Hitting My Mark

Today was intervals. Never my favorite training day, but a necessity, nonetheless. It was made more daunting when I woke up this morning and saw the weather - 78 degrees with a dewpoint of 74. Very uncomfortable, but I went out.

The plan was to run 5 miles; a 1/2 mile warmup, and six half-mile repeats with quarter-mile jogs in between. My goal pace for the repeats was 8:45. As I've said many times here, the streets in my neighborhood are very hilly. This would be quite a task, indeed.

The humidity was stifling but I persevered. At one point (halfway through my 3rd repeat), I looked at my Garmin to check my pace, and saw 7:47. That's right, a sub-8:00 pace. Unbelieveable. I backed off slightly so as to not blow myself out.

I got to the point after my 3rd repeat where I actually walked for 1/10 mile after finishing the half-mile interval. Then I picked it back up to a jog before starting again. Mostly because I felt as if I was breathing through a carpet. I did that for the rest of the run, and it helped.

When I finished my run, I checked my Garmin, and saw the numbers: 26:16 for 6 half-mile repeats (overall, 47:17 for 5 miles). That, my friends, is an 8:46 pace. I hit the mark, dead on!

A great way to start the day!

Did I Really Run That Fast?

This morning was my scheduled speedwork. Last week, I did fartleks; this week, I figured I'd do intervals.

Since I run on the street and not a track, it's kinda difficult to accurately gauge 1/2 mile runs, so I did three 1-mile intervals with 1/2 mile jogs. I have a 5-mile loop I'm pretty familiar with, and I have a rough idea of where the "mile" markers are.

My first mile actually was 1.02 miles, and I ran that in 8:46 (an 8:35 pace), which was slightly faster than my goal time. My third mile was also 1.02 miles, and I did that in 8:40 (8:29 pace). Not bad. What really surprised me was the middle interval.

When I measured it out this morning on www.logyourrun.com, the distance came to 1.09 miles. But that stretch of the neighborhood is loaded with rolling hills. I was saying to myself as I was running that I wouldn't be surprised if that was my worst of the 3 intervals, since I was really pushing it. I guess I really pushed it, because I covered the 1.09 miles in 8:26, according to my lap counter on my watch. That translates into a 7:44 pace!! I don't think that I have ever, in my 20 months of running, run a mile in under 8 minutes. Ever.

So, to recap, I ran 3.13 interval miles (basically, a 5K) this morning in 25:52. That's an 8:15 pace, on a severely rolling course. I'm extremely happy with that.

I am very confident that if I can find a flat 5K to run this fall or winter, that I can indeed reach my goal of running a sub-8:00 pace 5K. I know now I can do it for at least 1 mile on rolling hills.