A little over a month ago, I headed over to Old Bell to do some hills. I mapped out a 1.4-mile loop over several steep, rolling hills and decided to do it five times consecutively for a total of seven miles, non-stop. Before this workout I figured 7:15 mile pace would be doable and came very close to hitting that target time through four of the five loops. With a five month difference in my training and a thirty-five degree difference in temperature, I decided to give this workout another go to see how much faster I could run it.
I slept in til about 8 today and awoke to notice the rain was coming down a bit. I wasn't so sure I wanted to go flying up and down a bunch of hills on wet pavement in a pair of shoes that weren't exactly brand new. I was really in the mindset of running the hills but decided that "Plan B" would be a repeat of a 2x3-mile workout I had also done a month earlier.
I parked at the Sardis/Old Bell lot and headed out for a three-mile warmup on the greenway. Right after I turned around the skies opened up and gave me a pretty steady rain. After a minute of thought I decided to forget about Old Bell, and I headed towards McAlpine to do the 2x3 on the 5k course. I did this workout about a month ago in my parents' neighborhood and bombed. I wanted another crack at it. The Lake Park surface was flatter than the 5k course, which features a steep hill in mile two, but it was also 90-plus degrees when I did that workout.
I have been having some trouble pacing myself in recent workouts; I think that's the last thing that comes back when one has been away from heavy training for awhile. I decided that solving that problem would take priority over actually running a fast time. I aimed for 6:30 mile pace and with the rain coming down I headed out in what I estimated to be a pretty slow start, so when I came through the half mile and saw "3:09," I slowed down some. I hit 6:29 for mile one, 6:36 for the hill mile, and 6:23 for the last mile for a total time of 19:28 - almost exactly 6:30 pace! I felt pretty fresh as I took three minutes to rest (jogging around and stretching a bit) and headed back to the starting line. I wanted to go faster on this one so when I reached the half and saw "3:07" I didn't slow down this time. I hit 6:18 for mile one and held on for a 6:31 on the hill mile and slowly picked up the pace for my final mile. When I came around the lake I picked it up again and about 300 meters from the finish I really took off. I finished the second 3-mile set in a time of 18:57 after running 6:09 in the final mile. I really wish I knew what my last half mile was but I failed to check the watch at that point. I felt like I could have slogged through a third set after longer rest, but since I had slept in until 8 I really needed to get home and do some work.
Between the warmup and cooldown I logged just under 10 miles for the day, putting me over 20 for the week after just two days. I'm planning to do an easy 7 or 8 tomorrow and likely the same on Friday, and then I have a 20-miler this weekend, so this is shaping up to be my highest week of mileage ever.
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