Tuesday 6 July: Tuesday track session and at last some pace!!

Mileage: 13.5 miles



AM: 3.75 miles; PM 9.75 miles (including track session)


Well I am sad to report that my Garmin is still not a happy bunny and refuses to find a satellite. Maybe it’s because they’re no satellites up there? Anyone seen a satellite lately? Thankfully today’s running was exactly the same as last Tuesday’s so I know exactly how many miles I’ve done, phew!


Alex was still on holiday today, but had left the session with us so we could look after ourselves. The session was the same session as I did by myself last week. I was pleased about this, as it allowed me to compare my performance and see if I had made any progress. The session was 3 sets of 400m, 800m, 300m with 1 minute recovery between reps and then a 2 ½ minute recovery between sets.


The first 2 sets went really well for me, I felt comfortable, fit and fast. My times were good too, quicker than last week, but still not quite as quick as I would have expected before my holiday. I was however, really pleased with these 2 sets and for the first time since returning to training I actually felt like I had pace. Unfortunately the third set didn’t go quite as well. I was pretty tired after the first two sets, but I think I switched off mentally too. In my head I decided that as I had ran so well in the first two sets that I had done enough for the evening and the third set didn’t matter too much. During the third 400m instead of starting off strong and pushing straight away as I had done earlier, I just fell in behind Seamus and then when he kicked on instead of going with him I just watched, which let Nick and Colin go by too. Still it wasn’t a terrible time, but I felt I had let myself down a bit. I did exactly the same in the 800m that followed. I was feeling exhausted during this rep, but in my head I gave up way too soon and cruised a little bit too much. I finished this rep angry with myself and this obviously had an effect as I managed to sort my head out for the last 300m, which I pushed hard on and managed to run my fastest time for that 300m.


All in all I felt really good after the session. Alex told me that it would take a couple of weeks to get back to where I was before holiday and although I am not quite there after those two weeks I am not far off. I know what the session is for Thursday and its one that suits me, so I am really looking forward to it.


My times (last week’s times in brackets):
Set 1: 400m – 70secs (72secs) 800m – 2mins29secs (2mins34secs) 300m – 50secs (52secs)
Set 2: 400m – 70secs (71secs) 800m – 2mins31secs (2mins35secs) 300m – 50secs (53secs)
Set 3: 400m – 72secs (72secs) 800m – 2mins38secs (2mins36secs) 300m – 49secs (52secs)