How to interval train ? - trail running dilemma

I listened to a conversion and watched unfolding an act of a girl yesterday. I gave a couple of thoughts to her, but of course, she did not listen. I don't mean listen, like follow my advice, but listen like think about what I am saying.

She has a new watch and she wanted to enter her interval training session to be able to follow it hands free. She had the habit of a certain platform, but on her new watch it seemed like complicated. After 40 minutes sitting front of her phone pushing the screen and trying hard, she finished by saying, well I am just gonna follow somebody who is around my strength, my speed. Well that is actually one of the best ways to improve and to better yourself. Not advisable for every training session, but still, having somebody who is just one or 2 seconds stronger than you in intervals, can really pull up your speed and your abilities.

Another story. In my old club I had a guy, a genetically superior athlete. Firs of all, as a kid, after 3 month of training, he was running 48sec for the 400m. He was always running on and off, gaining weight loosing weight and so on. Then he started to come to our training sessions. Just to chat with the coach. Just to say hello after his footings. Then he turned up to a training session. He has a lot of ego and a lot of proudness of being the best. Including champion of workouts and races too. Apparently on his own, he was already doing some stuff on the side and he wanted to come back for a long time to train. So he wanted to show to the coach, that yeah, I am still good. Understand this mindset first, as normally as a 36 - 37 years old male, you don't have this anymore. I mean this proving, self chest pounding, winning, wanting, bettering type of champion attitude is more likely present in certain kids from rich families.
Of course at that time, we have been training for over 2 year, and our lactate handling and speed abilities were really up to the roof. In addition, he dropped into a legendary workout and final workout of the season, where my club-mate and me started to separate as he went from there on to an 800specific season and me to the trail season. You cannot nail a pinnacle workout coming from nowhere on your own at the age of 36, with no sports for a decade. He was keeping up for 3 rounds, just behind and actually feeling good. However, he started to pull away in certain sections, kind of playing with us, to show his speed, but finishing always behind. We were running 500s on 1:28 - 129 with 1:30 breaks. 
I still wanted to do some track races that season, so my goal was to finish the workout in spikes for the last 5 out of 10 sets. He went head first on the 4th, but finished with me. Again in the 5th but finished behind. Again in the 6th, but stopped at 300m, shaking, having blood and iron taste in his mouth, jelly legs and we have never seen him again for another 2 months.
Good memories from those days. Either ways, he came back, trained 3months with us and gained more fitness on a 40 - 50 km a week training during that time, than we did in 3 years. His VMA test was like 23 points, still being over weight, with an incorrect stride, while we all stopped under 20. 

How to increase fitness with interval training ? 

Training buddy 

From that point on, I used him as a gauge, as a marker, as a training tool. I could not run with him anymore, unless I wanted to do only 6 reps out of 12 in sets. His recovery and workout absorption ability at this age was just too good for me.
As an example, my goal was to run 12 x 400m on 1:16. For me, that was a speed endurance workout. Not so hard, but not easy either. I simply ran each first 100m with him, before dialing back to my 1:16 pace. This way, I got a little boost of speed, but also a muscular stimulation, as the final 3 - 4 reps were always challenges. Even paced, that routine would have been simple, with less training effect and better recovery. This way it was still okay recovery, but tons of benefits.
Then we did longer endurance workouts, like 8 by 1000m. That was my territory. I ran 3 out of the 8 with him and 5 at the back of the pack. I assure you, that running those 1000s at 3:10 - 3:15, made the following ones at 3:35/km bloody hard too. However, very doable. Alone doing it at 3:18 - 3:25 would not have been possible. This way, with pace changes and a rabbit, I injected some speed, I used slower ones for lactate clearance and had a great workout.
Other times, when the workout suited me more, I kept up lurking 1 or 2 seconds behind. He was pulling me up and up and up.
Outside of technical trail races, I never could beat him anymore, especially that I really started specializing in the mountain running, but I was closing on him each season. A little closer, a little closer.

Watch

Most people don't understand their watches. You got a lap button and even on a simple Timex Ironman you can set up lap time and total time. Your lap time is the only thing you care about. You press a lap button and it restarts. When finished, you press again. Now you measure recovery. If you had a Garmin or a Coros or whatever, this will show in your workout log and you can post analyze your training if wanted. 

Avg/lap/pace is also available in GPS watches. You set up a screen, easy. LAP TIME on top, AVG LAP PACE in the middle, HR on the bottom. AVG LAP PACE is the pace for the actual lap. This way, you'll see, that in the beginning it is slower, than you catch up and now you just have to pace yourself well, to control incremental increases and decreases. Overtime, if doing long intervals, this precious tool will stabilize even more. When running 3:45 pace and suddenly it goes up to 3:46, it means that from the beginning of the lap, you lost 2 seconds, if you were at the 2 km mark. You slowly increase your speed, but just a little bit, so in 3 minutes, you gained back that 2 seconds of loss.
If you chose only PACE, because the Earth is moving, the GPS satellites are moving and you are moving too, it is jumping all over the place, giving you totally unreliable information on your movement. AVG pace for long runs and LAP AVG PACE for your longer non-track interval workouts. This is the way to go for a high performance self coached athlete.

By Feel

This is the best and only way to progress. Long term sustainable. You feel great, you go hard. You feel avg, you go average, you feel low, you don't go, but do an easy run and wait till you feel great. 

You prepare for a long event. You focus on endurance and terrain specificity. You prepared for a short event ? You focus on up and down speed and technical abilities. You prepared for an ultra, you also include aid station handling and nutrition and hydration into the picture.

There is no need to be anal about speed training and splits and laps and precision. Fitness comes from long term, life long training and incremental increases in training load.
What if you trained 10 beats lower on average for all sets and reps? You were still way faster than race pace. Did you increase fitness so  ? Yes you did. What is the story so ? Nothing. Maybe you decreased your ability to bring up speed for a final push for the victory, but you increased your ability to push harder through out the entire event, so you won't need the final push anymore. Which one is better ? The moment will tell. Which one gives you more fitness ? This is not even a question. If you improve something during each workout, that is already a gain, a win and mastery. Even easy runs. 

I have my Timex watch, I look at time to see where I am at if needed. Last weekends long run, I did not look at my watch once. I could have left it home. I simply did 3 x D+400m reps in Fivefingers. Eating on top, drinking at the bottom. That is it. I did D+1200m in 3h39. Easy. I was present as .

The only thing

If you wanted to succeed without all the distractions, without all the unnecessary headaches, without the help of a coach, you though must understand training methodology and physiology. At least a little.

  • Progressive overload, rest and relax and repair, then repeat. 
  • Periodization
  • Base training and specificity
  • Tapering
  • Volume, frequency, intensity 

***

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