Interval Training

I've started looking at my training plan and noticed that TrainingPeaks has made a few changes.  The most significant one is a weekly interval run.  This will be every Tuesday.  I haven't done intervals, really I haven't done speed work, since I trained for my first marathon in 2012.  It's my fastest marathon to date.  Could there be a correlation?  Yes, I'm sure there is!

When I ran my first marathon, I used a Garmin.  It fell completely apart and now I wear a Suunto Ambit2.  The features are slightly different, but it's a much sturdier training partner.  I decided to give intervals a try yesterday.  I set it up for 6 intervals of 2 minutes each with 1 minutes rests.  I can do distance or time, and decided to go with time for now.  I have to make the changes through the desktop software, but as long as I do it the night before a run, I can pretty much do any kind of interval I want.

So how did yesterday's run go?  Surprisingly well!

Interval 1: 0.25 miles -8:07 pace
Interval 2: 0.23 miles - 8:44 pace
Interval 3: 0.25 miles -  8:07 pace
Interval 4: 0.23 miles - 8:36 pace
Interval 5: 0.27 miles -  7:30 pace
Interval 6: 0.25 miles - 8:02 pace

I know that is extremely slow for some and super speedy for others, but I was really happy with those numbers!  I just need to get them more consistent.  My only complaint is that the Suunto doesn't count down before the next interval starts, so I have to pay a little more attention during my rest intervals than I want.  I'm sure I'll get use to it.  For now, those 2 minutes went by really quickly.