Testing Tempo

Tonight was a toughie and rather than approach a 1x4m tempo effort I bottled it and went for 2x2m instead; have been feeling a bit zombie-like all day. The session planned was a 9 miler starting in Ilkley with M, warming up for a couple of miles before parting company and embarking on the first lactate threshold paced effort over 2 miles. This took me to the Burley roundabout for a quick mile recovery circuit around the village before returning for the 2m effort back into Ilkley. I wasn't looking forward to the session with the high winds and gusts all along this straight and exposed road. The mile splits reflected the challenge of running into head winds but my heart rate was the true guide tonight; I managed to maintain an effort falling between 4.9 and 5.1 for much of the way, spot on for a threshold workout. M had opted to do a different session tonight so we hooked up for the warm down miles bringing me to a total of just over 10 miles tonight. Phew, I'm glad that's done and dusted. I'm now ready to enjoy an extra long weekend. Have the house to myself on Friday with a sneaky day off and plan a day of slobbing in pajamas watching good films, except for the odd run or two of course. Back to the track on Saturday morning - it feels great to be hungry to train hard again.