Interval training: work and rest in a pattern
Physical Education · Key Stage 2 · The School
Fast bursts, not one long push
INTERVAL TRAINING mixes short, hard bursts with short rests or slow moving. You do this again and again. It is not the same as one long, steady push at a fair pace.
Why the bursts can be so much harder
A short rest lets your body get some strength back. So each burst can be run much harder than a long push ever could be. Your hardest effort, added up, can be much more this way.
Building a simple pattern
Try this. Sprint hard for thirty seconds. Walk for thirty seconds. Do this eight times. The exact numbers can change. But the shape stays the same: hard, then easy, then hard again.
One pupil runs at one steady, fair pace for twelve minutes straight. They feel tired the whole way, but stay at the same speed. A second pupil sprints as hard as they can for thirty seconds. Then they walk for thirty seconds. They repeat this same pattern for the same twelve minutes in total. Their hardest bursts are far harder than anything the first pupil managed. Both pupils trained for the exact same length of time. But the shape of their effort was very different. And so was what each session actually trained.