Go slow to go fast.

Did my first ever cross country workout today...had a good time.

We were able to leave the kids with some friends in North Boulder so it allowed me to go to the workout with Nan's group - Boulder Running Republic.

It was fun to meet knew people, and be pulled along by my wife to some faster interval work.

Here's what we did today and my paces:

• 2.4 Mile - 24 min - warmup slow -  (10:08 pace)
  • stretching etc.
• 1/2 mile strides vs jogging on/off (7:33)
• 10 min. hard (5:58)
  • I was able to stay pretty much with Nan until the last few minutes (of course she was taking it easy today)
  • slow jogging, rest for about 5 minutes while people changed into cross country spikes (not me...don't have any, plus my NB101's work just fine for cross country running)
• 4 min hard  (5:45)  HR: 160 avg - 172 max
  • this was around grass field that had one short steep hill and was otherwise slightly inclined or declined.
  • 1 min jog/recovery
• 1 min hard (5:02) - HR: 164 avg - 174 max
  • I could stay with Nan on the short stuff
  • 2 min recovery with 10 pushups
• 4 min hard (6:04)  HR: 165 avg - 175 max
  • I really dropped off the pace half way through this one, started feeling it catching up to me.
  • 1 min jog/recovery
• 1 min hard (5:06) - HR: 158 avg - 166 max
  • didn't push as hard to stick with Nan on this one
  • 2 min jog/rest/10 pushups
• 4 min hard (6:10) - HR: 164 avg - 177 max
  • Didn't have the desire/ability to push my heart any harder...need to do intervals a couple days a week to fix that I think.
  • 1 min jog/recovery
• 1 min hard (5:01) - HR: 161 avg - 172 max
  • Out sprinted Nan on this one...yeah, that's right, I totally rock (umm...no, not really.  Anything longer than a minute and I'm toast against her.)
• 13 min slow cool down back to the cars - 132 HR

Total - 9 miles - 1:16 - 8:28 avg - 143HR avg

That was a fun workout.  I felt good about the effort.  I fell off the even pace the last two longer intervals, but that's ok...I didn't feel it would be in my best interest to try to slaughter myself my first day out doing that fast of intervals, so I dialed in a HR that was solid effort, but not overly strenuous.

I'm looking forward to 1 or 2 similar sessions like that this month leading up to a turkey day 5K to see about lowering my PR a bunch.  I think 18:2x is my lowest which was years ago.  I haven't done a lot of 5K's though, last New years eve was my latest, and I won the 'coldest runner' award in the Sugarhouse, UT 5K at midnight because I was the only one out there running it in skimpy shorts and completely bare feet.  I managed to do a 19:39 which was good improvement for me then...but I'm shooting for something with a 17:xx this next time around...and yes, I will be wearing some type of shoe.  My foot pads were pretty tender the next day after that little spectacle. (but it was worth it because I got the cheesy plaque that I threw away just now as we were packing to move)