I've been using this for the last couple of weeks to do hill sprints - 30 secs sprinting uphill, 20 secs walking - x5, then jog to the bottom and do it again. It's pretty tough at the moment! But I'm hoping to see the benefits after a month or two.

Sounds perfect. I've been basing my recent early-morning farlek efforts on lamppost distances... but I think I know deep down that I slack off a bit after the first few! This sounds simple but perfect. Thanks Derek.

Hi Dave, it's purely based on a time countdown basis. I would use my Garmin or a stopwatch where I needed to run a known distance and measure the time taken to cover it.

So for example 5 x 2 min runs with 30 second recovery between each, I would set the first level at 2 mins, the second level at 30 seconds then the repeat marker at 5.

On pressing start 1 bleep.....2 mins later 2 bleeps.......30 seconds later 1 bleep......etc and repeat this pattern 5 times.

You can buy technical stopwatches that might do what you wish but they can be £50 upwards in price.

Sounds useful.

How about this scenario - running a number of reps, where the course is set, not the time, and with say 3 mins recovery between each.

Can it be used to time the runs and the recoveries?

Can only agree - I got one of these for use when I started on a run/walk program back in April. Ideal!

Also has a stop watch function.

Over the last 6 weeks I have been on a quest to find a simple gadget that is easy to use for measuring the time of intervals as my Garmin 305 can be a bit fiddly and technical, I also did not want to have to adjust it, look at it or other things whilst I am in the middle of my interval training, especially the speedwork part.

Well I have found what I consider is a cheap solution, no not my partner with a piece of paper and a watch, but something called Gymboss.

It's a pedometer sized gizmo that you can pre-programme number of intervals and time for each interval, also it has a very loud bleep and vibrate or both, it also has 2 'layers' of interval timing.

I needed to do 10 x 30 second sprints with 20 second rest so I preset it at home, run to the location, clipped it onto the wristband of my 305 and pressed start, off I went, 30 seconds later 1 loud bleep, stopped, 20 seconds later 2 bleeps and off I went again until the set of 10 was completed.

Excellent bit of kit and less than £15, and it takes all of the issues out of clock watching, although if you must you can watch it counting down.