Denouement

3.3 mile walk with Paul, 10x2 sec bridges

5 on treadmill and stretching, bridges 20x2 sec in evening

Walked 4 min, stretching, the met MacK.  It was warm out!  Over 50F.  But windy.  Not too bad unless you are trying to run fast. 

We ran 6 miles together then split off.  I ran another 1.3 easy then started the fast finish 10 minute segment of my run.  Ran into the wind for 5 minutes then turned around.  It was so painful.  I felt horrible, and going into the wind was just miserable.  I tried to keep my form tight to minimize the wind effect.  I turned around at 5 minutes then was running with the wind, but still, my mile split was 6:55!  How can 6:55 feel so hard!  I continued on, running 1.57 in 10:02 (ave pace 6:24), running sub 6:00 for the .57, finished hardest at the end.  I finally did a Dusa right.  It was so discouraging getting the 6:55 split, but I picked it up, and I am proud of myself for not giving up.

Did a putzy .2 mile jog to my car then did a bit of walking to further cool down.  

4pm:  I did a loop around Payson, got lost and went further than my 5 planned miles, which freaked me out since I had a hard Thursday morning workout, but I guess another .5 won't break me.  7:53 ave pace.

It was snowing when I woke up, drove to SF to meet some guys.  I ended up behind the snow plow going down WH drive, so I was 3 minutes late to our meeting point, and no one was there.  As I was following the snow plow, I was giddy with relief thinking that we would cancel our hard workout.  It is so hard to do 3x2mile repeats this late in tax season.  I am tired and tired of being tired.

So I was on my own.  The roads in SF were not covered in snow, though pellety snow was coming down pretty good.  I decide to do one 2 mile set, maybe two.  I warm up 2.87, stopping to stretch after 5 minutes, and reluctantly start the first 2 mile segment.  I start at the 3 mile mark of the SF half and go toward the 1 mile mark.  My target pace for the workout is supposed to be 6:05-6:18, but I think I'd be lucky to be sub 6:30, with how I feel and the snow.  Mile 1 6:18 (thrilled to find the 2 mile mark on the road), Mile 2, I totally miss the mile mark by about 10-15 sec, so it was a 6:17-6:22 mile, somewhere in there.  Snow is sticking to the bottom of one shoe, just one of them.   I rest 4:50, then start this in reverse.  Only problem is it is still snowing and I can't find either of the mile marks.  I stop after 13:09, likely overshooting the mile mark, since now the road is covered.  Halfway through this I know this is my last repeat, I am feeling tired.  At the end of the second repeat I had no plan to do a third one, but after 5 minutes of rest, I thought, why not?  This will be good for me, so I toe the line (not a good saying in this case since the road is snowy and I don't know where the line is), and I do the third one.  13:01, though I wasn't exact on the mile marks, I couldn't find any again.  I pushed it the last mile, and I am thrilled I was strong enough mentally to do the workout on my own, and to complete it.  I just told myself as I did the third one that this was building character and would separate me from my competition.  By the end of the run the snow was in traditional flakes instead of pellets.  My cool down was a nice slow pace.

3 miles on TM and stretching

Had to get home early, so ran on my own.  Had to keep a decent pace to get home on time.  Plan was 14-16, with 2-4 miles fast finish at the end.  I was thinking I would do 14 and 2 hard at the end.  Had a gu at 7.75, caught up to the SF running club at 9 miles, ran with Mark Shelley catching up with him, and then turned around when I saw SteveK and Carl, two fast dudes.  They offered to do the fast two miles with me, but there was one catch, we had to go up Harry's Hill first (a long one mile climb).  I haven't been up that hill for 1.5 years, but I was grateful for company so I went with them.  This also had the effect of giving me extra miles.  It also made our tempo downhill.  In two miles we dropped 366 feet.  Mile 1 was 5:47, mile 2 was 5:33.  I was behind the guys but caught up to them in the last 1/4 mile as I kicked it in (I am supposed to finish very strong, like 5k pace or faster).  That accounts for the 5:33 mile.  Now if only I could do that pace two miles in a row on the flat, hopefully later this year.   A steep downhill tempo = me becoming reacquainted with a long lost friend--the ice bath.  I squealed like you wouldn't believe, I got the bath down to 48F.  10 minutes in the ice bath.  I will do my core workout during morning conference, and am going into work today.

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