Track Session IV

After a fortnight's break brought about by the pressure of work I was keen to get back to the track this evening and check how my recovery was going. Disconcertingly on the cycle over I felt quite lethargic and achy which didn't act to improve my state of mind but the die was cast; this week I would attend. The funny thing is that it almost seemed like Tomas wouldn't turn up and I'd have to lead the session myself - since it was just me and six other TriLondoner's who hadn't done a single track session! I didn't mind, since my trusty Forerunner 205 lay easily to hand, but in the nick of time Tomas burst through the gate and we were on!

Now despite my expectations Tomas had a surprise up his sleeve; this week we do 1 x 1 minute, 2 x 2 minute, 3 x 3 minute and well you can see where this is going! Luckily we ended up with just a 1 x 4 minute repetition, with 2 minutes rest between each effort, and we didn't have to destroy ourselves. On the downside this pyramid meant that I couldn't properly record each separate effort; all I can really tell is that in some of the later sets I did a lap of the track (circa 400m) in under 1:30 and this translates to a pace of around 5:40 minute/mile. Suffice to say that this is very much my top-end speed!

Moving away from the numbers an interesting thing happened with the sets themselves. With the first one, all of a minute, we were pretty bunched up and I was definitely not the quickest. Even during the second one I only pulled away a little towards the end of the 2 minutes. Then, however, the guy behind me commented that I was heel-striking in a fairly obvious way. Now in my own mind my style is that of a fore- or mid-foot runner and this was a bit of a shock! So from then on I resolved to try much harder to strike the floor cleanly and suddenly I was flying along and way off of the front; in fact I was accelerating from the start so quickly my new 'coach' started to rue the moment that he'd ever opened his mouth! Luckily he did and I had a great session...

Distance: 3.5 miles

Time: 26m 27s