8 x 800m

This morning I did the 8 x 800m again. I did this session a few weeks ago, on the 9th of July, and wanted to see how I was going against that benchmark. I figure that since I'm training on my own, I need to do some interval sessions on a "known" course to see how I am going. The Suunto is good for distance / pace, but nothing compares to hitting 'start' at one known landmark and 'stop' at another. This session is also very convenient - the 1.7km to get there is a great warmup, the 800m course is not busy and it is very scenic along the river and under the bridge.

I felt very sluggish in the warmup, but I was wearing my 'race' shoes (the lighter, less forgiving black Mizunos) so was hoping to at least match my previous times. My splits were:
2:40 - avg 161bpm - 810m - 3:18 min/km
2:35 - avg 165bpm - 820m - 3:10
2:30 - avg 167bpm - 810m - 3:06
2:29 - avg 169bpm - 780m - 3:12
2:31 - avg 168bpm - 800m - 3:09
2:30 - avg 165bpm - 790m - 3:10
2:31 - avg 169bpm - 790m - 3:11
2:28 - avg 169bpm - 790m - 3:08

Session total of 10.8km in 50:23. The average pace on each rep was ever so slightly quicker than last time (2:31 versus 2:33). Heart rates were a bit higher than last time though, and my fastest rep last time was 1 second quicker than the fastest rep this time. It's not exactly the most scientific analysis ever (just look at the variance in the distances, which are from the same point-to-point), but I'll take the average pace as a good indication that I'm not going backwards!!