Cruise Intervals

Wed PM- 9miles- 2 w.u. -6xmile on 1min recov (6:28-6:42)-1 mile cool down

Since I am traveling to the southcamp base today I bumped the above workout forward one day. My legs have been recovering well and Mondays Rep workout was cut short due to the treadmill incident so I figured I'd be okay. The plan was to do all the threshold runs on the treadmill until I learned the pace, but I really felt like seeing if I could do it outside last night. So I ran my "mile loop" the 1520m one, in 6:14, 6:14, 6:19, 6:08, 6:22, and 6:18. I figure at my threshold pace of 6:35 per MILE (remember my loop is 18-20sec short) I did pretty good. The forth one was quick as a good Static X song came on, and then on the fifth I backed off more to compensate. In all I am pretty impressed at how easy It felt. The human body is an amazing machine! I was able to run the first two repeats within 2 tenths of a second of each other, and I am not even super comfortable with speed/threshold runs yet. Going in to the workout I thought the short 60sec rest would be tough, but it was not bad. My pulse dropped to 90-100bpm by the time it was time to start the next interval.

This completes the 5th week that I have been doing speed workouts. I feel much more comfortable and coordinated now and can handle the leg turnover. Improvement is fun! I still feel like a slow poke but at least I now fully realize what kind of shape I am in and am not delusional anymore.

Out of curiosity last night I went through my running log to see how many times I have completed the marathon or further distance. First count turned up 109. I have completed 18 official marathons, 51 ultras, 10 ultras where I went beyond 26 miles but DNF'd, and the remainder were long training runs. In the last 5 years I have gone out for 26 or longer on 59 occasions; or one a month. In my best year, 2001, I notched 21. This is certainly not as many as others, but it was interesting for me to look up.