Suburban Speed Work

I had "speed work" on the training calendar for last night. It was about 35 degrees and the wind was howling. Swell. I really didn't want to do it but Lisa had agreed to help me and I knew she was waiting on me!

I got to her house and she was full of sunshine! That helped me get out of my funk and get prepared to head out into the cold. The sun was setting quickly so we walked through her neighborhood to "warm up." That was a little difficult given the temperature but the goal was to avoid my shin splints.

Once we got out to the main road, it was time to start. The road has a really wide sidewalk but more importantly, it has evenly spaced streetlights. We used the streetlights as the markers for the speed work. We started out slow (slower than my goal race pace) and then picked up the pace. She insists that I was the one pushing the pace but I just didn't want to let her down....that, and I wanted to finished so I could get home, put my sweatpants on and eat the yummy dinner The Pilot made for me. :)

Anyways, we would pick up the pace and run from one streetlight, run past one streetlight and continue until we got to a second streetlight and then would slow down to recover for two streetlights and then would repeat. We repeated this for close to 4 miles. I progressively got slower, with my recovery runs eventually slowing down to a walk but there were a couple 10 min/mile readings from Lisa's Garmin throughout the run. Remember, I need to maintain 12:45/mile in order to PR in January.

Overall, the workout went really well. I felt pretty good but the cold air and a touch of "the crud," made my lungs extremely tight. Ultimately, this is why some of the cool downs slowed to a walk. My asthmatic lungs were trying to tell me I couldn't do it but my brain was saying "NO! This body needs to PR in 49 days, so keep running! You can breathe when you are done." And so that's how it went. I was still breathing a little weird by the time I got home and was sitting down for dinner so that was a little annoying. It cleared up once I was sitting down and relaxing but I really hope that wasn't a sign of some sickness coming on! Who remembers the World's Longest Cold in the History of Modern Medicine? I certainly don't need a repeat of that!!