Intervals and Ultras are like oil and water

I still get nervous when I toe the start line of a race. A lot has changed since my first memories of racing butterflies, which coincided with the 100m sprints in Grade 7. For starters, the race was 100m, or 800 times shorter than my current favourite race distance – 50 miles. Second, I really feared losing or even worse, coming in last.

I’ve since realized that races are fun and should be raced for fun. I don’t get as nervous now on the line as I used to, but that’s what years of experience will do for you, and although ultras are relatively new for me, feelings of excitement temper any race nerves, which are mostly driven by self-expectations.

Where I do still get pre-race anxiety is when I head out for intervals. I don’t know why, but they have always scared me. Perhaps that’s why I first got into ultras — the prescribed interval speed was half-marathon to marathon pace, which was a heck of a lot more civilized then how I used to run them: speed up until it hurts, and try to hold it until someone shouted “STOP!”

Winter in Calgary means indoor training on the track at the Olympic Oval with my Adrenaline Rush team. These are the fast intervals though: 400m to 1600m. Chatting with my running buddy Andrea about the apprehension I always have in the days prior to an interval workout (I usually only do one a week), I realized that I’ve had these feelings since I started running intervals back at McMaster University with the GHO orienteering gang.

My nerves essentially manifest in a form similar to the famous Kubler-Ross 5-stages of grief model: Day 1 post interval workout – feeling good, so happy to have completed the session and in complete denial that I have to run intervals again in a week. Day 2 and 3 – Still in denial, no intervals even on my radar, thinking about an easy medium-distance jog and a long run the following day. Day 4 – Long run done, begin to start thinking about the training for the upcoming week, realize that intervals are on the menu and first hint of dread creeps in and get annoyed that I have to do these stupid intervals. Day 5 – try to maintain focus on current workout but start bargaining with myself to “save some” for the coming interval session. Day 6 – Can’t get the pending suffering off my mind and get bummed out thinking about it. Day 7 – Acceptance, and the realization that it IS a good opportunity to hang with my buddies for a bit at the very least. I’ve asked Google about this to get its thoughts on the matter, and it presented me with a hilarious Simpson’s clip that sums up my feelings about intervals nicely.

I wouldn’t say that I hate intervals. I think that I actually love them, but something inside is hard wired to freak me out a bit when I know they’re on the menu. In the world of ultra-racing, I see a lot of value incorporating interval training into the training plan and recommend it. I’ve found that running longer, slower intervals than I was previously used to though, is the way to go. Being able to maintain my half-marathon or marathon pace is definitely fast enough. That said, sometimes it is a real blast to drop the hammer and run some hard shorter intervals. As I mentioned earlier, it’s about having fun and if mixing it up from time to time puts a big smile on your face then go for it. Life’s short, but ultras aren’t, so you’ll have plenty of time to think about your next interval session when you’re mid-way through your next 50 miler.