Tuesday HuRTS - 45 minutes continuous (20' fartlek, 5' jog, 20' tempo)

I can't believe that I waited to long to do this! Finally got around to joining the HuRTS squad in the city for a lunchtime session. Absolutely loved it, so much better than training solo. I didn't realise how big the squad was, a massive turnout. Parked at Neutral Bay (where I got a left front puncture), jogged over the bridge and got to St. Mary's Catherdral ridiculously early (just before midday - didn't realise that I could get there that quickly). Waited around for 25 minutes before the others turned up. It was a long session, so the key was not to go out too hard early on. So I just stuck with Barts for the first half, feeling really comfortable throughout. Andy and Toby weren't too far behind. 22.5 minutes took us to halfway around Barangaroo. Turned around, jogged easy for the remaining 2.5 minutes before getting straight into the 20 minute tempo. Felt good for the first 10 minutes, sharing the work with Barts. Then literally a few seconds later my breathing become laboured, and I was starting to fade. Kept it together (just) for the final 10 minutes, with Andy coming past in the final 3 minutes as we headed back uphill towards the start. I think the tempo averaged 3:27 pace (the last kilometer really dropped that back), with around 3:33 pace for the full session (12.67km). As I have others to run with now, I'm not too concerned about paces - it's all about simply trying to stay with them. A 5km warm-up and cool-down made for a solid session (just under 23km all up). I'm a bit annoyed that I can't make it this coming Thursday, but will aim for twice a week from now on.