Happy Birthday Me. 41 today. And my present to myself was pain.
Missed last week’s update on Week 6. My weekend workout went well in Florida and I got some measure of revengeance for what happened in Week 5.
This week, I attempted 3×1-mile with a 1/2-mile jog again to close out the month of February. At least the hard part. I was definitely nervous. This week’s goal pace was 5:45. I haven’t run a sub-5:45 mile in some time – at least before today. I made sure to eat enough. Had a pizza on Friday and my full compliment of protein shakes. Then I went for the glory.
I got up at 4 a.m. this morning, but stalled until almost 8 to get outside. It was cold, about 50 degrees. But mostly, I was just scared to hurt. I drank my energy drink, but did something I normally don’t do often: use a foam roller. Lo and behold, I discovered new pain in my legs and used it as much as I could to loosen up. Then I used the massage gun to cap it off. My legs felt fresh for once. Also, I took extra Amino Energy before the run. For the first time in forever, my heart dipped below 50 bpm. Down to 48. I wasn’t sure that I was ready for the run, but these were good signs.
Finally, I summoned the courage to exit and head outside. My warmup always calls for 1 mile at 8:15 pace. But after a few steps, I found myself at 6:45 pace at the 1/4 mile point. That was a great sign because it felt easy. Three quarters of a mile later, I took off for the first of three mile repetitions. I felt great! Opened early at 5:45 pace and and then got down to 5:25 pace before backing up. I dropped my hands and pushed gently with my hamstrings backwards to propel forward quickly. I practically walked the last tenth of a mile to close just under 5:34. Was this going to be a breeze?
No.
After a 1/2 mile recovery, I started the 2nd repetition which went as easily as the first. At least through the first 1/2-mile. I hit the halfway point of the rep at 5:45 pace and then turned around to start the 2nd half of the day. I don’t know what happened at that point. All of a sudden, my watch said I was running at 6:00 pace for the rep. What did I do wrong? Was I over confident? In any case, I started to labor and pressed forward to close out the rep. It was hard, y’all. I got the rep down to 5:52 pace, but felt cheated, because I would have gone out harder had I known I was behind pace. It was quite discouraging and I knew the 3rd rep would be a fight. It definitely was.
Through 1/2 of the 3rd rep once again, I was on-pace, but this time I was dead. I took a couple of breathers (a little cheat that I’ve learned) but finished off the rep anyway in 5:45. After that I made it home pretty easily. I’m a little suspicious now of the GPS on the route that I took today, but the pace was unnecessarily hard in the second half. I won’t have a chance to test it out again until early March. Next week, I’ll back down to 4×800, but anticipate being out of town for that one.
A post-run GPS review shows that something happened there on that 2nd rep. Garmin had me backing down to 7:00 mile pace, and I definitely wasn’t slowing down that much. I’m reluctant to try this route again to be honest with you, but we’ll see. For now, just happy to have survived.
Next week, 4×800. Next month, I’ll try to get the pace of this workout down to 5:19 pace. I want to run a PR in late March which calls for a 5:27 race over 3.1 miles. I’m fairly certain at this point that I can run 1 to 1.5 miles at 5:27 pace. Just need to get that bad boy to 3.1. I can do it.
Need to pick a race and stick with it. Until then.
Weekly Mileage (Week 7):
24 of planned 24 miles
Saturday Workout
Workout: 3x1600m with 800m jog at equal time (half-pace)
Planned pace: 5:45 per mile
Actual pace: 5:44
Next week’s planned pace: 5:45 per mile (4×800)
RunnerRich 