March 25th: Surprise Speedwork

Another entry where I complain about the winter. Well, not exactly. 

Last night, I looked at the hourly forecast, and it said the temp would be around 29 or 30 at running time. That's the very bottom of what I'll tolerate, but with basically no wind, I was hopeful. And then I woke up and it was 23. Ties the record low.  Jeebus. Off to Planet Fatness.

It was supposed to be tolerable this morning...

Damn weatherman.

Of course, Carol's bus didn't get there until 6:30, and then I wound up spending a couple extra minutes in the locker room (had to pee). So I was 7 minutes behind where I wanted to be.

And all of that turned out to be a good thing.

Getting in the miles I wanted today was going to require a pace run -- actually, quicker than race pace. And I'm simply better at speedwork when the treadmill tells me how fast I'm going. So I started out at a 9:13 pace and then went progressively quicker. By 2.5, I had it up to 8:57s, and by 4 I was doing 8:33s. I eventually cranked up to below 8:00s, and I blasted the final 3 tenths at a 7:30 pace. Why? Because dammit, I was getting to 6.5 miles today.

So the late start pushed me in a direction I might not have gone otherwise. If I'm going to hit my pace over 26.2, I can't just jog. Yay lateness!

Tomorrow is double digits -- 9:20s will be fine, but I'm likely back on the belt. Saturday is looking good for a long -- have to decide where to do it. And I have to get the photo taking figured out.

Total miles since starting the blog: 494.5 (which makes tomorrow a milestone day!)