30F, some light snow falling and on road in places. Drove to ALA track, ran around it, but it was snowy, so I ran to the SF track, and checked it out but it was snowy, so ran back to ALA, where I had planned to meet Tyler after warm up. We went on over to the SF river bottoms. . There's no flat miles, but there are some that are gradual inclines, so we did the mile repeats on one of those, specifically the fourth mile of the Speedy Spaniard. The mile starts at 4717 and ends at 4741, a 24 F increase. Not much, but also add a good 1/4 mile of head wind between .35 and .6 and it makes for a tough mile. We went up three times and down twice, five repeats total. Times were supposed to be 5:44 to 5:57. I was hoping for 5:57 on the track, but on the road is harder for me (yet more realistic racing conditions, a positive). I get syched up on the track plus I love the 200m splits available to me. Ended up with almost 5 miles of warm up. We did 5:55 (uphill, 5:07, .55 rest), 5:53 (downhill, 4:42, .50 rest), 5:54 (6:11, .51 rest--needed to tie shoe), 5:48 (5:04, .49 rest), 6:03. #3 was hard, and #5 was the mother hardest of all. 5:55 ave pace overall. Even though I didn't keep desired pace for the last one, it still is a good workout overall. If I can have a 6:03 fifth or last mile in a 10k in those conditions, I would be thrilled. About a 2 mile cool down. Plus, I have my first mile repeat workout in the bag. Always nice to get done. 15 min in 47F ice bath after some stretching. Will nap and do core later. | 