Battle Road Long Run/Fartlek

60 mins. easy
60 mins. w/1x 1 min. hard; 2x2 mins.; 3x3; 4x4; 3x3; 2x2; 1x1 all with 1 min. rest
5 mins. easy
Total: 18 miles

For the third day in a row, I awoke to cool, dreary weather. Emily and I had plans to meet at Battle Road, but the second I stepped outside and saw how hard it was raining I immediately longed to be back under the covers enjoying a rare lazy Sunday morning. Instead, I steeled my resolve and began the 30-minute drive toward Lexington. No sooner had I flipped on my wipers and inched out of the parking lot than I received a plaintive text from Emily: "Have you left yet??" If she'd reached me five minutes earlier things might have turned out differently; instead, the two of us met as planned and resolved to enjoy some social time together despite the inclement conditions. The next hour passed quickly and with little effort, but the entire time I was mindful of the hard running to come. Since Emily had tempoed the previous day she just planned to go 10 easy, so we reluctantly parted ways at the 60-minute mark.

One aspect of marathon training that I really want to focus on this segment is running hard and fast while tired. Anyone should be able to hit marathon pace or faster after a light warmup, but that won't really be of much help when you're two hours deep on race day. Today, though the first hour of running had flown by easily, its effects were instantly palpable once I embarked upon the faster segments. Despite the weekend's incessant rain the trail was mostly dry, but as the run progressed and the rain intensified yet again it became necessary for me to incorporate some modified steeplechase water pit tactics. All a part of the training stimulus, I suppose. Though I never felt great or even good during this workout, I executed it to the letter and continued to push despite the temptation and freedom to do otherwise. Count it a success!