Lavender Bay Stairs - lucky I'm going with gravity here

Boardwalk to the bridge

I extended my excursion by running underneath the bridge and ascending the hill grass on the east side. Again these views are hard to beat.

Under the bridge from Milsons Point

Didn't want to be any later to work so regrettably finished up by cross the bridge to work

Run summary - 10km at 5:30 min/km, ave HR = 125bpm

Got a call late morning call from MC for some 1km reps at lunch around the Cove. He missed the Thursday HuRTS 8x1km so default response was 'sure why not'.

Just us two down at Opera House gates to do 8x1km off 5 min cycles at 3:45ish pace. I attached the heart rate monitor and also recalled my HR in the past has peaked at 180bpm in races.

First 7 reps at a comfortable 3:40ish (my marathon pace) - HR peaks at 150-155bpm but in hot weather. It eases back to 85-90 on the 1 min breaks...terrible effort.

Splits (from MC's call-out) - 4 at 3:45, then 3:40, 3:35 and finally 3:10.

Had to leave MC behind on the last rep but got the HR up to 173 bpm... much better! Finished with a 5 min warm-down. Positive is legs felt great, first bit of quality this week. Negative is the knowledge that it will take sustained 3:05 min/km pace intervals to get HR to high 170 bpm.

8x1km intervals - heart rate sub-par

Session summary - 10km all up at 3:58 min/km, ave HR = 141bpm
Today goes back to basics ... Run hard sessions harder, and easy sessions easier. 

Also thanks to Tucks, Charlie and Jimmy Matthews for some good Blue Mountains trial ideas.