Speedwork Again...Finally

I hadn't done speedwork in three weeks. Two weeks ago I gave blood and took it easy. Last week I was traveling and decided to run "easy". (If you would have told me last year that soon I'd be going out for an "easy 9-mile run" in the middle of the week I would have thought you were crazy!)

My alarm went off at 5:10am and I did not want to get out of bed. I somehow got myself out, got dressed and out the door by 5:35am. I was a bit under-dressed - I was wearing a long sleeved running shirt, shorts and a running baseball cap. It was in the mid-40s with winds which were a lot stronger than the weather site said they would be. A windbreaker and some gloves definitely would have helped me...oh well, I toughed it out.

The plan for today - jog up to QO High School track (1.64 miles each way) run eight 800 intervals with a 400 recovery jog in between each one, and then jog back home. 9 miles total.

Intervals were a bit more difficult than normal with the wind. I started my intervals at the halfway point of one of the straightaways at the track...and the wind was blowing at me on this straightaway. On the other straightaway, the wind was at my back. Even with the wind helping me out half of the time, it was still difficult to start and end each interval into the wind.

For the first 4 intervals at the track it was dark, so I had no idea how fast they were and how high my heart rate was at the time. It ends up that the first interval was on the slower side (4:24) and the other three were really fast for me (3:55, 3:52 and 3:51 - if I could take those last two 800 splits and put them together, I'd have a 7:43 mile...WOW!).

Then the sun started to rise, so by the 5th interval I was able to see my watch. I finished that one in 3:56...still a bit too fast for me - and my body started to let me know it. I was getting some side-stitches during this interval and also my right calf muscle was starting to get a bit sore and tight. After I finished this interval I stretched out my calf. I also started psyching myself out..."if you do just one more interval and then go home that's still close to a 7 mile run; not too bad right?" However, I knew that I would finish it out - no use quitting now.

The last two intervals I ran at a slower pace - but still on the faster side for me - 4:08, 4:08 and 4:07. I think I did have side-stitches on interval #6, but besides that everything else was OK.

My foot did start to hurt again towards the end of my run. Luckily, tomorrow's run is only 5 miles and my long run this weekend is on the shorter side (14 miles - am I crazy to say that's a shorter run?). Next weekend will be my 20 miler and the mid-week longer run is 10 miles. YIKES!