I wasn't expecting to run today as Mr Y has been recovering from some dental work, but when he suggested it the answer was obviously yes.
This guided run consists of a 5 minute warm up, stop for stretches, then one 80 second run at 10 k pace, 2 at 5k and one at Mile pace, with 80 seconds of recovery between each and then repeat the four intervals again. I've run this before and enjoyed it so was quite keen. Only downside was that I was a bit late setting off (at 8:50) and had to be somewhere for 10am, so time was tight.
Normally I'll pause to do my stretches after the warm up run but today I just did a few while Coach Chelsea was explaining that I should take a few minutes. Sorry Chels, I didn't have the time to spare, did the bare minimum then set off on the first 10k interval. This was good, then recovery. The second interval, at 5k pace, I was maybe a bit too quick but felt fine so slowed down for the third. Then it was time for 80 seconds at 1500m/Mile pace.
At this point we turned back towards home and Mr Y spotted a home made gym (I'm using the expression generously) in the forest. Tyres and ropes and bits of old piping in a little clearing. We had to stop for a picture. I paused the NRC app just before the interval started. A couple of minutes faffing around taking photos then I was off again, a lean mean running machine (yes, that's a generous description too).
I ran and ran. I realised my heartrate was way too high without the need to look at my watch. Was I imagining that Coach Chelsea had been quiet for longer than normal? Was this the notorious NRC-mucking-up-the-interval gremlin? Even if it wasn't I had to slow down, slow right down, and then miraculously Coach reappeared saying '40 seconds to go'. These passed in a flash. When I looked at my charts on Garmin this interval is twice as wide as the others so I was definitely not imagining it.
The upside was that having run part of this interval pretty slowly I was in a great place for the last 4 runs. These got progressively faster with little perceived extra effort. I finished the run near home and walked the short distance back, made breakfast, wolfed it down, had a shower and was where I needed to be just a minute or so after 10 (don't think anyone noticed).
By the way, I didn't realise that the photo was being taken at the 'gym'! 😂
Correction: I was sure I'd done this run before and decided to compare my stats. When I checked back there's no record of it so maybe I haven't done it after all. Oh well, I enjoyed it anyway 
NRC 10K plan
