40 Minute Run Coached By Kara Goucher

Didn’t get chance to run last night, so it was good to get outside after work this afternoon and take advantage of the pleasant conditions (aside from the 20mph wind, that is!)

Workout-wise, I tried something different tonight. A couple of days ago I answered an email from Blaine Moore (of the excellent Run to Win blog), who was looking for a couple of runners to try one of the new NIKE+ Workout mixes – all he asked in exchange was a review of the audio workout. I fired up a quick reply and later that day was informed I was one of the lucky winners! Must be my lucky week…

I downloaded the 40 minute workout via the supplied link (if you’re interested, you can stream the track over at Nike’s web site), and loaded it onto my iPod Shuffle. I was keen to check out the workout, so played it at work today to see what it was all about.

The 40 minute speed/endurance workout is made up of a 5 minute warm up, followed by 4 x 4 minute intervals with an equal recovery time. To complete the workout you get to cool down for 5 minutes. Some of the music I was familiar with, whilst other tracks were completely new to me. Overall the workout seemed like it would be quite varied and interesting.

I usually only run with headphones a couple of times a month – never on a quality workout (tempo, track, fartlek etc.), never on a long run and definitely never during a race – but I’m not averse to training with music from time to time.

I won’t spoil my review (you’ll have to visit Blaine’s site in a couple of days to read that), but will say that I thoroughly enjoyed the workout and surprised myself at how much ground I covered in the 40 minutes (almost 6 miles). The music was varied and Kara Goucher kept chiming in at relevant points to keep me focused and motivated.

The first mile was mainly a slow warm up, but the following four miles were all completed around 6 minutes 30 seconds per mile, which is quicker than my marathon pace on the weekend. Naturally part of the these miles were at tempo pace and other parts at recovery pace, but I’m definitely happy with the average.

Full details below: