Thursday night and I wasn’t dreading the hour of speedwork I had planned.  Although I had felt a bit of a niggle on the outside of my right calf, so I wondered if I should be doing it at all.  I thought if my leg was sore at all I’d just take it easy, but luckily for me it felt fine when I ran. 

I ran strongly and felt good throughout.  The weather was spot on, not to cold, not too hot – just right, no rain.  I felt good doing the intervals as I knew I was going to get the same time to recover.  And although it feels like I’m going slow on recovery, I seem to be going at quite a good pace. 🙂

I had quite a few occasions where I was given way to by traffic… there was no way I was stopping for them… and I was on the road so it was my right of way anyway – right?  😉

Here’s the splits from my speed session last night:

I pushed one last bit again on the last rest interval to aim to do it fast.  🙂

I’ve been doing structured 1 hour sessions of speedwork (see the anaerobic Run workouts here) for 3 weeks now and got the following results from it: 

Week 1:
58 mins, 7.45 miles, Pace: 7:48 minute miles
On an open road route up to Shawlands and back
15 mins warm up
15 x 1:1 min, fast:recovery
13 mins cool down
Ave HR: 155 (82%), Max HR: 172 (89%), Garmin Training Effect: 4.4

Week 2:
1 hour, 8 miles, Pace: 7:32 minute miles
On a closed route to and loops of Glasgow Green
12 mins warm up
6 x 3:3 mins, fast:recovery
12 mins cool down
Ave HR: 156 (83%), Max HR: 174 (92%), Garmin Training Effect: 4.2

Week 3:
1 hour, 8.23 miles, Pace: 7:17 minute miles
On an open road route up to Shawlands and back
12 mins warm up
12 x 90:90 secs, fast:recovery
12 mins cool down
Ave HR: 159 (84%), Max HR: 173 (92%), Garmin Training Effect: 4.8

Here’s Garmin’s comparison of the three runs.  🙂

I like the progress I’m getting (and the heart rate graph below).  🙂 

Next week (as long as my leg is ok) I think I’ll try, 10 mins warm up cool down, and 5 x (5 mins fast: 3 mins recovery).

Here’s the graph and map from last night:

Run: 8.23M, 1 hour, Pace: 7:18, Calories: 612.
Ave HR: 159 (84%), Max HR: 173 (92%), Garmin Training Effect: 4.8