The best of both worlds

Today I had an Interval session pencilled in on the training diary. This was gone over in in ink but only after some strength circuits, which were completed this morning rather than tomorrow. The thinking behind this was to give my body a chance to recover in time for Sedbergh 3 Peaks on Tuesday and hopefully give the effects of the strength training more time to kick in as well.
The circuits went well. The session took exactly the same structure as the one I did last Monday (see entry from then for more details.) I felt much stronger than last week, particularly on the press ups and squat thrusts which was very pleasing. I assume this sort of session is supposed to get easier as time goes on as the muslces used become stronger.
A quick break for a glass of Water and a Double Decker, and I was out the door for an Interval session. It took a lot of deciding as to what I should do. Baring in mind I have a Fartlek session pencilled in for Thursday, I thought a longer Interval session was the most sensible option. It was therefore 6 x 800m with 2 mins jog recovery in between after a good 1 mile warm up and followed by a 1/2 mile warm down.
I haven't done this session since last Summer and it was therefore a good test. Unfortunatley we don't have access to a track round here which I feel puts us, as an area, at a great disadvantage. It was therefore 800m on the flattest field I could find, but this scarcely had any paths and I was therefore running through fairly tussocky, ungrazed land for much of the session. Nonetheless I felt very strong throughout considering I had just come out of a hard circuit session. The times were as follows:
1. 2:54
2. 2:57
3. 2:54
4. 2:53
5. 2:48
6. 2:49
So the times are nothing to rave about, so what? I am not a track athlete and to me it is merely a matter of getting speed and improving endurance at the same time. If I was doing these times on a tartan track after being a track athlete for the past 3 years I would be slightly worried. The times do not concern me. The only conclusion I am going to make from the times is; I got faster as time went on and therefore I'm pleased.
If I was going to evaluate the session on how I felt, I would say 9/10. I did feel really good and the signs are great for Tuesday; I hope I can reproduce something similar on the Three Peaks and get a good place. It's 35:45 to beat!
That brings the daily total to 5.5 miles + the strength work. All in all a good start to the week. Roll on Tuesday!

P.S. Town 2-2 Leeds. Disappointing as we were by far the better team (again!) but to say we were behind entering the last 5 minutes, a draw isn't too badly received.