Sparkie's rundiary

"It's cold out there, but it's warm in bed.
They can run, I'll stay home instead"

Thought that to myself this morning during the quiet time before the alarm goes off. However, dutifuly rugged up and headed out the door at 5:45. Rode to Centennial, as there was no way I was running in barefeet this morning, and I can't run to McCoy with a pair of spikes in my hand. Headed out for a lap of the park (3.6km) to warm-up, and after a torrent of derision from the singlet wearing brigade (I still had gloves and a jumper on at this stage), jumped into the increasingly crowded drills - a model of co-ordination as always (not).

Today's session was 2400/1200/1200, although I upped the middle rep to 1600, feeling I needed more distance than speed. After Saturday's debacle, I was tempted to drop the pace, thinking I was training too quickly, but never got round to asking Sean about it, so just decided to run as I felt. 82/81/82/80/81/79 for the first (8:07), followed by a 4 minute recovery. Second one I held back, running 77/80/82/79 (5:18). The extra lap cut into the recovery, dropping it to 2 minutes. Sean encourage us to push it a bit in the last one, and with the short recovery, I was expecting to drop off the pace. But after 78 and 80 second laps, I was able to kick down to a 72, (3:50) - finishing strongly. 2km cool down and then a ride home.

Felt encouraged by this session - was able to match it with guys that had much better performances than me on the weekend, without pushing things too hard. This doesn't mean I can go out and run a 35-minute 10km this weekend, but encourages me that with training and patience, I can run as quickly as the 34 minute guys - and faster. A good chat with Sean afterwards - agreed that a low-key approach to the SMH half is in order.