared on my screen.
Not an “oh. you suck” bollocking but nonetheless that’s how I interpret it. That said, I’m more than happy to accept its offer to recalibrate. By doing so, target paces for future workouts appear to have slowed by 5-10s per km and that suits me just fine.