Wow, hard speedwork!

First of all, it was 69 degrees out, but maybe because of the hard workout it still felt too hot. Actually, 69 is pretty hot considering I like running in the 50s. But it definitely beat last night still in the 80s.

Well, I hadn't run any speedwork for a while, and today's workout called for 2x 1600 with 800 jogs. But I wasn't at a track so I used my neighborhood's ~1/2 mile block. My goal was 7:33 1600's, so when my watch showed almost 9 minutes after 2 quick laps, I figured that I was struggling. By the second time to run hard, I was doing a lot of talking to myself to make myself go hard; that just because I wasn't as in shape as I was a couple of years ago this is now and this is how I do it NOW. I ran my first speed run in 8:50, jogged around in 6:09, and then ran again in 9:01.

Then later I mapped it out online to find that what I thought was around 0.50 mi was really more like 0.61 mi. Believe me, it makes a difference! So my speed pace was 7:14 and 7:23 respectively. Overall with warm up and cool down, it was just over 6 miles. It was very tiring, but it felt good. The hard push during speed took a lot of discipline as my breathing was totally going hard. It seemed like it took forever to really cool down. I was afraid I was going to run us out of cold water during my shower. All before breakfast!

Total Distance - 6.17 mi; Total Time - 55:17
Warm up Distance - 1.42 mi; Time - 13:48; Pace - 9:43
Speed 1 Distance - 1.22 mi; Time - 8:50; Pace - 7:14!!!!
Jog Distance - 0.61 mi; Time - 6:09; Pace - 10:05
Speed 2 Distance - 1.22 mi; Time - 9:01; Pace - 7:23
Cool down Distance - 1.70 mi; Time - 17:29; Pace - 10:17 (obviously dead at this point!)