I was in Bath on Wednesday, looking after my nephew, so had to squeeze my interval session in between dropping him off at school (which involved a two mile walk, dragging him on his scooter up some nasty hills, then two miles back to my sister’s flat) and picking him back up again (another 4-mile round trip but at least mostly downhill this time).

I could have hit the Bath half loop, but decided to use the outdoor track at Bath University instead (involving another 4 mile round trip, up a nasty hill to get there and then back down again on return journey). I’d checked in advance when it would be available and arrived at 12:00 just after a club session had finished so that there was only me and one other lady using it.

Storm Doris may not have fully hit yet, but it was drizzly and very blustery as I looped round and round the track (recalculating whether I would have time to eat lunch before heading back out to the school and whether to shower at the track or back at home). I figured they wouldn’t allow headphone use so I just had maths to keep me company as I ticked off the intervals.

This was my longest set of threshold intervals to date (the previous longest being 10 minutes), but comparing this 3 reps of 12 minutes to 3 reps of 10 minutes with the same recovery period (90 seconds) actually came out favourably, despite the conditions. I averaged a faster pace in two of the three reps, and was faster on average overall even though the reps were longer. Not sure all the walking was a great idea on top of the session, but Thursday is a rest day after all.