Tuesday - 2km effort, 5 minutes rest, 10 x 300m (2:00 cycle) (am) + 40 minutes easy (pm)

A proper speed session this morning, and it's just what I need. Was stressing yesterday as it looked like I was going to be solo again, but Burkey came to the rescue at the last minute. It also gave me a 15 minute sleep in, which was an added bonus. A 20 minute warmup before we met at Manly LSC ready to start the first effort. 2km hard - and it was bloody hard! Tried to keep it controlled the whole way - which the splits don't suggest that I did. However, I would disagree, as the first kilometer appeared too fast, whilst the second kilometer appeared too slow (3:02 and 3:15 respectively). However, an average of 3:09 seemed spot on, finishing in just over 6:18. Not too bad for that course along the beachfront, even better when I ran from the front (Burkey is a speed demon, hence his emergence in the second half of the session). A well deserved 5 minute rest prior to commencing the 300's. These were much worse than anticipated! The mindset is much more relaxed going into these, especially as on paper they are much shorter. But trust me, once you commence these, they are tough! Burkey was flying, and essentially led the first 6 or 7. The endurance kicked in (or kicked out for home, depending on how you read it) for the last few. But overall, consistent. The times add more weight to my theory of dead zones in terms of GPS readings along the beachfront, with the northern reps (odds) consistently a second or two slower than the southern reps (evens); 52, 51, 52, 50, 52, 49, 51, 50, 50, 48. Overall, a really tough, albeit fun, session. Unlike anything I have really done before. Looking forward to introducing more of these types of speed sessions into my program, as I feel I have lots to improve in this area - especially the all out middle distance efforts (1-3km). A nice and easy 5km cooldown for 15.4km all up. Supposedly that is the last of the dry spell! An easy 40 minutes is planned for this afternoon.

Managed to mostly avoid the rain this afternoon. Out for an easy 40 minutes around the Randwick loop. It appears the heart rate monitor is reading my cadence as my heart rate - which was supposedly 177 beats per minute (which, happened to be my cadence). Will have to look into that one. Felt good though, despite feeling sore walking around this morning after the session. 8.85km in 4:31's. Just over 24km for the day.