My training plan

Today was my first planned training session.

I am going to be following the Furman Institute's "FIRST to finish" training programme, which is essentially 3 days of running per week (compared with a more 'traditional' training programme which would be 5 or 6 days), with one interval session, a tempo run and a long run. Also, I am supposed to do 3 sessions of cross-training, which is - inevitably - going to be the bit that I struggle with.

Today's session was intervals - 3 x 1600m at a pretty feisty pace, with 10 minutes warm up and cool down, and 400m rest intervals between each interval.

It was rubbish to be honest - I warmed up by running from the house out onto the footpath that runs along the A30 (about a mile away) - thinking that would be a good place to run as it is a nice straight road. Somehow I forgot that, depsite being a nice straight stretch of road, it is also a bit of a hill! This meant that my first and third intervals were up hill - very tough.

I have to admit that I only managed to run at the right pace for the downhill interval - the other 2 I slowed down in the middle because it was just too hard. I was very disappointed - especially because this was the first session of my training programme - such a bad start!

I learned a lesson though - intervals will be much easier to do on a treadmill, and that's where I plan to do them from now on. Mostly because I will be forced into maintaining the right place - no going off too fast (a classic) and if I go too slowly I will fall of the back of the 'mill!!

You live and learn.