Run Hard.

Every now and then you have to run hard. Well, you don't have to run hard but it can give you some pretty great results....you can get quicker and fitter, it can improve your endurance and stamina and so on. Now when I'm en route to Greater Manchester Marathon I'm following a more structured training plan and interval running is featuring regularaly. This week I've been tired, despite sleeping plenty, my legs felt heavy and I felt like I was falling ill without actually falling ill - in short, the thought of my interval session didn't feel all that appealing this week. On Friday night I decided to brave it after my Body Pump session but to make the intervals shorter and faster (which in theory should scare me, as I'm painfully slow). After a (nervous) 5 minute warm up I cranked up the speed to 14k/h or 4.28 min/k and waited for the disaster to happen. But...the first minute just flew by, as did the second, and third, and all of a sudden I'd done not only the 8 intervals I'd planned to do, but 10 intervals and I didn't even feel that tired. I went home from the gym that night feeling very confused but very happy and satisfied with my effort.

On Saturday morning I had decided to go to the gym in the morning for another Body Pump session followed by a short 30 minute run before heading off to work in the afternoon. When I stepped on the treadmill I had a change of mind and decided that I should try and do my 'real' interval session, which was 8x2minutes at 13.5k/h. I'm not going to bore you with describing all eight intervals, but let's just say that the legs were on fire and I felt slightly invincible - the last interval I extended to 3 minutes, with the last minute at a pace of 14k/h! I left the gym that day feeling even more confused and even more happy than the night before but my hubris wwas slightly diminished by the sore muscles in my legs and bum that had nothing to do with my two Body Pump sessions but everything to do with my two good and disciplined interval sessions.


So what's the morale of this story? Running hard is, well, hard, but very satisfying....oh so satisfying!