10 x 3 mins off 60 secs

Same participants as Thursday, same location, this time though it was a speed session. I mentioned on the warm-up I felt a bit selfish keep having these runs on my doorstep but in all honesty the back roads are great around here being relatively flat and traffic free.

A bit of a breeze, but nice and cool and during the warm-up we quickly decided on committing to the full 10 reps as the plan called for 8 to 10. We agreed on running them at 10km pace so I would be looking at a range of 3:15 to 3:18 pace (threshold and not flat out interval pace). Just a note on this, if it was the track I'd be looking at a pace around 3 or 4 seconds per km quicker - that's how much quicker I run on the track for the same effort level.

After a 15 minute warm-up we started the session. We ran 5 x 3 mins in one direction around the loop, then doubled back finishing back at the starting point. The breeze was certainly a factor on the 4th and 5th efforts, but I didn't really notice it after we turned even though we were probably running straight into the breeze for the last couple. Paces for each 3 minute were as follows:

3:16/3:13/3:15/3:14/3:13/3:10/3:10/3:09/3:10/3:08 (average 3:12)

Basically well inside target pace and whilst it was a good hard session, it certainly wasn't red-line (which after all was the intention). Fintan has moved up a notch and was with me the whole way whilst Owen ran another blinder and it's only a matter of time before he does some real damage to his 10km PB.

A great session. Same warm-down of 15 minutes or so and I ended up with a total distance of 17.4kms on the Garmin. I feel like going out and getting hammered now but I'll keep the powder dry for another week - at least until after the 5km in Norwich next Saturday night.

Talking of Norwich, I see there is a big campaign there to have the film premier of the new Alan Partridge movie in Norwich's own Anglia Square as opposed to London's Leicester Square. Smell my cheese...