Good interval day

Whew, I ran a little over 5.5 miles this morning and it took a lot out of me, but it was a wonderful run!  Today is Tuesday, which means intervals. It went quite well, I set out with the goal of doing more than I did last week, which was a total of 15:00 at my interval pace (just under 7:00/mile). Last week, I broke them up into smaller, more manageable intervals, but I wanted to keep every interval over 4:00 today, and I succeeded.  I did two 5:00 intervals, and two 4:00 intervals, with 3:00 rest in between (though I gave myself 4:00 rest after the second one).

I did the intervals in 6:55, 6:59, 6:56, and 6:53 for a total of 18:00 at about 6:55.  I'm quite happy with that result, and I think this running everyday with no breaks is going to be good for me. I think it'll be easier to stick to a schedule, and I think I'll reap the benefits of consistency and of running the additional miles. Since I was able to improve upon my run from last week, I can conclude that, at least for the moment, the additional running is not contributing to overtraining.  Even so, I plan to take an easier week (still 7 days of running, just trimming a bit of mileage off) either every 3rd or 4th week.  I haven't decided how often I need the rest, but if my performance on Thursday is better than last week, I think I'll try to go another week before I take an easier week.

If I were able to keep that pace up for a full 5k, that would be a time of 21:26.  I'm not sure I could keep that up, as I felt like I was relatively close to vomiting on the last interval, but in a month's time it might be doable.  Either way, if I keep this up, sub-21:00 in my next race with Jenny and Doug should be very doable, though 20:00 would be an awfully large stretch.  Right now I think I'll put my goal at under 21:00 which would be a 6:45 pace.  I'll have to adjust that as the date gets closer and the weather changes, but I definitely think it's within reach.  The key is to stick with it and not fall off the wagon.  As long as I do that, I should be able to meet my goal.