I spent the evening perusing old forum posts – looking for info on speedwork and tapering for a 5K. After yesterday’s uninspired tempo run, I thought it’d be great to have the psychological boost of a speed session for some confidence in Saturday’s race.

That said, after reading a zillion posts, I surmised that it’s generally not a great idea to do a full-out interval session the week of a 5K and we all know two quality runs back-to-back aren’t a good thing either, but my legs were feeling fine, so I figured I’d risk it.

I decided on a “light” session, since that gets the OK as long as you do it at the beginning of the week. Not that tapering for a 5K is a big deal, but you don’t want to tire yourself out needlessly.

I posted this morning on the 5K board, “What should I do; 3 or 4x880s or 6 or 8x440s?” My local forum pal JoeMC came up with a great one; 5×600 at race pace with 90 second recoveries. OK, I’ve never done 600s, and 90 seconds recovery sounds short, but it’s a good short VO2 workout, so I programmed it into my Garmin and jogged down to the park.

And this, my friends, marks a pivotal moment in my life. Because I did the workout and actually (dare I say it?) had FUN! I am shocked shitless.

The best thing is that were I do intervals (bike path in the park), I can see the end of 600m from where I start – unlike those pesky 880s that turn a corner, then you have to keep going which makes them seem that much longer. Having the finish line in sight helped make the distance really no big deal.

I will confess to mostly brisk walking through the recoveries, because 90 seconds flies by, but still (as I’ve rattled on about before) walking is “legal” in interval land – so no harm, no foul.

I avg’d 2:43 per 600m (.37 miles in good ole USA terms) which comes out to 7:20/mile – a bit faster than my goal pace. I definitely could have done another, but 3.1 miles of that will be a tad more painful so it remains to be seen what I do on Saturday.

Really, the major thing about the workout was the fact that it was fun. Makes me excited for next week’s session, though I’ll likely be back to 880s, it’ll be nice to switch them up every so often.

Edited to add: Someone just posted in my 5K question thread that he thinks I did “a touch too much”, should have done 6×400 with 400 recoveries between, even adding a little frowny emoticon with the words “but I guess it’s too late now”. C’est la vie. It’s all a learning process at this point and I’m not worried – it’s not a goal race and my legs feel good, as does my brain.

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