Not Half Bad

Greetings from Slackerville.

Man, I have been sitting at this computer for roughly three hours now...mostly to update stuff on here. It has felt like the longest day EVER, probably because I got up before the sun rose and made Derek an egg-and-cheese sandwich - yum! (Had one myself later). Drove with him to work, then did 6 miles on the Erie & Canal Towpath in Independence. The body didn't feel awesome, but the mind did...it just felt great to do an early morning run, before the heat struck, on a serene trail.

Yesterday's speedwork session was awesome though, and I thought I'd share. Now on Tuesday, I had to do 6 miles and since I didn't have the car, I couldn't drive to a scenic spot, sooo I decided to do what I call the "two bridges run" -- Tremont to Downtown and back, via two different bridges. Let me say, it was HORRIBLE. I've done this run before, and it was fine, but Tuesday's heat and humidity were god awful and I felt as though I would melt within the first mile. But sometimes, ya know, the first mile hurts but then you fall into a rhythm. Nope. The entire. run. suuuuuucked! I even got back to Tremont and it was only 5 miles and I was like, "WTF?" so I had to run more. Ugh.

But I digress. Wednesday's speed session called for 4-6 x a half-mile @ 5K-10K pace, 5 miles total including warmup and cooldown. I was apprehensive about this because I had slept in, AGAIN, and didn't want to face that heat once more. HOWEVER. It was breezy and there was NO humidity so it was great!!! And here's the best part: my splits shocked me! In a good way. I usually consider 5K pace for me around 9:50 - 10 min/mile, and 10K is more like 10:30 min/mile. So I was expecting times of roughly 5:00-5:15, with the hope of not falling on my face by the last repeat (i.e., pacing myself properly to not go out too fast during the first two or three and not have enough energy left for the last ones). I know that, with intervals, you need to keep a consistent pace and make sure that your last repeat has as much "push" as the first. I also had in mind that I should have the feeling that the last one really HAD to be the last one, and not really "store" that much energy at the end. Otherwise, it's not really a workout, right? ;)

So here were my splits:

1 - 4:29 (uh-oh, reign it in!)
2 - 4:33 (hmm...that didn't feel that hard)
3 - 4:32
4 - 4:32 (whoa, that's even!)
5 - 4:25
6 - 4:17 (giving it a bunch more but not ALL-out)

I am thinking that perhaps the park was slightly under a half-mile all the way around...I did not have the Garmin with me but I looked it up on g-map pedometer and it said 0.52. I bet they measure from the curb, though, which accounts for a little shorter time. All in all, though, even if it was a little short, it would be spot-on with where I wanted to be...and if it was accurate, even better! It's amazing how much easier it is to do this workout, by the way, after doing the same thing a few weeks earlier with full miles. Now I kinda like half-miles. ;)

Rest day tomorrow, good thing, because I need to get bloodwork done in the morning, and that needs to be on an empty stomach, so that's not the greatest recipe for a run afterwards. On tap for tonight....STUFFED CABBAGE! My first time, but not my first experience with Jewish (well, Polish) cuisine. Pictures to follow, perhaps.