Marathon Coach · Train Smarter
How I Run Intervals Without Turning Them Into a Circus
A practical approach to interval sessions: warm-up, simple structure, honest recoveries, and logging the work so the next week learns something.
Simple structure beats clever workouts
My best intervals seasons used boring sessions: clear reps, clear recoveries, a warm-up I didn’t skip. Clever workouts look good in a log; simple workouts get done when you’re tired.
If you need a novel in your pocket to understand the set, it’s too complicated for a hard day.
Warm-up is not optional theater
Easy minutes and a few strides before hard reps make paces more honest and form less desperate. Skip the warm-up and the first interval becomes the warm-up — usually poorly.
Cool-downs are how tomorrow’s easy run feels human.
Close the loop
Record the session. Note whether recoveries were honest. If you had to invent heroics to hit splits, the prescription was wrong — not your character. Next week should learn from this week. That’s training, not content creation.