Tonight was the running session of the Saints & Slimmers programme I’ve signed up to for the next six weeks. I put myself down for the 10k to Half Marathon group and will admit to being worried about it, largely because I didn’t really know what the schedule would be.
I’d heard it was intervals, which I was happy with, so it was with some relief that it was indeed an intervals session tonight.
Meeting up with the others in the group tonight at the Michelin Athletic Club on the outskirts of Broughshane, we went through a briefing first before running the short distance to the Woodside Industrial Estate to do the session.
One problem though, it has been really foggy today with visibility a definite issue and the road between the club and the industrial estate wasn’t lit up so it made for a somewhat tentative run to actually start the sessions. I ended up using the torch in my phone just to see where I was going!
Once we got to the industrial estate we then went for another warm-up run before starting the intervals! I thought I would be exhausted by now but I wasn’t. Yes, I would have preferred not to have run for around ten minutes before starting the speed work but it did loosen my legs up so I suppose it served a purpose.
The session was taken by Slemish Striders, a small running club from the area. It was no surprise, then, that the actual intervals were different in nature from those I’ve experienced with my own club.
Set at ten one-minute intervals we were instructed to do a short recovery jog in between so, in effect, we kept moving forward and running which was in contrast to the method adopted by my club who prefer a static recovery. I’m not saying either method is right or wrong, but it was certainly a bit of an eye opener to keep running.
During the actual speed portions I felt quite good. I was going as fast as I have done for quite some time and it felt comfortable enough even though I was giving it as much as I could. Perhaps I could have squeezed a little more out of my legs but I was conscious that I had to run back again!
In total the session was 4.4km, so after going back home again I ran the extra little bit to bring my total distance for the evening up to just over 5k, managing to maintain the same pace as earlier. In fact, if you add the two runs together I would have come within a whisker of setting a new pb – obviously it wouldn’t have counted but it is really encouraging that I’m getting my speed back.
Virtual Runner 100km January Challenge (37.42km)
1st January – 8.28km
3rd January – 5.01km
5th January – 9.02km
7th January – 5.01km
9th January – 5km
10th January – 5.1km
Little but often seems to be the case with my 100km challenge during January but I am making good progress and will no doubt work in another couple of runs between now and Sunday to take up to and beyond the halfway point.
HUFF, PUFF AND SHUFFLE 