2 x 3000m

Another early morning. Another freezing morning. Days pass and the routine remains the same. The only difference is the session that is planned each day and today was 2 x 3km at marathon speed. I planned to apply my usual ambitions over this distance: 11:30 per interval; the time I use for my 3-2-1 sessions.

I ran down to the Seine in the freezing cold and wondered if all those reports I'd read about the impact of the cold on your heart-rate had any truth to them. I defintiely wasn't tempted to hang around as the cold on my face was freezing my smile into a grimace. My mouth felt swollen and I couldn't have spoken anything more than an unintelligible mumble even if I had wanted to. I started the interval after this kilometre warm-up, to get it over with more than anything else.

I don't know how fast I was running. I was just running as fast as it seemed possible for 3km. It was hard but it wasn't as bad as an all-out sprint session. I prefer these longer intervals where you are just out of your comfort zone as opposed to the full-out max HR sessions which fill me with despondency even before I start.

After 1.5km I'm already thinking that this is hard but the legs keep flowing and sooner than I expect the Garmin beeps for the third time and the first interval is over (3:50, 3:55, 3:51 so I miss my target by 6 seconds but I don't discover this until afterwards). A 3' recovery and I set off again. This second interval feels harder and easier at the same time. Harder because my legs are pushing faster and the ground is slippier, forcing me to shorten my stride with the patches of ice underfoot; easier, because my heartrate is not quite so high as before.

I finish the second interval (3:49, 3:54, 3:44 and well within the target this time)  and can now relax for the remainder of the run home. 12.8 km all up in 55:18 or an average pace of 4:19 / km. Long live the summer.