Having done this several times myself, I know how demanding this can be. 30 minutes of intervals is a lot in one session and that’s why it’s important to focus on the target paces.

The 4 minute reps, of which there are 5, we want to be targeting our 10k pace. So suddenly 4 minutes at 10 pace doesn’t sound too demanding. Right? Well it should still be a challenge, especially as the recoveries are only 90 seconds.

If you want to make that section of the training session a little more demanding you can reduce the recoveries to 60 seconds.

Once you have completed the 4 minute reps, give yourself a 3 minute recovery. Then we are looking to pick up the pace with 10 x 1 minute reps. Now the effort (RPE) does climb and we want to be running faster than our 3km pace.

It’s important here you are strict on the recoveries. If you stand around chatting for too long in between the reps you won’t get the most out of this session.

As the speed and RPE increases be sure to focus on your form. Stay relaxed, run tall, increase your cadence and keep your ground contact light. I tend to focus a lot on my arms, knowing if they are efficient and moving quickly, my legs will follow their lead.

This is a really good training session to do as a group, either on the track or around a field or lapped section of a park. Because it’s done to time rather than distance you can all run the reps at the same time and everyone gets the same benefit.

The training load for this is 280, so not one of the highest 10k sessions in terms of workload, so doing this early in a 10k plan would be my advice. Give a go and see how you get on. Improve your running with 10k training sessions like this one.