Thursday’s Session – Descending the ladder @ Gershwin Blvd

19 February 2018 - By James Crisp

Alex & Steve look forward to welcoming you all this week to something a little different, with Descending the Ladder. Wrap up warm as it will be chilly – you can dump any extra layers in the car once you get to Gershwin Boulevard for the session.

We’ll warm up with a jog to Gershwins followed by some dynamic stretching, drills and strides

Then you’ll be performing timed intervals of 6-5-4-3-2-1 minute repetitions, with jog recoveries of half the previous interval length (3, 2.5, 2, 1.5 & 1 minute)

Consistent & sensible pacing is essential here and we’ll be aiming at 5K-10K race effort then jogging for half the time of the last interval you completed as recovery, so 2:30 jogging after the 5-minute intervals, 2 minutes after the 4-minute interval, etc.

We’ll then cool down with easy running back to the leisure centre for some static stretches.

Guidance on pace for efforts –

Each rep should be run at the same pace. As ever, this is a challenging but achievable session if you get the pacing right and don’t go off too fast.

Recoveries are ideally done at a VERY easy jog to bring the heart rate down somewhat, but if you feel you need a short walk before resuming jogging then please do so. Please try not to walk the whole recovery.

Aim for a pace that is between your 5k & 10k pace

We will blow the whistle at the end of each interval and recovery.

For those wanting to program their Garmin (other brands of running watch are available) essentially you need to do the following:-

Run 6 mins
Recover 3 mins
Run 5 mins
Recover 2.5 mins
Run 4 mins
Recover 2 mins
Run 3 mins
Recover 1.5 mins
Run 2 mins
Recover 1 min
Run 1 min