Interval Training
Structured speed work for endurance runners on a floodlit circuit, with your own target paces set by a coach.
Running the same steady pace every week is boring and won’t make you fast. Interval training fixes that. Run hard for a set distance or time, jog or walk to recover, and then go again. This is the fastest and most fun route to a quicker 5K, a stronger finish, and legs that hold their shape in the last miles of a marathon.
The difference between doing this on your own and doing it with Vale of York is the power of a training group pushing you on. Your paces are worked out from a recent race time and used to set the target pace for every rep. The session is hard enough to get results but controlled enough that you can finish it. Going off too fast is a common mistake in interval training, and we have the software and the coaches to fix it.
Every session starts with a warm-up of technical drills to instil the same running mechanics we teach on the track, and finishes with a cooldown built around flexibility and mobility. The circuit is floodlit, so this keeps going right through the winter.
The Wednesday slot changes with the season. Through the winter it is VO2 max interval training, to prepare us for cross country and winter road racing. Once the York and District Road Race League starts in the spring, members are racing 10K on Tuesday evenings, so every other Wednesday softens into something more sociable along the trails.
The details
- Day & time
- Wednesdays, 7–8pm
- Venue
- Bubwith Leisure Centre, floodlit circuit
- Who for
- Juniors from 12 upwards, and seniors
- Groups
- Juniors and seniors, run separately
- Cost
- Included in membership
- First session
- Free, no membership needed
- Coaches
- England Athletics licensed
Runners with a race in the diary
parkrun, a 10K, the cross country season, a spring marathon. If you already run and have plateaued, this is the session that takes you to the next level. You will be set paces to help you progress.
Juniors moving up
Young athletes who have outgrown games-based sessions and are ready for endurance training. They run as their own group with their own paces.
Thursday circuits regulars
Circuits build the strength. Intervals build the speed and the engine. Plenty of our members do both on consecutive nights. See the circuits session.
First session free. Come and see where you’re at.
Wednesdays, 7–8pm, Bubwith Leisure Centre, on the floodlit circuit. Leave your details and we’ll sort your free trial pronto.