Twofer Tuesday

Tuesday's are my speedwork days. I am a creature of habit and I stick to things much better when they are part of a defined regular routine. I hemmed and hawed all day Monday about whether I should do my intervals on Tuesday since I had just run a race on Sunday. I decided if I felt ok I would do it and if not I could do an easy run and switch it to Thursday instead. But I am, like I said, a creature of habit. So I really wanted to just do it on Tuesday.

Unfortunately, the cards seemed stacked against me yesterday. LightRunner and I lazed around like sloths during breakfast. I wanted to do pyramid intervals but for some reason I REALLY wanted to use my new watch too. So I programmed it to do the intervals I wanted, but then realized I messed up the number of repetitions so I had to edit it before I started running. It was already basically lunch time before I hit start. I was so focused on the damn watch not being in sync (I think the auto pause messed me up) that I ran longer than I wanted to for the initial intervals. Then I had to stop because LightRunner disappeared and I found him upstairs eating an apple. I had to deal with that and by the time I got to the "peak" of the pyramid, I was just done. So my 5 miles turned to 3. It wasn't an entire fail because I did run really fast for those early intervals, I just didn't do exactly what I set out to do. Did I need to use my watch? No. Not at all. But I wanted to. I cut it short at 3, took LightRunner back upstairs & intended on exercising before I ate lunch (LightRunner had eaten multiple snacks). But I got a phone call from the school nurse than the Princess was tired. So what, right? She had rammed her head into a pole earlier in the day and had a huge goose egg & being tired can be a sign of concussion. So off we went to pick her up and by the time we got home I really needed to eat lunch & get LightRunner down for a nap. No more exercising. 

If the Princess was feeling okay, we had to go to Girl Scouts that evening, so I planned on doing my remaining 2 miles outside around the school. Luckily, she was doing just fine and we could go.

Now, keep in mind, when I run speedwork on the treadmill, I generally do between 8:32 and 9:00 depending on the distance. I always have the incline set to 1 (except yesterday I kept it at 0). I thought about doing an easy 2 miles. But it was Tuesday. And Tuesday is speedwork. So I said screw it and planned 12 repeats of 1 min fast, 1 min walk. On the treadmill I usually do the fast portions at 8:32 when I do this workout.

I warmed up for only half a mile and then went right into it. I planned on running as fast as I could, rather than hit a particular pace so I also planned on waking each resting minute. I wound up with:

7:02

8:32

7:25

7:06

8:46

7:29

7:25

9:24

7:49

8:13

8:37

7:40

The slowest, 9:24, was up a hill. I had to run up that hill for portions of other fast repeats, but that particular one was entirely up the hill. My goal 5K pace right now is 8:48. So for 11 out of 12 repeats, I ran faster than my goal pace. And for 8 of them I ran way faster than I ever do on the treadmill. I wound up with 3.32 miles instead of 2. Oopsies.

And I did this after already doing intervals that day and running a race on Sunday. It was exactly the kind of confidence booster I needed just a couple of weeks before my goal race. I really think all the biking is helping me and doing the run/walk for my long run as well. At one time if I ran more than I should have I would be destined for some kind of injury. But I feel great. I hope I can carry this into the race in a couple of weeks... And then to the half-marathon.