Ate way too much last night but got some good sleep. Another stunning day. 51 degrees at 10:30 when I started my run this morning. That was the good news. The bad news was that the winds were strong...sustained at 20mph with gusts to 35mph. Not exactly ideal for a track workout. I considered going down to the Issaquah or Sammamish tracks but that was 30-40 minutes of driving I didn't want to do. So I just set expectations for a slower than expected workout.
The workout was 4x1M alternating slow/fast -- 4:56/4:53 with 3:30 rest between each interval. With the winds, I kind of figured five seconds slower on each would be acceptable.
But to my surprise, I was able to hit 4:57, 4:54, 4:56, 4:55. I was extremely pleased. My final 200m was in 72 so I ran strong through the end. The wind made things more difficult but it was a huge mental boost to have basically hit my times despite the conditions.
I then headed out for a 13-mile "cooldown." I averaged 6:25s which is quite a bit faster than I would normally do after a hard workout but it felt fine and the bright sunshine made everything a bit easier.
Gearing up to run my first ever indoor 5,000m race at the UW Last Chance Qualifier meet on March 7th. Hopefully there will be several desperate college guys trying to qualify for the NCAA championships. Not only will this be my first indoor 5,000m, but it will be my first 5,000m on a track of any kind. 16+ laps of pure enjoyment. :-)
It's supposed to be much colder and rainy all next week so I had to soak up the sun as much as I could today. First run of 20+ miles in probably 5 or so months. Felt really good. I got to remind myself of how terrible Gu tastes. Ick. | 