54F, clear. VO2 max workout: 5 x 5 min. hard effort (target 8:30) on rolling hills w/ 3 min. recovery between. 8:28, 8:33, 8:28, 8:21, 8:16 This is a workout I took from this Greg McMillan article. For a number of reasons, I am not big on periodization, but it really made sense to me to put in some extra focus on speed for 3 or 4 weeks before finishing up with stamina, so that "slow legs" would not interfere with the stamina workouts. Through a combination of obsessive strategizing and sheer luck, I managed to pick my route in such a way as to mix the ups and downs in my favor and get pretty even splits. The worst uphills seemed to fall perfectly into the "recovery" interval. My last rep, which I had intended on pushing the hardest, ended up being almost completely downhill. So I'm not sure it "counts" that this rep was faster. The one just before that, however, had plenty of Up - so I shall take full credit for that nice split. ;) The fog that has been sitting down in the valley all morning just rolled up here to my neighborhood and I am temporarily surrounded by beautiful, cool, gray, luscious fog. Ah.... Perhaps my reward for a good workout. | 