Another beautiful day. Left home around 8am for the Mt. Si. track. Long workout as part of a long run. A 10-mile tempo cutdown run. First 7 at "old" marathon pace 5:22-5:24. Next two miles at 5:10s and the final mile at whatever I could do it in with a very random 5:02 selected as the target.
I opted to do them all around track. 40 laps is pretty boring but it's easier to stay on pace especially when you are doing the workout alone like I was. Something important when running that many laps: rotate the direction. I went in reverse for the first six and then did the last four the regular counter-clockwise direction. It's important to change directions to not stress one side more than the other. Also took water twice...at 3 and 6.
First 7 miles were all in the :22-:24 range and felt good. It was about 55 degrees and no wind.
The wind picked up a bit for the final three. The flag went from completely still to waving. Nothing huge but noticeable. The next two miles I definitely started to feel tired. Hit 5:11 on both. I really wanted to skip the final mile but I told myself that I needed a 5:10 mile to OTQ so that was my faux motivation. Finished it with a 5:06. Final lap was in 75 which felt good. I was pretty tired.
Changed back into my trainers and ran another 9.25 miles. They felt slow but they were actually at 6:40. I kept the auto lap feature off for the cool down which was nice.
Solid week. One month to go. | 