Left work via car, picked up Holly from daycare, dropped her off at home, and then ran 2.6 miles up to the track at the U (kind of humorous given that I work literally one building away from the track). Workout was 4 miles, 3 minutes jog rest, 3 miles, 2 minutes jog rest, 2 miles, 1 minute jog rest, 1 mile, then of course the 2.6 miles home. I wasn't sure whether I was going to do 4,3,2,1 with slightly increasing speed or 10 right at 6:00 pace, but quickly decided on the former, as it was quite windy and I felt that it would be hard to keep myself mentally engaged and right on pace the entire time by myself if I just did 10 hard miles straight. So yeah, the goal was to do the first 4 miles at about 6:00 pace and then kick down a few seconds per mile each interval after that. I hit it spot on and had a little more than I expected at the end. Splits were: 4 miles - 24:01 (6:00 pace) *3 minutes jog rest* 3 miles - 17:52 (5:57 pace) *2 minutes jog rest* 2 miles - 11:46 (5:53 pace) *1 minute jog rest* 1 mile - 5:37 I really didn't think I would end up having anything faster than 5:45 in me at the end, so I was pleased. Workout was hard, but not extreme. I was in control and it really didn't feel crazy except on the last lap of the 2 mile (pulled out an 86 after a bunch of 88-89s) and the 2nd half of the mile (85, 86, 85, 81). The cooldown on the way home wasn't really fun, but it probably helped shake out my legs. I don't usually do several mile cooldowns, but I intentionally planned the run this way to force a longer shakeout. Oh, and this is clearly shaping out to be one of my best weeks of the marathon build. It was planned this way, with the intent of running somewhere in the ballpark of 90-95 miles this week, and I appear to be on track. Legs have been feeling good and responding, in general, quite well to the increased load over the last few weeks, so I'm getting more and more excited to have another marathon coming up in June.
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