Santa Ana Bike Path Tempo

22 min. w/u (~3 miles)
Target: 6 mile tempo @6:20
Actual: 6:23, 6:33, 6:26, 6:18, 6:18, 6:10
15 min. c/d (2 miles)
Total: 11 miles

Jilane, Jordan and I woke up at her parents' house in Brea and were greeted with a dense, pea soup-y fog that refused to lift. We debated heading out the door several times throughout the morning, but kept delaying it due to hunger/fog/laziness. We finally hopped in the car around 12:30 and drove out to a flat, measured bike path that Jilane thought would be a good location for a hard effort.

After an easy warmup and detour to a local park for a bathroom break we were ready to go. Since Jordan is the (self-proclaimed) world's best pacer and since he had the Garmin, we decided to follow his lead. The wind was quite stiff on the way out and I was content to just tuck in behind him. Jilane and I had requested a slow first mile in order to ease into the pace, and Jordan delivered perfectly. The second mile slowed noticeably due to the wind and I felt like we were barely jogging (which I guess is a good thing?). Around 2.5 Jilane decided to take a breather, so Jordan and I continued to the three-mile turnaround point and then picked her up around 3.5 on the way back.

We expected to enjoy the wind at our backs on the return, but it inexplicably wasn't much better than on the trip out. I tried to ignore it and stay relaxed. Just after mile 4.5 Jilane decided to back off again and, after she shouted a final word of encouragement, Jordan and I were left to carry it home. As I've done in so many workouts and race efforts before, I kept my eyes on his back the entire way. I found that if I looked at his feet I ended up stutter stepping or almost tripping over them, and if my eyes wandered to the seemingly endless path ahead I either lost focus or started to analyze the distance too much. As long as I kept staring at his back I stayed calm and under control. As we closed in on the last mile I started to fatigue, but Jordan's constant encouragement motivated me to keep pressing. I closed strong and then bid him farewell as he proceeded to pick up the pace all the way back to the car. Jilane wasn't far behind, so I waited for her and we cooled down together.

As far as workouts go, this was solid but not exceptional. Honestly though, given how sore I still am from the Wii and from the track workout/drills just two days ago, I was happy with the effort. If I have to workout, there's no two training partners I would rather do it with. The blueberry pancakes Jordan prepared us for "breakfast" when we got back to Jilane's were the perfect post-race nourishment.