Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

47F, SSE 13 mph, foggy.  7:03 AP.  Bit of a breakthrough today.  5 mile warmup, 10 @ MP, 2 cooldown.  Felt yucky and slow during the warmup so I was not expecting good things but when I started the workout I quickly realized it was going to be good.

10 MP miles - 6:31.6 AP.  Splits were 6:31, 6:39, 6:35, 6:31, 6:36, 6:36, 6:21, 6:31, 6:27, 6:28.

Yesss.  I've done 10 @ MP a lot, and this time (65:16) was just over 2 minutes faster than I've ever done this workout.  This equates to about a 5 minute improvement over a marathon (2:55).  The other metric is that I usually run the race 5-10 seconds/mile slower than this workout.  Another indicator for 2:55.  Even the uphill miles were sub-2:55 pace, and the best thing is that I finished on a nice even keel and felt like I could have kept going for awhile longer.

I'm starting to think I under-valued my Houston performance in the wind and rain.  Either that or it just launched me to the next level.  I think the most important thing for me right now is to not jump the gun with my training and start running TOO hard.  This 2-stress-days-per-week is working well for me right now, especially when I keep my easy days really easy like I've been doing.

57F, 8:29 AP.

AM:  66F, S 15-20 mph.  10 @ 8:00 AP.  Still kinda recovering/sluggish from Sunday, which is ok because my 2 stress days this week are Friday (intervals) and Sunday (long run).  Lots of time to bounce back.

PM:  54F.  4 @ 8:42 AP.

AM:  37F, NW 21-29 mph.  15 @ 7:39 AP.  Man it's hard to leave the warm house at 4-something in the morning when you can hear the wind whistling from inside.  I just alternated going north and west a mile at a time until 7.5 (I hate when the wind isn't coming from a cardinal direction), then rode the tailwind back home which was niiiice.

PM:  40F, 4 @ 8:56 AP.  Me and the 9-minute guy battled it out for awhile but I gapped him in mile 3 with some downhill.

AM:  27F, 6 @ 8:40 AP.

PM:  40F, NNW 20-27 mph, 4 @ 8:41 AP.

20F, 7:15 AP.  It was 18 degrees at my house but the bank sign in town by the track said 20, so we'll go with that.  Anyway, 8 x 800m was the workout today, 400m active recoveries.  This time my plan was to go easy on the first 4, as long as I hit at least 10k pace, then work my way down to 5KGP (2:52-3) by the end.

AP 2:56.5 - (2:58.6, 2:59.0, 2:58.8, 2:58.3, 2:56.3, 2:55.5, 2:54.8, 2:51.1)

So yeah, pretty much did exactly what I wanted to do.  This is surprising because I usually don't get to call my shots at the track.  Usually whatever happens, happens.  But by taking it (relatively) easy on the first 4, I was able to feel strong the whole workout.  This is the way to go!

40F, NNE 15 mph.  8:21 AP.  Considering the intervals yesterday, a huge steak last night and a few more beers than I shoulda, I felt pretty good.  First 20-miler of the cycle tomorrow.