The day was long covering the opening day of F1 Testing at Jerez, at the computer for 6:30am and not able to leave until exactly 12 hours later. I put on my running gear in double quick time and headed out with barely a stretch to try and catch the, club, who were set to leave for their intervals session in around 6 minutes, when it normally takes me 11 to get to HQ…. As it was I just caught them leaving, I needed to visit the bathroom so I said I’d meet them in a minute. It took a 6:10 mile, after a 6:27 to catch them just as they stopped outside the pub.
The session hadn’t been finalised but it was decided to do 6 x 1 mile with a 2-3 minute recovery. I let the others have a 40 second or so head start for the first interval, I needed to stretch. The first mile felt really quick as I caught and passed all my club mates. Normally the mile in this direction is a fair bit slower than the return leg as it climbs 10 or so metres, but when I finished the mile the Garmin clocked 5:25, nigh on as fast as anything I’d done in the other direction and around 30 seconds quicker than normal. I felt though like I’d over-exerted myself somewhat, although I quickly recovered.
Then I turned around and realised why the mile was so quick. There was quite a stiff wind blowing, in the opposite direction to the usual prevailing wind, which had aided us significantly on the upward stretch and would hinder us on our return. And so it proved on the second rep, which turned out to be the equal slowest of the night at 5:30. Reps three and four were hard work clocking 5:30 and 5:29 respectively. At the end of the fourth rep I even felt a little nauseous, as well as feeling the right abductor.
Knowing that I had only two reps left I put aside any tired thoughts and worked hard on the fifth rep, clawing back time after a sluggish opening 800 meters to clock 5:27. The same happened on the sixth rep – I was averaging 5:38 at the halfway point before I put in a sustained effort to finish with a 5:29 rep. On this rep the right abductor and possibly right hamstring began to tighten significantly. Once everyone came back from their final rep and we began to jog back I decided to say my goodbyes, one because I still had a little work to do at home, and secondly because I felt the abductor was sorer if I ran slower.
I came home with at an average of 6:45, finishing the 10.5 mile run in a barely believable 5:59 per mile average. I don’t think I’ve ever run a training session that quickly. Hopefully the right leg will respond to a little massage and stretching, and another day in front of the computer tomorrow.