3 Miles and the Challenge

Does this watch make my ears look fat?

On the ninth day of Christmas my local running shop gave to me:  speed work!  The assignment was "Run your track loops in sets of three. Your first lap should be easy pace. Walking is okay. Your second lap is run at medium pace, and your third lap is as fast as you can go. Run this set three times through until you finish at 9 laps."

So with my Garmin Forerunner 405, I set out to do laps of 1/3 mile: 

1. Easy lap - felt just fine, but ran too fast.
2. Medium lap - pace was only 2 second/mile faster
3. Fast lap - Couldn't maintain speed throughout, but ran part of it at 6 min/mile pace
4. Easy lap 2 -  Walked... felt great!
5. Medium lap 2 - OK!  Now we're getting it!  "Medium" pace.. about 10:00/mile
6. Fast lap 2 - Go go go!  7:15/mile
7. Easy lap 3 - Walked...  can't breathe...
8. Medium lap 3 - about 10:00/mile again
9. Fast lap 3 - Grrrrrr!  7:30/mile.  Too many ducks on the path...  old guy with his dog on a leash extended across the whole path...  "I'M GOING TO USE YOU AS AN EXCUSE FOR MY SLOWER PACE!"

...And that's 3 miles.  I walked another to catch my breath and went home.