For the past few weeks, I have been looking ahead to this workout on the training calendar with a feeling of dread. The plan called for a total of ten miles at marathon pace (~6 min), broken up in four intervals as a descending ladder. The intervals are: 4 miles/3 miles/2 miles/1 mile with a 2 minute recovery between intervals. I warmed up two miles over to Steiner Aquatic Center and started the first interval, four miles. The first mile was dominated by a steady gradual climb up 900 South and I focused on the effort, rather than the pace. First mile in 6:15. Then some flat and a nice gradual descent down 20th E. I started to feel better, the next two miles were 6:04 and 5:46. I continued the brisk pace until the last mile brought me to the steep climb out of the gully on 20th East and slowed things down, but not too bad, 6:02. After two minutes of easy jogging, I started the second interval, 3 miles. These were all flat miles, 6:01, 5:54, 5:54. Another two minutes of jogging and I was thinking just three more miles at pace to go--I can hang on. 5:54, 6:02. The last interval, one mile, was brutal. I was running north on 15th East which includes some challenging climbs. I ran 6:18, but the effort was much harder than that. After that, I ran 3 miles easy back home through the U. This is the most marathon specific workout I have done so far, and I knew it would be tough. It didn't disappoint. I chose a good course with plenty of variability in terrain. On the flats I was able to hold 6 minutes or faster just fine, which is probably the best barometer for me on this workout.
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