Camino London Ultra 50km: Week 9: Speed Session

A key base building session for those training for the Camino London Ultra 50km, but also available for anyone looking for a varied workout:

Week 9: Negative Split Intervals

This is a pacing control challenge, great for developing awareness for different types of speed.

Find an uninterrupted running loop (this could be around your neighbourhood, a local park, your garden etc) which is not too populated with other runners or pedestrians.

Decide on your target pace for a short distance race or goal (I used as approximate 5km pace for this). If you are not sure, you can use this calculator to work out your goal pace: https://www.active.com/fitness/calculators/pace

The idea behind the negative split session is to start running very easily (for some, this could be just over a walk), and to then carefully build up speed as the session progresses.

Here is an example using a 9.00 min/mile target pace:

Interval distance: 0.5 mile

Rep 1: 0.5 miles at 11 minute/mile pace (walking recovery 90 seconds)

Rep 2: 0.5 miles at 10.30 minute/mile pace (walking recovery 90 seconds)

Rep 3: 0.5 miles at 10 minute/mile pace (walking recovery 90 seconds)

Rep 4: 0.5 miles at 9.30 minute/mile pace (walking recovery 90 seconds)

Rep 5: 0.5 miles at 9 minute/mile pace (walking recovery 90 seconds)

Rep 5: 0.5 miles at 8.30 minute/mile pace (walking recovery 90 seconds)

Cool down jog for 1 mile, easy pace

The first repeat may feel very relaxed in comparison to your target pace, but the game is to keep even and controlled splits all the way through the session.