Boxing Day tempos

After a day of gluttony yesterday, today's schedule of tempo running was very much needed.
I sat through the Boxing Day test match highlights, in a way thankful that we weren't there! The moment they were over I headed out into perfect running conditions. The aim of today was five sets of tempo. 4 minutes at tempo pace with 2 minutes in between at easy pace to recover. This gave me scope to get to Elsenham & back. The roads and pavements were quiet, only two other runners seen. I found myself feeling like I was struggling at a higher tempo pace, yet my Nike watch was suggesting all was fine. I think I had a bit of a lull during the third and fourth repetition, yet recovered to finish the set with decent pace.
These speed work sessions are key to increasing my comfort levels at faster paces and hopefully also provide stamina for the long runs. This morning everything went reasonably well. The run streak is extended to 8 successive days, I've never been this consistently active and hope to continue it into 2014.
No eat to write home about. Today we'll be clearing up left overs from our past two days of hosting.
This weekend sees a change of plan. We're going to be further east than planned, so my parkrun of choice is likely to be Ipswich.