Half-Marathon Boot Camp: Workout #1

AM: 5.5 miles easy
PM: 3.5 mile w/u
Target: 4x400m strides; 5k tempo, 5x2 mins. hard
Actual: 84, 84, 80, 83; 1.8k @3:33/k (5:42/mile) pace, bathroom break, 6 min. jog/break; 4k @3:33, 3:35, 3:35, 3:33 (5:45/mile pace avg.)
1.5 mile c/d
Total: 10.5 miles
Daily total: 15 miles

Monday night snow meant slick streets on Tuesday morning which morphed into a mushy, gloppy mess by Tuesday evening. Definitely not ideal workout conditions. Due to reasoning I can no longer recall, we decided to take to the 'ol Marblehead neck for this effort instead of traversing our normal Salem loop. This meant the tempo would be considerably more rolling than would facilitate fast splits, but seeing as my upcoming half-marathon is just as hilly I suppose it's fitting.

In a nutshell, this was hard. Whether it had to do with the late hour, the chilly temps, the slushy and unusually busy roads or some combination of the above, at any rate I felt like I was sprinting pretty much the entire time. The situation was nothing if not worsened by an urgent bathroom detour, which had the potential to derail the entire workout. Fortunately Jordan redirected on the fly and punished me with a relentless pace on the hilliest section of the route. I was wheezing and gasping to an embarrassing extent for much of the final 4k section, but I held strong and somehow managed not to get dropped.

Time for a quick recovery and even quicker turnaround. Bootcamp workout #2 happens Thursday!