Chasing Cyclists!

Monday night…must be Intervals! Today actually marks my halfway point in this training cycle. Tonight was almost a repeat of my first training session a scant 8 weeks ago; time flies when you’re having fun. Now the proof is in the pudding so I thought I would look at Day 1 in comparison to Day 56. Day 1 called for a 1o minute warm up, 8 x 400m intervals at a 400m target pace of 5:45, 400m Rest Interval, 1 mile cool down, in other words something like this, (intervals highlighted in blue);

Started out fast and then slowed, I then I ranged between 7:11 to 7:38, not bad but really nothing special. So eight weeks later it’s a similar workout; 2 mile warm up, 10 x 400m intervals at a 400m interval target of 5:45, the target pace is derived from the tables in the FIRST 10k plan are is based on my 5k PR of 19:42, 1:30 Rest Interval, 1 mile cool down, tonight’s run resulted in the following (intervals highlighted in yellow);

Started out, got distracted on the second Interval, got into my groove, then fell out on number 7, hit my stride in 8 and 9 and then there was this cyclist. They’re great on their beach cruisers rolling along, oh yeah I went for it and chased this bike down the beach path like my hair was on fire and they had the only cup of water in town! I caught them and then I heard the greatest sound in the world, beep beep beep! Interval over! Much closer to the required 5:45 pace and no puking on my shoes…result!

So if the proof is in the pudding I would say that this is a large bowl of it, clearly I am getting faster, just how fast remains to be seen but having got on the scales this morning pudding is the last thing I need, to get to my race weight I need to cut off one leg or one and half arms…perhaps not the best thing for runner, maybe I’ll just skip desert!