I was going to do a speed work-out today but I knew it wasn't going to happen when I was struggling to go up a hill just to get to where I was going to be doing some hill repeats. I've had sick kids and not much sleep plus last week I went a few more miles than I'm used to. Anyhow - a nice easy 6 miles felt great.
I got the work-out in that I was going to do yesterday. 2 mile warm-up and cool-down, 2x800 with a 400 easy in between, then 4x400 hills, then another 2x800.
3:06, 3:14 on the first 800's - the first being slightly downhill and then I came back up
2:05, 2:03, 2:06, 2:07 on the hills
3:08, 3:15 on the second 800s
Wow. Pretty darned consistent for me. Somehow I was able to get an extra half mile out of all of this. I know my hill isn't a quarter mile perfectly and I tacked on just a smidgen on the last two miles.
The odds were uphill, the evens were downhill as usual. The easiest place to run a mile without worrying about stop-lights is up (and down) the canyon. I really wasn't feeling it on my warm-up today but I'm good with how things turned out in the end. I was really worn out on the last two and just told myself to get under 7 minutes on the uphill and 6:30 on the downhill. I guess if I average it all out I'd be around a 6:35.
It was beautiful and warm this morning (although its snowing hard now) so lots of folks were exercising in the canyon. I got lots of people cheering me on as they saw me with my I'm-hurting-eyes as I went up and down. I love people. They're nice.
So today I made my kids sacrifice for my determination to run. I had my niece babysit them while I did my long run today. My niece doesn't drive yet so I had to drive 20 minutes to pick her up and 20 minutes to get her back to our house. My sister-in-law was having a baby shower at 11:30 this morning and she lives an hour away. That meant I had to be out of the house by 6:45am this morning to get my niece - with three kids in tow - three kids that were really wishing they were still in their warm beds. A part of me felt like - ha! now you know what it feels like to get woken up when you don't want to wake up, welcome to my world!!! - but most of me felt really guilty that they were made uncomfortable because I'm so set on my running schedule - come rain or tears. They ended up having a good time with their cousin - lots of movie watching, painting and eating pancakes so my guilt was assuaged in the end. But hopefully we'll be able to keep it post-7:30am the next time I need a babysitter.
The run felt pretty good. My legs were pretty tired by mile 14 or so, but I think that was a result of the mental game. I usually get tired when I'm getting close but still not quite yet to the point of a run being almost done. Oh the antics of the mind. I ran a 7:52 pace today. I didn't intend to go under 8 minutes but I guess that's what my legs wanted to do today. So there you have it.