Interval training - oh yes!

It's Andy's birthday today. Unfortunately, he is feeling pretty under the weather and tired, so exercise was off the agenda for him, which was a pity. So, I walked/jogged from Pissou up to Caognous from where the road up to the Col de Peguère commences, with the intention of doing some interval training - can you tell that I am already panicking about the 20km Trail des Citadelles being just 5 weeks away?! The Peguère road is mean, with an average gradient over the first 1.2kms of 14.5%, before easing off to a steady average of 11.1% for the remaining 2.4kms. So an ideal hill training route! Uggh. I wore my heart rate monitor to get a better handle on how my body was doing. I walked briskly for the first 100m before setting off at a gentle jog. I decided on a 1 minute effort, 2 min recovery to see how things felt. After 2 intervals, I was feeling surprisingly good and my heart rate was peaking 10bpm below my theoretical max, and, with the gradient due to level out, I reckoned I needed to push it harder to get the best out of the session. So 1.30min effort, 2 mins recovery, pushing harder which resulted in reaching just a few bpm below my max heart rate. My recovery periods saw my heartbeat return to below 140 every time, so I decided to make for the top. After 38 mins, I had covered the 3.6kms and was feeling great, albeit a wee bit tired - I was obviously not trying hard enough! After a few minutes spent taking in the amazing clear view which stretched all the way to the Pic du Midi in the West, I started on the steady descent back down the hill, taking measured steps in an effort to improve my downhill running technique. I was tired when I got back to Pissou but delighted with how my body is performing at the moment - let's hope it continues that way!