8 mins or 2k of tempo - 8 x 20s or so as fast as you can downhill (walk back up), another 8 mins / 2k tempo

Download the recording, plug your earphones in and listen to it on the run

I recorded this in the forest, at High Beach with lots of Essix boy (and girl) racers in attendance, but it's a perfect session for Springfield Hill/Walthamstow Marshes - you can do th tempo in the same place as we did in Episode 4.

If you choose Springfield Hill and the marshes then after the gentle warm-up jog / preamble, start at the north end of the Aqueduct Path, just before the winding narrow railway underpass with all the graffiti on it. Then do 2k tempo back down the path towards hackney marshes turning right before the underpass at Lea Bridge Road, heading across onto the gravel path next to the canal, and all the way to Horseshoe Bridge. We then cross the bridge, walk up the hill to where we normally finish the uphill reps, and then do 8 reps DOWN the grass in the middle of the park, walk back up. After the 8th rep, do the final 2k tempo from horseshoe bridge back to the top of Aqueduct path..

If you choose somewhere else, find the steepest hill you can - in the Olympic park I'd use the grass banks down to the river Lea rather than the shallower descents we often use, or in Mile End perhaps the Green Bridge can work.

Either way, go for it, have fun, run like a child.

Timings

• 2k tempo starts at c18 mins
• downhill reps start at c 33 mins
• 2k tempo starts at c 54 mins

Thanks everyone!

Steve

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