7:50 AM - 4 miles, 31:50 - Hampton 4.
Dead-dog tired. First mile in 8 minutes, last 3+ not much faster.
7:30 PM - 9 miles - Westboro.
14:55 warmup to WHS track, 2 x 1 mile (5:02.44, 5:01.77), 8 x 400m (73.62, 73.12, 72.70, 73.22, 72.59, 73.86, 71.56, 71.63), 13:20 cooldown back to the store. 400m jog recovery (2:18, 2:13) after the miles, 200m jog recovery (1:00-1:10) after the 400s.
I didn't want to work out tonight. After waking up exhausted and putting in a pitiful 4 miles before work followed by almost 10 hours at the store, all I wanted to do was go home, get something to eat and get my tired ass to bed. The workout Kevin sent to me via e-mail earlier in the day would have to wait until morning. To make a long story short, it couldn't wait that long.
Now for the unabridged version.
Around 6:30 I went out to the car and brought in my gym bag after convincing myself I'd go for an easy 4-mile shakeout jog and strides after I closed the store up at 7. Right at the magic hour, Rich called to check in and see how the day went and told me about his workout earlier this morning - repeat 1,200s on the bike path with short recovery, the same workout he did a couple weeks back but faster. It got me fired up. Then I started thinking about my teammates, who at the very same hour were beating the shit out of each other running circles around the BC Res. Since I had to work the whole day and couldn't make it out to Brighton, I was forced to fly solo - never a welcome endeavor - but knowing that my mates were all running hard in the dark after equally long days at work, I had no excuse.
What I did have, however, was a watch whose Indiglo didn't work, which made Kevin's assigned workout of...
...near impossible. So I improvised. Instead of running on effort over a number of minutes I decided to run by feel over a set distance. Since 5 minutes at tempo pace is just about a mile and 1 minute at 5K pace is a few ticks under a 400, and the only place to get accurate feedback when running at such speeds in the pitch-black is on a measured track, that's where I went.
Again, the Indiglo on my trusty Timex was out, so the best I could do was run on feel, click the split timer and look at the damage afterward. I was encouraged to see that although I was a little quick, I wasn't totally reckless. More importantly, I was consistent and under control throughout, and with Sunday's shit show still in the back of my mind, this made me feel a little bit better about myself.
Now that I've got a good workout under my belt and eaten enough to loosen that belt up a bit, I can finally go to bed. Goodnight.
Dead-dog tired. First mile in 8 minutes, last 3+ not much faster.
7:30 PM - 9 miles - Westboro.
14:55 warmup to WHS track, 2 x 1 mile (5:02.44, 5:01.77), 8 x 400m (73.62, 73.12, 72.70, 73.22, 72.59, 73.86, 71.56, 71.63), 13:20 cooldown back to the store. 400m jog recovery (2:18, 2:13) after the miles, 200m jog recovery (1:00-1:10) after the 400s.
I didn't want to work out tonight. After waking up exhausted and putting in a pitiful 4 miles before work followed by almost 10 hours at the store, all I wanted to do was go home, get something to eat and get my tired ass to bed. The workout Kevin sent to me via e-mail earlier in the day would have to wait until morning. To make a long story short, it couldn't wait that long.
Now for the unabridged version.
Around 6:30 I went out to the car and brought in my gym bag after convincing myself I'd go for an easy 4-mile shakeout jog and strides after I closed the store up at 7. Right at the magic hour, Rich called to check in and see how the day went and told me about his workout earlier this morning - repeat 1,200s on the bike path with short recovery, the same workout he did a couple weeks back but faster. It got me fired up. Then I started thinking about my teammates, who at the very same hour were beating the shit out of each other running circles around the BC Res. Since I had to work the whole day and couldn't make it out to Brighton, I was forced to fly solo - never a welcome endeavor - but knowing that my mates were all running hard in the dark after equally long days at work, I had no excuse.
What I did have, however, was a watch whose Indiglo didn't work, which made Kevin's assigned workout of...
5 min tempo (2R) 5min tempo (2-4R) 10 x 1 min w/ 60-90 sec rest
1 min intervals should be in the 5K pace to 5K pace minus a couple of seconds.
...near impossible. So I improvised. Instead of running on effort over a number of minutes I decided to run by feel over a set distance. Since 5 minutes at tempo pace is just about a mile and 1 minute at 5K pace is a few ticks under a 400, and the only place to get accurate feedback when running at such speeds in the pitch-black is on a measured track, that's where I went.
Again, the Indiglo on my trusty Timex was out, so the best I could do was run on feel, click the split timer and look at the damage afterward. I was encouraged to see that although I was a little quick, I wasn't totally reckless. More importantly, I was consistent and under control throughout, and with Sunday's shit show still in the back of my mind, this made me feel a little bit better about myself.
Now that I've got a good workout under my belt and eaten enough to loosen that belt up a bit, I can finally go to bed. Goodnight.
Quote of the Day
"Writing, like running, is as much about faith as it is technique. Like the best runners, the best novelists are a little bit insane. However self-effacing a champion may act off the course, he's got to believe in himself. The best novelists don't just make the story up, they actually think it's true."
- Benjamin H. Cheever in a Runner's World piece about Once a Runner author John L. Parker.
