2 x 12 x 200m - Stockholm

The marathon plan hasn't disappeared and I knew that I had to get some interval training in while I was away. The meetings were scheduled to start at 9:30 this morning which allowed for a little extra time in bed so I set the alarm for 7:00am. However, I managed to wake up just before 6:30 so Idecided I may as well make the most of it and go for my run.

I wasn't looking forward to this session. I don't think that anybody looks forward to interval training as it knocks the air out of you if you try hard. Furthermore, it was a VMA session with short intervals whereas, in general, I tend to prefer the longer threshold sessions in the marathon plan. It was too late to change my mind now and I'd programmed the Garmin so off I set.

I headed back to the park in front of the Marriot Courtyard and began the session, running a 1.1 km loop around the park with 200m of effort and then 100m recovery.

The first block went like this:

43, 41, 42, 41, 40, 44, 42, 41, 39, 42, 39, 39

and then the second like this :

41, 43, 40, 38, 40, 42, 39, 39, 36, 42, 40, 40

So there are huge differences between the splits from 36 seconds to 44 seconds. I can't believe that I was so inconsistent even if there were  patches in the park where the bends were tight and large puddles and mud made the surface slippery. I have to admit that I was disappointed with these times as I should be running every one under 40 seconds as my track times in January this year showed here.

A jog back to the hotel and 12 km all up in 57:37 or 4:41 per km average.