I have been a regular runner for years.
I am also very regular in the pace I keep.
Steady, gradual change is my comfort zone, with a strong trend toward going longer rather than faster.
Yes, this is a classic reminder of how much good any kind of interval training can do, perhaps especially if you fall into the same camp as I do exercise-wise. Thanks to a great initiative at work, I joined some of my colleagues for a group run on Thursday, complete with coach and everything.
It turned out to be all about intervals at various speeds and of various lengths.
I know how good intervals can be for me, and I was still surprised how much I got out of it. Not only did I momentarily push myself much harder than I normally do, I did many more such pushes than possibly ever before in such a short time. And I recovered better than I expected between the pushes too. Or, as I put it in the moment: It is funny how frequently you can start running and still start out too fast every single time.
Just as expected, I felt nicely drained afterward. Now, four days later, I still feel it just a bit in my legs. All in a good way.
But, I have also kept going. In the runs I have got in since then, I have varied my pace a lot more than on average. I feel like I can both improve my max pace and sustain it longer by simply getting more used to it. And that in turn always helps average pace as well.
Intervals. I guess I should do them more often. Frustratingly rewarding.