Faster 5K: Week 1, Day 3

Today was quite as good as Monday, but pretty good nonetheless.  I really had to will myself to get up and run this morning.  Work has been busy and I had a meeting last night that ran pretty late, so I didn't get my normal relax routine before going to bed.  That plus the 3 glasses of sweet tea I drank during dinner last night led to a night of not so great sleep which in turn led to me not wanting to get out of bed and run.  I tricked myself into doing it by getting up and getting dressed for running while watching the news and stretching.  By the time I'm dressed and have stretched there's really no excuse not to get out and run, so run I did. 

The snow was mostly cleared from the park this morning.  There were just a few spots where there was patchy ice in the road but it was all easily avoidable.  I started out with a 5 minute warm up walk around the parking lot and then started my experimental week one routine.  My shins were a little sore starting out, and the running came a little less easy than it did on Monday.  Part of that may have been due to me running through the park which has some very minute elevation changes as opposed to just around the generally flat parking lot.  Poor sleep probably didn't help much either.  I didn't quite make it through today's routine as I designed it, but I never stopped to walk and maintained a decent pace throughout.  I like to try to get my heart rate down to about 160 during the slow run portions before starting the fast run and by the time I was on repetition 7 or 8 my heart rate was stuck in the upper 160s, so I just worked to maintain a steady pace.  I skipped the majority of the fast run segments for the entire second half of the routine.  I think I may have done two.  I know I did the last repetition, pushing my pace up to the 9:30/mile range.  Overall it was a good run, and I'm glad I did it.   

L:  for whatever reason I can't comment on my blog from this PC, but I haven't really given the half much thought.  I'm not sure I have a desire to run much more than 3-4 miles. 

Today's Stats:  I did 3.34 miles in 37:30 for a pace of 11:14/mile

Next up:  I think I'm going to continue my week one routine until I'm routinely averaging an 11 minute or better pace.  I'm not sure when I'm going to make it to the pool.  Work is getting in the way of that for now.  Maybe next week.