Tuesday I recovered from my long run with an easy six miles in Bethesda, warming up withDirk for his working and adding 3+ miles around the track in lane six. Then I did some drills and HMDs while Dirk, Wiggy, Pat and Jimmy did a workout.
I got some fast running in Wednesday night, but it wasn't the way I wanted to do it. I planned for 3 x 2 miles (11:00, 10:50, 10:40) on the Greenwich loop, the one-mile road loop a half mile from home. I like doing workouts there because, well, each loop is a mile and it's a departure from the controlled and evenly-measured track, plus unlike the George Mason High School track, it's open for my use all the time. Plus, since I am not racing on the track, it seems more useful to practice running fast on the roads and learn how speeds feel.
As it turns out, I have no idea how paces feel, and have no real control. First off, I needed to do a more aggressive warmup, because I was too energetic at the start. I wasn't in a workout state, and so I struggled to find my pace, hoping for 5:30. Instead, I came through the mile in 5:07. Way off. Rather than slow down dramatically, I figured I might as well get used to running like that, and held on to run 5:08 for the second mile and 10:15 overall.
Slow it down, I told myself. 5:15 and 5:15 for 10:30. I was surprised I was able to run that fast despite feeling a little beaten from the first interval. At the end of the second, however, I started to feel a familiar GI issue brewing.
After taking care of that, I headed out for my third. My first ~.2 was very slow, and though I recovered, it wasn't enough, and I came through the mile in 5:28. I shut it down there and thought about heading home, but after a quick recovery, maybe two minutes, I gave another mile another shot and ran 5:20, feeling fine.
I would have much preferred to have cut down the pace, rather than cut the intensity. It's about time I figured out the quarter-mile marks to avoid making these blunders in the future. I like this loop because I'm not thinking about splits, just about effort, but if I continue to sabotage my workouts by starting too fast, I won't be doing myself any good.
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