December 10, Tuesday

The ciders  were a little squishy today, but easy on the legs.

First the stats,  then the stream of consciousness details

Stats-

Warm up –  leg drills, stretch under cover +  800m jog & 6 x 60m SS in light rain

Mile one – 7:57    no rain, 58*

Mile two  – w full recovery,   10:22

Mile three – w 5:00 recovery, 10:40. (raining)

Mile four – w 3:00 recovery,  9:31

Mile five –  Immediately into jog cool down

Stream of consciousness details-

This might take awhile. I kind of wrote this while I was running and now trying to remember it. I like to do this for myself so I can look back a few months or a year from now and understand what I was thinking  while doing this kind of work.

I had put a little pressure on myself after punking out on Saturday’s 5K to run a hard time trial today. I had already done a taper giving myself some time to recover my legs. I was a little surprised at how nervous I was about to whole event. After all I was the only one on the track this afternoon . I had committed to try to run 25 minutes which I didn’t really think was doable. But the plan was to shoot for an 8 minute 1st mile and, if all was in order, to continue to a 16 minute second mile even if I never got through the final 5K.  A good warm-up as noted above. Approached the starting line with excitement and trepidation. Off-

First thing I noted was at the 400 meter mark I was running at 7:20 per mile pace. Yikes!  I panicked a little but tried to retain composure and push on at a more reasonable pace. At 800 meters I was still running 7:50 pace and feeling stressed. At 1200m I was at 8:01 per mile pace and fully aware that I was not going to complete 5000m at this level.  So, I made a mid-trial decision to try to lock in that solid under 8 minute mile and call it a day. I pushed the pace for the last 400m and finished at 7:57.  I was disappointed, but took solace in the fact that I had just run the fastest mile in the last six months. I was pretty breathless as I headed over to get dressed. It was at that point I realized that it was a beautiful day, it had stopped raining, I had only run one mile and I had plenty of time to do a real workout. Plus I was committed to complete at least a 5k on the day.

The remainder of the day’s work  was done at a leisurely and comfortable pace. Each time I applied my new  “Aerobic and Leg Monitor System”, results came up ‘Without Distress.’            I was actually feeling more efficient as time went on. Finally in my forth mile, once again feeling very relaxed, I hit the 400m mark under 2:30. I remember saying to myself that, if I held that pace, I could actually break 10 minutes. I stayed very focused, gradually increased the pace and finished the mile Breezing in 9:31.  Then continued on for a mile jog pretty proud of my total workout, if not necessarily the trial result.  🙂

Daily stats remain positive.