As you may or may not know, I've been training for my very first (and probably last) half marathon the last couple of weeks. I follow a training schedule and part of it is intervaltraining! Today, I'd like to share my very first experience with interval training.

I bought the running.be magazine that had a training schedule in it and I'm trying to follow it as precisely as I can. It requires running 3 times a week and I normally run twice. Next to that, I work 25 hours a week and for the most part last month, I had to learn for exams. So needless to say, running didn't always fit in my schedule.

Last week, I did my first proper intervaltraining. Although it actually was the third one on my schedule, I only managed to succeed this time. The very first one was 10 minutes of warming up (aka slow running), then 8 minutes speeding, 3 minutes recovery, 8 minutes speeding and 10 minutes of slow running again. I had a lot of trouble with my breath during the speeding part, so I couldn't bring myself to speeding after 3 minutes again. Next to that, I only ran harder for 5 minutes instead of 8 so NOPE, no success.

After that fail, it wasn't hard to skip the second intervaltraining - not enough time, remember? But last week, I couldn't deny it. I have to stick to my program or I won't even finish those 21 km. So, this time I had to warm up for 10 minutes, speed for 8, recover for 3, speed for 8, recover for 3, speed for 8 and run slowly the last 10 minutes again.

Again, I had trouble getting my breath under control the first time speeding. I was running at a heart rate I'm not used to and adapting my breath was not easy. I made it though, although I was damn happy I could run slower again. The second time speeding, my calves started to burn. I had a lot less trouble with my breath, so that's a good thing. My calves weren't so happy though. Nevertheless, I survived those 8 mins too. Now the third time speeding, my hamstrings and glutes were protesting. What? I didn't understand that at all! The third round definitely was the hardest, but I did manage to control my breath completely this time.

I must admit, I was damn happy when I reached the last 10 minutes. I ran them damn slowly too, ha. Although I had quite some problems with my breath, I'm sure that will get better the next few times and who knows, maybe it'll help me get some quicker! More experiences on the 21K coming soon...