BIG QUESTION MARK

When I blogged yesterday the plan was to run an easy 5 last night, and then meet up with Scott for a more moderate paced run today and then a harder workout tomorrow. I emailed Scott and found out he’s out of town and I decided to switch things around a little. Rather than an easy 5, I just went to bed early so I could get up at 4:30 for a hard workout.

The workout called for the following;

12:00 warm-up
40:00 at marathon pace
5:00 at tempo pace
20:00 at M
5:00 at T
10:00 at M
12:00 cool-down

I’ve kind of been inter-mixing my workouts – some sections are based on time others are based on mileage, which makes the Garmin a little more helpful. So I took the above workout and ended up doing this (times are off the top of my head);

2 miles warm-up – 17:10
6 miles at M – 41:15
¾ miles at T – 4:50
3 miles at M – 20:55
¾ miles at T – 4:55
1 ½ miles at M – 10:30
1 mile cool-down – 8:15

Total workout 15 miles in 1:48 (7:12 pace)

Overall it was a pretty solid workout. One of the things I keep in mind when looking at this on paper before running it, is that after that initial 6 miles at M, the pace gets quicker. Normally after a hard section you back off the pace and recover. That’s not the case with this type of workout. Maybe that keeps me from pushing too hard too early. I’m not sure. In any case, the last 1 ½ miles at M is tough – especially starting at 5:00 and running solo.

This seems to indicate that I’m in about 3:05 shape right now – give or take 5 minutes. Where I go from here is the big question mark.

Quote of the day;

“I think I’m prepared for it. That’s the number-one thing. You have to be confident in your training and ability and feel like you’re ready for anything. I definitely think I’m ready.” – Katie McGregor