Killer K's

Yes, it rained again. And, in usual fashion, it chucked it down and blew a gale as we drove over to a rather grey old Nelson for our track work this week. I'd moved plans for the session to Thursday to allow these old legs some recovery time from Sunday's race but was still feeling a wee bit daunted by the prospect of the session planned; 8x1km reps.

On arriving at the track the planned 8 reps in my head shrank to 6, and then again to a diddly 5 as the warm up around the park found out the stiffness and sore spots in my quads still grumbling from Sunday. A warm up in the surprise company of Mr. Complete Runner followed by a few sprint strides set us up nicely for the session. I had the usual nervy tummy these sessions always seem to give me; I think its the anticipation of the basic hard physical work ahead. Anyway, M set off at a hare's pace and I sat back, looking a bit lazy but sticking to my planned pacing; trying to be steadfast and consistent at each 200m split. After rep #3 my quads started to tire but I stuck to my guns and by rep #5 I was beginning to reconsider things and return to my original plan of 8 intervals. M finished with an impressive sprint finish at #6 but I repressed the urge to finish with him and stuck to doing the extra 2, albeit a bit tougher battling the windy bends alone.

Anyway, I was chuffed to finish the full 8 all with pretty consistent times which is usually a sign of good pace judgement for me. I think Garmin kit is a great tool but has a risk of diminshing my awareness of pacing. Track work is one of the few training disciplines I think is essential to help me understand how pace feels as well as improving my form. It was a really good sesh today and a timely reminder of why I do this stuff. In a virtuous frame of mind then, we ambled home via a nice pub for lunch. We finally met the sun who came out to greet us - she must have been on her hols, somewhere nice I expect.