The need for speed

Training Plan - Total 13Km Warm up 4 x 1600 m at 4:50 (with 800 m recovery) Cool down Actual - Total 13 Km Warm up 4 x 1300 m at 4:25 to 4:40 (with standing recovery then 800 m recovery) Cool down Weekly Total - 33.9 Km Days to GC Half - 45 Sitting here in my Skins tonight, it has been a challenging week so far and I am feeling it in the legs. Today's session was great, I was kinda worried about it during the day and I decided that rather than the plan I would shorten the intervals but go harder. I surprised myself with the speed I was able to sustain over the distance, obviously the first couple of intervals were faster but by the 4th I was still around 4:35, nudging up to 4:40 towards the end. On a scale of 1 to 10 it was a 8 effort, but it was not particularly painful. My HR did peak at 91% but I thought it would go higher, also my breathing was far less ragged than it used to be when I ran easier paces. So all up good signs, and I am happy to say I was very disciplined and did not pull up short or go "Oh Stuff it, I'll just do the 3 intervals". I mean this stuff is hard to get out there and do by yourself and I did look longingly and people who were doing their intervals in small groups. Getting into the business end of the training for the half that's for sure, prior to starting this 4 weeks ago I was not doing anything special. I was just running about 8 to 10 Kms a day with a long run on Sunday's, I have to say I am really enjoying the variety now. I am pleased to say that I placed 46 out of 476 for my age group (30-39) at the Mother's Day Classic, that is a top 10% finish, all up I finished in the top 30%. I was reflecting on what made this such a good run compared to my first 10Km attempt on 26/03. It was distance, prior to 26/03 my daily runs averaged about 8Km and I was just getting into the long runs, any wonder I hit the wall at 8Km. However 4 weeks prior to MDC my average daily run was 10Km and I had quite a few long runs under my belt, so the 8Km felt much easier. Should auger well for Willi in 9 days.