I began today with an easy three mile warm up. I then did mile repeats (cruise intervals as Daniels Running Formula describes them) at 5:40 pace with a one minute rest between intervals. I ran the first mile in 5:27 (a bit too fast), second in 5:39, third in 5:33 and fourth in 5:38. What felt very good was the amount lack of effort I needed to put forth to achieve these times. I remember in high school (junior year) a 5:30 mile was tough, but today, this mile time was no hard task. It felt as if I was just "floating" through the workout. I guess that is the payoff of training. To finish, I did 4x200 meter strides at 4:40 mile pace. By some freak chance, Alan Culpepper was running on the same track as me (Potts Field). It is weird to actually see an olympic runner in person, but that is what you get up here in Boulder. You could tell that he was a terrific runner by his long, effortless stride, even when doing sub five minute miles. I finished with three more easy miles back to my appartment, and in the process had to walk across a frozen stream. I ended up falling in up to my knees in frigid water. Bad news. Needless to say, I ended up running back to my appartment with 3 lb water filled shoes. | 