I don’t know how you feel about a hard interval session, but for me, the nerves start hours before. I know what’s coming—it will hurt. I’ll need to be at my mental best.
When I think about it, it kind of feels like giving yourself an injection. There is this hesitation of hurting yourself on purpose, even though you are fully aware that in the end, it’s necessary.
It takes courage to override your instinct for self-preservation.
It takes courage to run hard. Nobody forces you to do it.
On Thursday I ran my first hard session in months. I was struggling with exactly those thoughts. 5 x 3 minutes at Vo2max (or as I run by feel a 9-10 RPE). Uphill. Super hard running. I know it will hurt. I know I will have to convince myself continuously during the session to continue.
If you are struggling with the same, or even skip intervals altogether because of it, the experience I will share with you might help you get into it much easier.
Why
Most things boil down to this question when it gets hard. Why do you do it?
My why is rooted in exploring nature. I cherish the moments on a ridge when the sun sets, or currently exploring trails that wake up from winter.
But it has a second layer: Pushing my personal limit. I never thought I could run as much as I do. Be as strong as I am. Be able to tackle hard challenges.
I have yet to understand completely where the urge to push myself comes from. There is this urge to go out and see what I’m capable of. To surprise myself. It’s rooted in curiosity. I feel it deeply.
Intervals are part of testing my limits. Dreading them is proof that I’m doing just that. It’s necessary to feel that way.
This is where having a strong 'why' helps—I can always return to it. I can build a mantra based on my why that I can remind myself regularly.
On Thursday every time I started to feel anxious before starting the session, I reminded myself of my why. I reframed the anxiousness to something positive. To energy, I need to feel. Without it, I wouldn’t be on the right path.
Here are some questions to find your why:
The obvious one: Why do you run?
Find what gives you energy: Do you get energy from running with people? Running in nature? Running alone? What drains you, and what energises you?
What do you want to get out of running?
When you think about your running what are you most proud of?
Answering those might help you get a better understanding of what drives you. You will know when you have found your why. It will feel right. It’s super personal even though it might sound simple for others. You will feel a strong connection to it.
Confidence
Not having run super hard for a while I was lacking confidence. I couldn’t grasp if I could finish the session. If I go too fast. If I go too slow. My mind was working through all the options and it made me even more anxious.
I took a step back. It doesn’t matter if I do the session exactly right. It doesn’t matter if one session is not 100%. What does matter is that I have the confidence to be able to be curious.
Curiosity is a frame I look through often. With a curious mindset it’s okay to fail at a session. I can be curious to see what happens if I push completely from the beginning. I can be curious to see what happens when I start slower than I want to and increase the intensity over time.
Curiosity is a safe haven for failure. When you are curious the result is a learning, not failure.
On Thursday I decided to be curious about what happens if I start with less intensity than I’m used to and ramp it up over the repetitions. I assumed that I would gain confidence because I would be finishing the session faster than I started it.
So here was my plan:
5 x 3 Min at Vo2max (9-10 RPE)
Here is what I did:
2 x 3’ Min at 7 RPE
2 x 3’ Min at 8 RPE
1 x 3’ Min at 9-10 RPE
As you can see I started a bit more conservative. It didn’t feel as hard in the beginning but naturally, the session got harder repetition by repetition. I assumed I would finish faster than I started it but looking at the session afterwards my gradient adjusted pace was super consistent.
Naturally, my RPE started to increase with every repetition. Would I have started hard from the get-go (what I always did in the past) my pace would have dropped throughout the session.
This gave me a lot of confidence after the session. I don’t have to push full force from the beginning and still reap the benefits.
What can you learn from my experience?
No one cares if you run full intensity. Take it a bit easier. Not going to the edge might help you do hard sessions at all (which have a lot of benefits).
How can you structure your session so that you feel it’s not hard right from the beginning? A bit slower overall? More rest in between repetitions?
What can you be curious about? What assumption do you want to test? Would quitting the session be a failure based on that assumption?
This is not about getting every second out of your session at the right intensity. It’s about learning to struggle. To be curious about what might happen. To learn something about yourself. Over time you can increase how hard those sessions are. Through exposure, you will become tougher.
It’s not that serious
Running intervals is optional. Pushing your limit is. Going at the edge is not for everyone. Through exploring your why you will find out what your underlying drive is. That is the most important part. Filter everything you do through it and you will do things that feel right to you.
If your why includes some element of improving yourself you can use curiosity to make intervals a bit less scary. Look at them as an experiment you run. You will learn something from it. You don’t fail. With time you will refine your approach. You will learn what you are capable of.
Through curiosity, intervals became a challenge I enjoy, not just endure. Maybe they can for you too.