Tonight was a fairly pedestrian workout. We had the option of running 3×2 miles or tackle a few interval pick-ups. I chose the latter since I don’t want to push it with the 5k coming on Sunday. Ian has already challenged me to run sub-20 minutes for the race … not sure if that is possible, but I will definitely give it a go. Therefore, I had all the incentive in the world to dial down the intensity tonight.
After a longish warm up (3 miles) caused in part by the group searching high and low for dry, flat and preferably soft terrain. Initially we jogged to the Reservoir hopeful for success. Our hopes were dashed after a quick inspection revealed too much remnant ice and mush to do anything of substance. Next we moved down to the Bridle Path, which was definitely runnable, but lacked lighting. Finally, we jogged to the East Drive for a flat straight away where we decided to hold our brief workout.
We ran an 800, 600 and 400 without much recovery. I didn’t bother to reset my watch for only one set. I ran on feel and glanced down to see where I was in terms of pace. No real point in doing that since the GPS is not instant and by the time I got a bead on pace the interval was over. I ran hard, but did not kill myself. I certainly did not want to run the race tonight. I did my best to relax and keep my breathing even. The sub group with whom I ran was not my usual crew. These were the quicker folks and I could only keep up with them if I were riding on top of a bullet. Still, there were a couple people trailing me, so it all evens out in the end. My only gauge on pace was that the 4th mile was at 7:05, which should have included the 3 intervals.
We ended with a slow cool down and casually chatted about … running. What else would be talk about? I did see 2 more raccoons. I was ready to spin around and go the other way until I saw they passed by us without incident.
Totals for the night: 8.5 miles at 9:06.