The crazy. Yesterday I bought several hundred dollars worth of clothing that is not even running gear. I also noticed I have, 4 days before race day, a little cough. I finally signed up for my half marathon in May, alarmed by an “almost sold out” notice. Tomorrow I would have been driving for an hour to meet with someone affiliated with a potential employer (it remains “potential” until I see some cash), but that meeting was postponed due to illness. Some time this week, possibly tomorrow, the wife is flying to Denver (or some place like that — the middle part of the country) for work. Friday I’ll be performing music at a small club with some dear friends — for the first time in decades. Sunday I run the 5K.
The workout. Today the plan was just to do a little speed work. I checked the last week of a few 5K plans to see what seemed reasonable (it is hard for me to stick with a plan) and made sure it made sense in terms of what I’ve been doing (“Is there an arc?”). So a mile of warm up and cool down sandwiching .75 miles @ 5K pace, .5 miles @ 3K pace, and .25 miles at mile pace (6:00 min/mile is goal mile pace, which should have been the fastest section of today’s effort). With 1 minute walking recoveries. So, short and sweet.
It was quite windy, and dare I say it, chilly this morning. The point of this workout is just to get a little speedwork in before race day, without adding too many miles during taper week. I blew out the speed part, pacing will be a big focal point of my training up to my 10K (not registered just yet) and half marathon.
The logged workout was 33:51, 3.8 miles @ 8:54 min/mile. (Logs are problematic, need more detail.) Here are the quarter-mile splits:
.75 5:39 min/mile, 6:15 min/mile, 6:28 min/mile (that last lap was the goal pace)
.50 5:59 min/mile, 6:18 min/mile
.25 5:30 min/mile
So speed is good, endurance (per the long weekend) is good, but pacing is just nuts. I just don’t feel the pace yet, in my legs. There’s just the one cue: run fast, and probably faster than that. Will have to watch it carefully on Sunday, and if I don’t combust, should get a decent result. Excited and stressed.
running los angeles 