10.59 mi, 1:28:01, 8:19 avg, elev gain 241 feet
Workout of the day was 3x2 mile repeats at half marathon pace, 3 minute jog/rest between and 2 mile warm up and 2 mile cool down. This run felt daunting. I wanted to go to Trinity and run this on Starkey Blvd bike trail but ended up trying it in Westlake neighborhood. Other thoughts were maybe on Belcher road on the sidewalk or the Pinellas Trail. Belcher is kind of rolling and Pinellas trail has a lot of distractions and more road crossings and not a lot of good places to stash drinks. So, I ended up settling on Westlake and came up with a loop that cut out at least one of the bigger hills, with the rest being manageable. I also thought about shuffling around my runs but Sunday's run was looming long and putting in a hard workout after cross country does not always work out well (although this weekend's meet was in Starkey Park and Tom wasn't running until 9:00 so there would have been time to squeeze it in before if I started when the park opened).
So, finally decided to just do it. Ran just over two mile warm up at easy pace (like really easy pace, first mile was about 12:00/mile not sure why I'm so slow sometimes). Second warm up mile at 9:50.
First repeat loop did not start out so well, was hovering in the 7:30's but was supposed to be at 7:08. Again, decided to just do it, put in some effort and see what the legs would do. Second mile better at 6:53, so the average for the two miles was not that far off from 7:08.
Second repeat was better, 6:58 and 6:49.
Ok, just one more to go. I had a slight problem getting back on pace and only hit 7:14 (but still better than first mile), second mile was exciting to be near the finish and came in at 6:47.
Two miles easy and then it was all over.
Looking forward to easy run tomorrow to get ready for long run on Sunday.
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