I Hate it When I Can't Think of a Title

AM: 3 miles
PM: 2 mile w/u
Target: 1 mile @6:20 w/3:00 rest; 12x300 w/100 jog cut down 61, 59, 57; 8x100m strides @17 secs
Actual: 6:02, 12x300 w/100 jog for total 3 miles in 18:17; 8x100 strides hard
1.5 mile c/d
Total: 8 miles

The track workout this afternoon was unlike anything I've done recently, in that it sort of combined a tempo-like mentality with bursts of shorter (and harder) efforts. The first mile was prescribed in 6:20 but 90-second quarters felt easy and smooth so I just went with it. Besides, I told Jilane I would run this interval in honor of her dog so I had to kick it up a notch. I wasn't even really breathing hard at the end, which was a nice feeling, but I knew the 300s were going to hit me pretty hard. Jess joined me for the 300s and it was nice to know someone else was hurting with me. About halfway through she fell off the back so I was pushing through on my own. I don't know all the splits, but the ones I heard Jeff call out were anywhere between 62 and 58. I doubt I ever hit the 57s I was supposed to be cruising at toward the end, but my legs were pretty shot by that point. That said, the end result including the 12 easy jog 100s was a total of 3 miles in 18:17 which isn't too bad. I certainly don't recommend running your next 5k with this strategy, but it got the job done nonetheless.


Downtown Charlotte skyline at night, similar to the view from
Johnson C Smith track where we work out

After full recovery from the 300s, Jess and I put on our spikes to do some hard strides on the back stretch. We ran the first one right around 16 seconds and then decided to forego the watch and just go by effort on the rest of them. I gotta say, I am so slow right now. Foot speed=zero. It's depressing to recall that I used to run the open quarter in 60 seconds in high school and now I can't even do strides at that pace. Man, I'm getting old.