This past weekend was a mixed bag for me. I knew that Sunday's run was going to be jeopardized by the weather, and that held out to be oh so true. Needless to say, as the downpour raged on at 4:30am, I made the command decision to call it and go back to bed. I had a long day ahead and starting off soaking wet wasn't going to help the cause. And I felt as though I had kind of earned it with the effort I put out on Sunday in the 50 minute workout where every five minutes we altered from 10K pace back to Half Marathon pace.
This whole new running experience is quite an experience. We're in that cycle where we we have about 3 to 4 week between same workouts. This I like because you can really see how far you've progressed. This particular workout we did 3 weeks ago, and I had a GREAT run, so I was a little unsure how much I'd progress. What I didn't expect was what happened....
My first 5 mins on, I set out on a blistering pace, one that was FASTER then my 30 minute tempo the previous Saturday. I felt great, but I was running in a territory that I'd never seen before. We're talking 7:04 pace. But it was only 5 minutes, so I wasn't too alarmed that I went out too fast. My off set I trottled back to 7:45 and my legs just felt GREAT and overall I was running nice and relaxed. Set two started, and I took off like a greyhound trying to get the rabbit. I didn't even realize how fast I was going until I passed the 2 mile mark at 14:04.....yes, you read that right...14:04. I was TRUCKING!!! I looked at the pace of Dr. Garmin, and it read a 6:40 pace, and I still had 56 seconds to go on the on set. I kept it going as I figured that it was only less then a minute of effort.....But When the set ended, I had a little discussion with myself. I didn't need to go out there and blow up on sets 4 and 5. So I made a concious decision that I needed to slow down a bit. I set my target on pace at 7:15, realistically where it should be. And with that when the on set came, I settled very nicely into the 7:15, and that's where each of the 3 remaining sets were, ON THE NOSE. there was absolutely NO variation. And, I finished the 50 minutes at 6.75 miles. The last time I ran that workout, I only managed to get 6.4 miles. That's a FULL 3 tenths further, in just 3 weeks! Another MAJOR step towards where I want to be. In two weeks, we get another version of this workout, but we add one more set. I'm thinking that I should be able to do a full long loop, and close the short loop by then. That's my ultimate goal. In fact, I should go past closing the short loop, as where I finished was about a mile from that point, which I'll cover more then a mile in 10 mins. So all looks very very promising. This coming Saturday, we'll get an official reading to where my Long Loop 5 mile time trial is. I'm going to have to go deep into the spreadsheets to see what my PB is. When I find it.....We'll set the goal to CRUSH that time!
And I started the week off by doing a nice 7 miler this morning. Since i didn't run yesterday my legs were incredibly fresh. I kept the last 6 miles under 8:30 pace, as I always take that first one pretty easy. Today, that was a 9:15. I'm really starting to evlauate the caledar and see where to work in that marathon. Right now I'm looking for a fast March timeframe event, but I don't see any. If anyone knows of a close marathon to Tucson in the March timeframe...lemme know....I'm in the HUNT!
Until tomorrow, Train Hard and LIVESTRONG!
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