Discontent

Tuesday: I planned for 3x2 mile with some GRC guys at B-CC. I was hoping for 5:15s, 5:10s and 5:05s. Wiggy and Dirk were going to go after it, while Karl joined Dave and me a little farther back to run a little slower. I led the first mile of the first interval a little fast, 5:10, but feeling fine. Dave took over at that point and eased us back to 5:13. The second, however, was a lot rougher than I had expected having put out a 10:23 effort a few minutes before. I was out of it by 800 and crawled in the mile in 5:30. I took a lap off then ran in the last 400 of Dave's second interval when Karl peeled off. It was Karl's first workout back after an Achilles-caused layoff, so he wasn't planning on pushing too much more, so we planned to trade off leading Dave through 800s. I took the first, in 2:32, then after

Wednesday: Ran a Pimmet-Idylwood 12 mile at 6:25 pace, with pickups each time I ran Venice. Felt good, though I got started later than I would have liked.

Thursday: Planned on a 12-16x400 workout on the track, but the George Mason HS track was in use, so I grabbed some flats and headed over to my Greenwich mile loop and ran 2x1 mile in 5:15 and an 800 in 2:30, then I ran around for a while.

Friday: I tried to run slowly. I really tried. I mapped out an 8.3 mile permutation of Woodley and hit my first mile in 8:00, just what I wanted. Then things went downhill. I didn't even realize that I had picked up speed, but by the end I had averaged 7:00.

Saturday: Jake Marren had a great idea- a five mile tempo at 5:30 pace, exactly what I used to do in Pittsburgh on Saturdays! Considering the ease with which I had been running 5:10 and 5:15 this week, I could surely do 5:30 for five miles. I already had twice. We hit the towpath for a three mile warmup- Marren, Klim, Karl, Matias and this new fellow Joe and I. Upon starting, however, I immediately felt like I was struggling to keep up. A mile in we hit 5:30 and my legs and lungs ceased to work. I pushed my pursuit, but everyone ran away. I hit the second mile in 7:22, more than half a minute slower than I run when I go out for 10 miles. I turned around and prepared for 5+ miles of awfulness. Luckily the guys were waiting at the end of their five miles for me, and I jogged it in with them. I cut the week's mileage down to 73 from my planned 80, but two botched workouts in a week is either terrible news or great news. I tend to work out well but race poorly or race well in spite of bad workouts. Hopefully this bodes well for Cherry Blossom, the BAA 5k and Pittsburgh. Otherwise, I am focusing on sleeping more and hydrating.