Ouch, ouch, ouch!!!

Ouch may not be the right word. But tonight’s run hurt. It hurt a lot!

It was the first speed interval session of the new training plan, and it went a little like this…

As ever I was supposed to start off at 9:24 pace. This, again as ever, didn’t happen, so the first 1.5 miles was run at 9:07. I felt good. The only problem was I still hadn’t really decided what route I was going to run.

Once the warm up was out of the way it was time to speed up for half a mile at the target pace of 7:04. I did a good job, covering the half mile in 7:06 pace. This section was slightly uphill and the breathing was very hard! I don’t think I’ve ever breathed so hard when running. It wasn’t a couldn’t breath, just a feeling of breathing really, really hard. I was glad when the half mile was up.

The next quarter of a mile was a gentle jog at 9:29 pace, before speeding up again for another half mile. This time it was easier (probably due to no uphill gradient!) and faster – with a pace of 6:56. Again though I was happy with the next quarter mile jog.

At this point I still felt pretty strong.

The final half mile was again uphill, and I started to tire quite badly. The legs really started to feel like they were full of lactic acid, and the joints started to stiffen. 7:19 was the best I could manage.

Once I finished the final fast half mile I cooled down for 1.75 miles at 9:32.

This is where it started to hurt. Everything felt stiff. My form seemed to go out of the window. It was hard enough just to lift my feet off of the ground!

I think I realise now how I’ve never really trained at this intensity before. And the sad thing is, it also felt great!

Yes…. I think this is what it feels like to be addicted to running!