Mile repeats… rawr!
Tom Brady understands…
Speedwork today, and I knew going into today that I had mile repeats on the calendar. So, out the door extra early to try to avoid a crowded indoor track at the Y. It kinda worked. There were still people on the track, including a gaggle of joggers. But when I explained that I was doing speed work, they agreed to leave the outside lane open instead of running all abreast like I found them. It was a close call a few times, but they were polite and tried to accommodate a faster runner on the track.
I’m glad, too. While I may not be an elite marathoner, a 6:00/mi pace is plenty fast to cause an injury during a full-tilt collision, and I was glad to avoid that!
Today’s workout: 6.5mi speedwork: 1mi WU, easy (8:00/mi) -> 3x [1mi interval pace (6:15/mi) -> 0.5mi easy (8:00/mi)] -> 1mi CD, easy (8:00/mi).
I stayed with the GU Chocolate Outrage for my pre-workout this morning. That flavor just really makes me happy. But I’m running low on gels, so I think an Amazon order is likely in my future.
Getting to the track earlier was a good idea for speedwork today. Perhaps if I gotten there even earlier (the Y opens at 4:00am) I could have had the track to myself. But, I got my run in with minimal interference and no serious problems. I can live with that.
Finding the 8:00/mi easy pace is getting routine by now, I can just settle in and feel when I am about on target. Speed, on the other hand, is not something that I can gauge accurately yet, it would seem. I bounced quite a bit on the Garmin in the first mile repeat and I’m not sure I ever really settled into a consistent pace.
The real problem was that third mile repeat was slow almost the whole way through – 6:30 to almost 7:00/mi based on my glances at the Garmin. Maybe I could have pushed the pace a bit more, but there was a growing ache in my quads and hamstrings so I think I was going at about my best pace for where I’m at today.
I’m a little down that I finally had a session where I didn’t hit all my splits. It was a nice streak to ride, I must admit. But I wasn’t too far off pace, and I am coming off an injury. I’ll take today as a learning experience that I need to focus on my pace during speedwork and…