Monday, April 25, 2011

Intervals: 4/25/11

I ran/walked 4 miles on Saturday with da'wife.  It was easy time, but I enjoyed being out with her.  It was fun running around the area where I grew up and remembering playing in that field or stomping through those woods.  We shared some memories... well, I shared some memories while L tried to keep from barfing.  Fun was had by all.

This morning I got up intent on pushing my limits one last time before the 5K on Saturday.  It was warm and humid this morning, but not so much so that I was terribly uncomfortable.  I started out with a shorter warm up jog because I was a little short on time.  I did just a little over half a mile as a warm up and then started into my interval sets.  I worked pretty hard to try to keep all of the fast portions close to 8:00/mile and all my slow portions faster than 10:00/mile.  I was generally successful with that but did fall short of my goal a couple of times. 

Overall I was pleased and felt good though quite winded when I finished.  There were moments when I considered slowing down and just jogging to finish out the workout, but I overcame the mental hurdles and kept up the pace.  I'm looking forward to the race on Saturday and am hoping to surprise myself.

Today's Stats:  I did 3.98 miles in 34:47 for an average pace of 8:44, which is a bit faster than I had hoped my race pace would be this coming Saturday.... and that was over the course of 4 miles.  Factor in adrenaline and the shorter distance of a 5K and I might just be able to squeeze across the line in under 27:00.  If I combine the fast portions of today's intervals and exclude the slow/rest portions, I averaged 08:06/mile.  I don't think I'll be pushing myself that hard for the entire duration of a 5K.  I am hoping to push pretty hard Saturday though.  I'm looking for another personal record.  I do have a feeling it's going to start getting exponentially harder to get faster.

Next up:  I'll be going for an easy run Wednesday.  I'll probably try to get in at least 4 miles at pretty medium pace and then I'll take Thursday off, and I may do a quick mile Friday at some point just to stay loose.  Or, I may just take Thursday and Friday off completely and make sure I'm good and warmed up before the race on Saturday.

Bonus:  I hit the 200 mile mark for the year this morning!  At this pace I hope to get in about 600 total miles for the year.  If I decide to train for a half marathon I may go over that mark pretty easily.  I'm to the point now where I have no doubts about being able to complete a half, so I really don't know how much additional training would be necessary.

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