Lapping In The Sun

I set out to Nelson track today feeling a little nervous about the prospect of an intervals session in the hot sun after my most recent struggles to achieve anywhere near my former pace. I've been well off my track performances at Xmas time so was also worried that I might not quite make it through the full session. As a nice distraction I had a bit of company with local celebrity Terry L and local talent Alan B from Leeds City for company; both on the warm-up and then providing a target to chase through my reps. I resolved to do 8x600s with a reasonable recovery and had no idea of what times to expect; I haven't done this session for months but was sort of hoping to be somewhere around 2.03 mins. I enjoyed a lovely warm-up in the morning sun around the park with these two fellas for company and then after a few strides I resolved to make a start. The sun was pretty hot by mid morning so found I was working hard. Terry L also kindly shared the session as my rabbit to chase; this worked well in giving him a good head start before each of my efforts to make the final 200m a bit of a surging effort to try and pass him.

I was nicely surprised after effort #1, clocking 1.55 for this first rep, though I feared I'd misjudged the pace, being off track work for so long. Anyway I managed somehow to keep the full 8 reps all within 3 or 4 seconds of each other which was beyond what I'd expected to achieve at this stage in my fitness. I celebrated the session with a visit to Lidl for a good stock up on Bratwurst for M and Nougat Pillows & choco softies for me. They also do some great chocolate soya milk that's yummy for a post session refuelling. So, an afternoon of idle snoozing, chocolate munching and preparing for the relay tomorrow. We've plans to call by fellow club mate and Bingley superstar Sue B's 50th birthday bash tonight too. I intend to be very good and stay away from the shandy.