Starting the Month Off Right

AM: 21 min. w/u (~3 miles)
Target: 3x3 mile @6:40 w/4:00 rest
Actual: 19:12 (6:22, 6:24, 6:26); 19:18 (6:24, 6:27, 6:27); 19:02 (6:15, 6:26, 6:20)
19 min. c/d (2.5 miles)
Total: 15 miles
PM: 43 mins.
5+ miles

As I just told Jilane, if the weather at MCM is anything like today we should have an awesome run. In contrast to yesterday's hot and humid conditions (sorry, Oz), today was cool, crisp and dry, with a light breeze. Absolutely beautiful. I'm confident that the weather, combined with my relative "off" day yesterday, facilitated what I consider to be one of my best workouts of this entire training cycle.

From the first mile I could tell things were going to go well. Initially I was concerned that starting off at such an ambitious pace would result in disaster by the end, but after about a mile and a half of fighting it I decided to just chill out and allow things to play out as they may. The last interval was definitely tough (especially considering I led off the first mile with a 3:05 800--not sure what happened there) but I felt strong and in control throughout. My hamstring tightened up a bit, but I deliberately took a minute or two of the "rest" between intervals to stretch, and that seemed to help.

Believe it or not, hammering the workout itself was actually not the highlight of this run. I had just begun the cool down and was still running through the park, basically zoned out, when I passed a pair of girls and heard one of them yell my name. Turns out it was Katherine, one of my closest friends from when I lived here before but hadn't seen since moving back. We stopped and spent a few minutes catching up and made plans to hang out as soon as I get back from California. It was absolutely wonderful to run into her (literally) and I can't wait to see her again. Made my day!


Kat and me back in the day.

In the evening, my sales rep and I did a group run with a few of the employees from the Big Peach in Kennesaw. This was only my second time to run in the trails there, and while they were a bit rocky and root-y in parts, overall the run was quite enjoyable. My legs loosened up after the first ten minutes and I felt decent the rest of the time. Overall I'd say this is a solid day to put in the books.