Beverly High School Benchmark, v3.0

3 mile w/u + strides
Target: 10x3 mins. @3:23-3:25/k pace w/2 mins. rest
Actual: Above
2 mile c/d
Total: 11 miles

As all my devoted readers know, this is a core benchmark workout that I'm fond of doing sporadically throughout the course of every training cycle regardless of what specific distance I'm training for. Most recently, I've done this twice during my buildup for CIM. The second session, done almost exactly one month ago, was a breakthrough for me as I ran two more intervals than ever before and with shorter rest. Today, running without the assistance of my favorite pacer, my objective was not necessarily to run faster, but to replicate the workout from last time feeling stronger and more relaxed. Since my workouts have been much improved as of late, I was confident I could achieve this goal even flying solo.

Just as I'd hoped, I'm happy to report that I did feel much stronger and more relaxed than last time--and still ran faster and farther on most of the intervals! I didn't realize until writing this blog that I'd only been given 1:45 rest last time. For some reason I totally forgot that and did this off a 2:00 rest today, which felt unnecessarily long. Now I know why! Even during the second half of the workout, when my legs were more fatigued and my body more taxed, I still found my breathing returning almost completely to normal after 45 seconds or so. I'm confident I could've hit the same paces off 1:45 or even 1:30 rest, which is not something I've been able to say many times before. I was also a teeny bit nervous going into this, knowing in the back of my mind that this was the workout that directly precipitated my mystifying hip mini-injury last time, but fortunately it was a non-issue today. (But I didn't sit down for a while afterward, just in case!) 

This will probably be my last Beverly High benchmark workout of the year, so I'm excited to end it on such a high note!