i don’t know if you saw this, it was made by the Flocasts people. We published an interview with Mirinda, yesterday I think it was, we didn’t embed these because they were branded, and somewhat commercial, and seemed just not appropriate for an editorial piece. Nevertheless, they’re well done and they do bring up a couple of points:
Mirinda running mile repeats: This the FIRST and ONLY time I’ve ever seen anyone run intervals using the swim interval motif, that is, she runs 6 x 1 mile repeating on the 7 minutes. It’s the interval + the rest = a prescribed time. This is done in swimming because the clock always moves. You can’t stop the pool clock, so, it’s inconvenient to swim, say, 300 yards with a 30 second rest. If you swim 300 yards and you want a 30sec rest and you can swim 10 of these in 3:30 then you swim them “on the 4 minutes.” or if you can swim 10 of them in 4:30 you swim them “on the 5 minutes.” I wonder if this goes on anywhere else in running.
Okay, I’ve done this for fartlek, because if you want to run both a sustained run and an interval run, and you want to keep track of the total time and do intervals, you could do it this way. Otherwise, this just seems like someone from a swim background dragging swim interval culture into running. Which is not bad, or good, just, I’ve wondered if this would ever happen and this is really the first I’ve seen it.
I also found it kind of funny that she “I’ve got this training bloc, and I’ll do a race, and I’ll use this training bloc to be fit enough for my Kona training bloc, which start in late July.” I wonder if “this race” was Roth. And that “a race” was the more politic nomenclature for the purpose of the video
I am nobody but I do these kind of intervals all the time. Or I should say my coach gives me these workouts to do all the time and he is a triathlon coach and a former triathlete.
Interesting, my coach always prescribed run intervals in the traditional way but I always converted to swim type intervals for my own ease of tracking. I’d always forget if I am on interval 4 or 5 but if I did a 15min warm up and was doing 6x800 on 5min I knew to keep going until the 45 min mark.
This the** FIRST and ONLY time I’ve ever seen anyone** run intervals using the swim interval motif, that is, she runs 6 x 1 mile repeating on the 7 minutes. It’s the interval + the rest = a prescribed time.
I’m surprised! I thought it was more common.
I used to do 50x200 on :50s on the track when I ran more… loved that workout.
I seem to recall a Crowie practice session video where he an Mirinda did something like that. Their “warmup” was a 112 mile ride. After the ride they found a road to run mile repeats. Mirinda’s sendoffs were slightly slower than Crowie’s. Found it…they were doing this in 2011.
This the** FIRST and ONLY time I’ve ever seen anyone** run intervals using the swim interval motif, that is, she runs 6 x 1 mile repeating on the 7 minutes. It’s the interval + the rest = a prescribed time.
I’m surprised! I thought it was more common.
I used to do 50x200 on :50s on the track when I ran more… loved that workout.
For group track workouts it’s very common. It’s just that there’s more focus on hitting the interval than the sendoff, since the coach is sending the whole group off at once)
Ex. We’d do 10x400 in 70 with a 1min. rest, so the sendoff is every 2:10, but what we were really aiming for was to finish the 400 in 70. Nobody says we’re doing 10x400 on 2:10, it’s we’re doing 10x400 in 70 with 1 min. rest.
“Nobody says we’re doing 10x400 on 2:10, it’s we’re doing 10x400 in 70 with 1 min. rest.”
i think the operative element is do you reset the watch for each interval. that’s what makes it different for running versus swimming. that, and the running rest intevals are always a lot longer than for swimming intervals, when considering the time resting versus the time swimming or running.
This is done in swimming because the clock always moves. You can’t stop the pool clock,
You can’t stop any clock.
I think it’s done in swimming because it’s easiest on the coaches.
A swimming coach typically has to range across 25m of lanes and usually has a many-to-one ratio of coach-to-athletes. Easier to yell out “10 x 100 on the 1:30!” and then he can keep track of how everyone’s doing with just a glance. He can make sure the team stud is being studly on every interval. If it’s done running-style with 100m + 10 seconds rest then after just a few intervals the entire pool is out of synch on the start times. Coach has no idea who’s slacking off or who’s just made a massive breakthrough.
Some pretty similar workouts in Crossfit as well since they also work on a running clock. They are just doing lifts or sprints or whatever, not full miles.
That’s how my coach has us do our 800 repeats (with active recovery). He uses a regular watch and every so many minutes and seconds he starts the next interval. It doesn’t matter if someone is slow or fast. It might not be the best way to hold a group workout but we are close speed-wise.
Yep, I remember Crowie talking about this key session as a barometer of his fitness in the leadup to Kona. Maybe even in 2009 or 2010. It was on one of Babbitt’s Competitor Radio interviews. Mile reps off the bike, “leaving on the 6 minute” or something like that. It was the first time I had heard a track workout executed in this fashion.
This the** FIRST and ONLY time I’ve ever seen anyone** run intervals using the swim interval motif, that is, she runs 6 x 1 mile repeating on the 7 minutes. It’s the interval + the rest = a prescribed time.
I’m surprised! I thought it was more common.
I used to do 50x200 on :50s on the track when I ran more… loved that workout.
For group track workouts it’s very common. It’s just that there’s more focus on hitting the interval than the sendoff, since the coach is sending the whole group off at once)
Ex. We’d do 10x400 in 70 with a 1min. rest, so the sendoff is every 2:10, but what we were really aiming for was to finish the 400 in 70. Nobody says we’re doing 10x400 on 2:10, it’s we’re doing 10x400 in 70 with 1 min. rest.
Yeah, I suppose I did the same. I tried to keep things under 40s, usually coming in at 37s. I don’t think I’ve ever done a 400 in 70! I’ve always been a decent, but not great runner.
All of my outdoor runs have hills, so it’s usually easier to use time based intervals rather than distance in many cases. So I might run 4:00 at just above threshold, then maybe 1:00 easy and repeat.
