Jay's Birthday Weekend Workout

4.5 mile w/u
Target: 2x4 miles; first set w/Caitlin and Jay @~6:05-6:10; second set w/Caitlin, Jay and Sarah @6:00 or faster
Actual: Set #1: 6:09, 6:02, 5:55, 5:58; Set #2: 5:56, 5:56, 5:49, 5:52
1 mile c/d
Total: 14+ miles

Due to my delinquency in updating the 'ol blog, it is with great pleasure that I direct you to Caitlin's detailed recap of this morning's workout. As she mentioned, we're in NYC for Jay's birthday weekend, and what better way to kick off the festivities than with a Saturday morning workout?! As an added bonus, Sarah was using this as her last long run/workout before next weekend's Twin Cities Marathon, so everything aligned perfectly for a group session on the WSH this morning.

If you're paying attention, however, one detail you might notice which varies from Caitlin's recap is the last mile split. She and Jay and Sarah cheerily pulled away from me while I counted down every minute of the last two miles and willed myself not to drop out. It's frustrating and a bit perplexing why I'm struggling so much with these longer threshold efforts right now, but I have no choice but to keep plugging away and forcing myself to embrace the discomfort...until one day, marathon gods willing, it will feel easy. For comparison's sake, I felt equally shitty running four "fast" miles during my uptempo long run with Sarah B. a few weeks ago and both of the 4-mile segments today were at a brisker pace than that, so perhaps this does represent some sort of improvement after all.