Mile by Mile

I went with my original plan and so today, rather than do my regular 8 or 9 mile long run, decided to do Mile intervals with 3 minute jog recovery in between. I hoped to be fully recovered from Friday's efforts for what was to be a really tough session. The art of Speed Endurance is a concept my body seems to have not yet mastered. ' The purpose of speed endurance is to prolong the amount of time where a near maximal speed can be maintained.' I always seem to hit the wall at around 11 minutes if I try and set off at a faster pace in a race of around 15 minutes. The only other alternative at the moment is to set off steady but with races like the relay at Coventry (2.4 miles!), it simply isn't an option. Wouldn't it be great to be able to keep a good speed up for a long time? I hope this sort of session might help me reach this goal.
Onto the session itself which went superbly. A mile may not be a great distance but running it hard makes it feel a short while. It is also longer than the normal intervals of around 3 minutes. The terrain was tarmac and there was a few climbs in to make the pain a little more severe but nothing too drastic. The pain would be in having to run flat out for a mile 6 times with a mere 3 minutes in between which seemed to pass rather quickly. I didn't worry about my splits or anything whilst I was doing my efforts (this provided a psychological benefit as I didn't ponder on whether I was going too fast or slow), but just ran as the Garmin told me to; 'Run hard 1 mile' followed by 'Jog easy 3 minutes.'
So onto the splits - 5:52, 5:47, 5:43, 5:58, 5:49, 5:48
I was surprised but delighted with the splits as there is a clearly a bit of consistency and my last effort was also the 3rd fastest. I hope this is a 'mile' in the right direction in terms of combating this recurring problem I meet on race day. A great session!
I will probably rest up to Wednesday now as I have yet another race in Aireville Park - Ermysteds' annual cross country home fixture. Hopefully I will be fighting fit for that one!