Thursday - 10 x 1 minute (off 30 seconds), 5 x 1 minute (off 60 seconds), 5 x 1 minute (off 90 seconds)

The first day of spring got off to a blinding start. Couldn't convince anyone to join me for my session this morning, but decided to still get up early to meet the others at 6am outside North Steyne SLSX warmed up to commence our respective sessions. Darren, Richard and Ben all stuck to the 20 minute fartlek that I ran on Tuesday, while I ran the one-minute efforts in the bike lane. Like always, it was tough. But psychologically, the session got easier. The first 10 reps were the worse, as the 30-second rest periods went far too quick. Ranged between 0.32-0.33km for each rep (four of the former, six of the latter). Things improved beyond the tenth rep with a doubling of the rest period. Here is was able to run between 0.33-0.34km. Then the final five reps, 90-seconds rest felt as if I was indulging (although the actual efforts still hurt like crazy). 0.34-0.35km, so slightly faster as the session and the rest periods increased. Averaged 3:00 min/km pace for all 20 reps. A very long-term goal would be to hold that pace for a 5km race. That seems near impossible at this point in time. Ben hung around and joined me for a cool-down. Just under 18km all up. No double today, but I've got a run tomorrow morning instead. Don't know if that is better or worse (I'd say the latter if the forecast is right)!