First Shape Cutting of 2010

AM: 3 miles
PM: 2 mile w/u
Target: 12x400 w/90 sec. rest @~low 80s
Actual: 82, 82, 81, 80, 80, 80, 79, 79, 77, 75, 79, 77
2 mile c/d
Total: 7 miles

Wow, it's been a while since I've done any serious shape cutting. Four hundos are definitely not one of my favorite workouts, but since my foot speed is practically nonexistent they're a necessary evil. At any rate, due to a combination of many factors I ended up having to run this on my own, with Jenna standing by to call out a majority of the splits. Normally Jess and I would do this type of workout together but it was not meant to be today.

I left work at 3:00 on the dot and set out for the JC Smith track, eager to get started before temps dropped further. The weather has been all over the board the past few days, and at the time of my workout it was in the mid-40s and falling with winds gusting at a pretty brisk clip. Not ideal for a solo workout, but them's the breaks sometimes. After a quick warmup I jumped right into the first interval, apprehensive about how my legs would respond to both the speed and duration of the workout. The first few intervals were choppy and awkward as I tried to adjust to the variable wind. It seemed to be strongest on the home curve, but every few laps or so it would suddenly gust into my face on the backstretch. This added a challenging and not altogether pleasant element to the workout, but I suppose it makes you tougher. Despite the wind and to my pleasant surprise, I slowly started to feel better as the workout progressed. Looking back, I felt much smoother and more relaxed running several seconds per lap faster during the second half of the workout.

Overall, I'm pleased with how this went given my current fitness. Workouts like this are great benchmarks for future, and I'm sure within the coming months I'll have several opportunities to better my efforts today. For now, count it.