195

Yesterday my training plan called for my first speedwork day (VO2Max 10mi w/ 5×1,000m @ 5K pace; jog 2 min between), but when I went to go run, I couldn’t find my good watch (the one that records splits). I decided to just head out to the bike trail and do something else. It had already been an outstanding day in terms of nutrition: cereal foor breakfast, then cheese fries and an iced frappuccino at the zoo for lunch. Still, I headed out to the bike trail with my new MP3 player to see what I could do. I debated trying an LT pace run, but I wasn’t married to the idea.

I set out at what I thought was a reasonable pace, and hit the first half mile at 4 min exactly. So I decided to do a MP run (I’ve decided a PR race in Chicago would be nice, so <3:30:05 is the new goal). I figured 7 miles was a decent distance, as I wanted to be sure to feel strong throughout. First 3.5 miles: 27:40. I stopped and caught my breath, cooled down a bit (but didn’t have any water nor gu). Told myself I wanted to run a negative split, but obviously just having an overall 8 min pace would be ok. Last 3.5 miles: 27:04. Well that turned out well! I felt strong through to the end, and a 54:44 is actually an overall 7:49 pace, which is close to my half marathon pace. After I stopped and got some water, I actually considered going out for a couple more miles, either at the same speed or as ‘cool-down’ miles, but I called it quits. I’m sure glad I did that run. Yes, 7 miles isn’t 13.1 and it certainly isn’t 26.2, but I do feel like I’m getting back into the swing of things. Today on my way to work I listened to some podcasts and started to really get my head into this. Hurrah!