Addicted to Exercise

This morning I met the group for the monthly (?) four-mile time trial at Town Lake. This time, there was no flooding or other unusual stuff going on, so we were on the normal course. We did a mile of warm-up running followed by the drills, and then it was time to get down to business. I took off running and just tried to keep the front couple people in sight. I did well with that on the way out. In fact, I felt pretty good, so I might have been able to get away with starting faster than I did. It was really dark. I took a bad step at the mile 1.5 marker where the little light tricked me, but other than that I was just chasing shadows. I was pretty much out in open space by the turn-around. I felt like I picked up the pace there, but it turned out to not be by that much. I finished strong, and I felt like my form was all right. My time was 26:12. It’s not my best, but it’s better than last time, and my splits were basically even.

My calf was still feeling tight, so I skipped the strides and just did a little stretching. That’s got to be all fixed by Saturday, so now I’m just resting.

This morning we had yet another variation on the four-mile tempo run. This time, instead of separating the warm-up and the run with drills or anything else, we ran on the seven-mile loop with the first three miles easy and the last four hard. It was really hot and humid out there, and I’m pretty sure this route is a little more difficult than the out-and-back we usually use. My time was a little off, but I really felt like my running was smooth and light. I had 26:30 for the four miles, and I felt fine afterwards. I ran an easy cool-down mile and then did a few strides, and I left happy that my legs were feeling so good.

We had the tempo run on the schedule today, and the usual four-mile route was still flooded. So, we got to run on the east side of the trail instead. We warmed up as a group by running a couple miles out to the eight mile marker on the trail, and the plan was to run from there to the mile four marker at speed. We got lined up pretty quickly, and we were off before I knew it. I hung on to the lead pack for the first mile, but I payed for it later. I was still fresh going over the dam one mile in, and the next mile is fairly interesting territory. By the time I reached the baseball fields (half-way), I was running all by myself. The leaders were long gone, and no one was immediately behind me. I really liked mile three. There is a long straightaway from the ball fields to I-35, and just seeing that bridge ahead makes it feel close. I was a bit discouraged when I hit the 5.25 marker and saw the next person ahead just reaching the bridge because I knew he was more than a minute ahead of me. That last mile was pretty tough. It had the most hills of any section of the route, and I was pretty tired. I talked myself through it, though, and kept moving pretty well. I ended up with 25:54, which is not really close to my best at this distance, but it’s still a solid run. I think the best news is that my legs still just feel great. I did a little cool-down run back across the South First bridge and into Auditorium Shores with a couple of the others, and then we knocked out a few strides before calling it a day.

This morning I was in for a bit of a rude awakening. I hadn’t done any speed work in a month, and yet I still thought the tempo run sounded like fun. The warm-up and drills were uneventful, and we all got lined up at the zero marker. My plan today was to stick with a couple of the fast guys as long as I could. That turned out to be just one mile. Ugh! By the bridge I was breathing hard, and on top of that my heart rate strap had slid down and while trying to move it back into position it came undone, so I ended up just carrying it. When I reached MoPac and made the turnaround and saw lots of strong runners still behind me, so that was nice, but I didn’t have any pick-up from there. Fortunately, no one caught me, though. I felt like I was really dragging by the last mile (and I was, comparatively, turning in a 6:44). That’s a bit backwards since we’re supposed to speed up at the end. I ended up with 25:51, and if someone told me a couple years ago that one day I’d be disappointed with a time like that I’d have laughed at them. I guess it’s all perspective. I think next time I’ll start off just a bit more conservatively.

This morning we ran the tempo run again. I really enjoy this one. I felt good on the warm-up, and I was ready to run fast today. Usually, I avoid looking at my watch, but today I was committed to watching it and picking up the pace as I went. I did pretty well. My first mile was slower than I wanted it to be, but I picked it up nicely after that. I slowed down a tiny bit in the last mile, but I felt like my effort was strong the whole time. My splits were: 6:38, 6:24, 6:13, 6:18. According to my chart, my 25:33 was only one second off my best time on this run. I did a mile cool-down run afterwards plus a couple strides, and I was amazed at how good my legs felt through all that.

This morning I did another hard workout. This week was quite a shock to my system as I returned to the normal workouts after a month away from them. My calf was still a little tight, but it felt better after the one-mile warm-up. After the drills, I felt pretty good, and soon we were off.

It was really, really foggy out there, and I had a hard time seeing. I was basically in the zone from the start, though. I was running probably pretty close to as fast as I could have gone today. I didn’t look at my splits while I was doing the run. After I made the turn after mile two, I was a bit surprised to see a couple of the people that were behind me. I really felt like my mind was helping me on this run. A couple times I felt like slowing down, but I was able to very quickly snap out of it and return to high effort. A few times, I was going along and not thinking about anything, and I looked down and realized that my turnover was really good. For my first time to run fast in a month, these are all really good signs!

I had 13:07 out and 13:04 back for a 26:11. That is very consistent. It was a bit off my best time, but it’s a solid run and I’m happy with it. Next time I will have to just bite the bullet and look at my first mile split. I can do it faster than this, but I’ll need to calibrate my speed at the beginning to do it.