Yesterday I managed to get myself into my running gear and out the door at lunchtime to do a good challenging interval session in Festival Park. It was going to be:

• 10 minute warm up

• followed by:

2 x (6 x 400m : with 1:30 min rest)

• (2:30 between the two sets)

10 minute cool down

Target: Time for 400m = 1:39 / Pace @6:36

Round and round and round the park.

Here’s how it turned out – just over 1 hour… and just under 7 miles. And here were my splits for the intervals:

Time / Avg Pace / Avg HR / Max HR

Clockwise – 6 x 400m =
1:45 / 7:06 / 159 / 166
1:45 / 6:59 / 161 / 167
1:41 / 6:50 / 162 / 170
1:42 / 6:54 / 163 / 171
1:42 / 6:51 / 165 / 172
1:43 / 6:57 / 165 / 172

Anti-Clockwise – 6 x 400m =
1:42 / 6:52 / 164 / 169
1:40 / 6:44 / 157 / 166
1:42 / 6:52 / 162 / 168
1:40 / 6:44 / 160 / 169
1:39 / 6:40 / 162 / 169
1:40 / 6:44 / 161 / 170

Avg:
1:42 / 6:51 / 162 / 169
Min:
1:39 / 6:40 / 157 / 166
Max:
1:45 / 7:06 / 165 / 172

So my fastest interval (the 11th our of 12!) was on target pace, and I was about 15 secs a mile slower than target pace overall. But still a good session. My avg HR on the intervals was 162 (89%), and it peaked at 172 (93%).

The 400m plus the 1:30 rest was almost an exact distance of the loop around the inside of the park, which was good. And the nice thing about running in the park (apart from the sunny weather) was seeing three squirrels at different parts of the park (or one squirrel running about after me… lol).

All in all a good session and my recovery between the intervals was around 45 seconds of walking, getting my heart rate back to about 130-140… then 45 seconds jogging before starting the next interval. It was a tough but good session, and it must be doing something good for my training.

Afterwards, I went into work and had a shower and a quick lunch. I seemed to lose my voice a bit (!). Loving the Garmin graphs. 🙂