After the unintended easy 9 yesterday, I was not very confident of hitting my planned 5:40 for the mile on the track today. Did a 2 mile warm-up in the trails to work out the kinks, and then a few strides on the backstretch... strides aren't supposed to be that difficult. First 800 was a bit slower than goal pace (2:54 vs 2:50 goal), but comfortable. Third lap, as always, was rough, but actually a little faster than the second. A couple of the younger/less experienced guys on my son's XC team came up on me during the last lap, so I stuck to them and eased in at 5:42 - pleasantly satisfied considering my lack of fitness and the overly long shake-out run the day before. Did a mile cool down and called it a good day. |