Very humid and 55 degrees this morning, so popped over to the trails -wooo. Ran 2 miles easy to the start of the North Loop trail (0.8 miles of twisty, rooty single track), then worked that about as hard as I was able to - 5:18. I've run it in 4:26. Then an easy mile and a quarter back to the trailhead. I plan to use this as a once-per-week gauge of my fitness over the next couple months leading into outdoor track. The distance is certainly longer than what I will race (200, 400 and 800), but its a trail I've run many many times over the years and it is just flat out fun to run fast when I'm fit. I was thinking I'd be closer to 5 flat today, but its been a long time since I've run the trail hard, and it was still a little dark this morning - sub 5 next week... as long as temps stay moderate. |