What better way to celebrate 111 episodes of the podcast than a workout like 11x 1 minute!? And aside from another numerically pleasing session, why would we want to do a session like this? Read on …

WHAT?

THE FIRESTARTER

11x 1 minute @ 5k race effort up to mile race effort

1 minute jog recoveries

Terrain: Undulating or flat

This session can be tailored to suit almost any training goal. In marathon prep you might keep it at 5k pace and just treat it like a broken tempo run where your heart rate never goes crazy. But if you want to really crank up the engine to mile race pace you can do that to make this a true high intensity interval session.

You pick the poison and either way it will stoke your fire!

WHY?

When speeds are high for this workout it really becomes a melting pot style session where you’re asking your body to move fast, breathe hard and do so for a solid 22 minutes. However, keeping the pace at 5k pace would shift this to feel more like a tempo run where your heart rate is oscillating between just higher than tempo pace in the efforts to just below by the end of the recoveries.

How you adapt the workout is totally up to you and your goals. If you’ve got some track races or a 5k coming up or just want a serious blow out of the cobwebs, then by all means start at 5k pace and get faster from there.

HOW?

The terrain is up for grabs too. If you’re running the intervals fast, you might like a flat measurable pathway where you can get some accurate pace feedback from your GPS watch.

But, on the other hand, if you want to just do it by feel, feel free to find some undulating trails that aren’t too technical or mountainous.