8x1000m

Well it was another cold morning today but since I was better prepared I had my running jacket on and felt better. If the temperature keeps dropping like it has done lately then I'll be wearing gloves too before long.

The programme for today was 6x1km at 4:15 pace. This is marathon pace for a 3 hour marathon but since I want to try and run 2:55, I decided that I would run my intervals at 4:08 pace just to see. I wasn(t too worried about this session as it's not too exhausting to run at this pace, especially with a 200m recovery after every interval.

I set off around the usual route and started my intervals after a slow 1km warm-up. I misjudged the pace for the first interval as I completed this in 3:58. In fact, I realised that I don't have a clue about my marathon pace or how I'm going to find it running at this speed. I slowed down a little after then and ran the next few intervals at a pace I felt easy with. The recoveries went well and last 1:20 on average and it was never a problem to set off on the intervals again.

When I was on my 6th interval, I decided that since I felt so good, I would just carry on and run a couple more. This made up for the shorter session on Tuesday.

The intervals went as follows:

3:58, 4:06, 4:02, 3:53, 3:56, 3:57, 3:55, 3:59

So slightly too fast overall but I was enjoying myself and feeling very strong at the moment. Fingers crossed.

12.5km all up in 56:03 or an average of 4:28.