I had the pleasure of running with a friend yesterday, which isn't something I typically do. It's sometimes hard to find someone of a similar training pace as you and to have schedules line up. A lot of it is because I am slightly neurotic about my workouts, so I want them to be perfect, and it's really only the casual runs where I allow a little bit more variability by outside influences like friends. Typically I only run with friends on easy days, but yesterday I took a pretty normal base day run with a friend. Granted, this friend when she's in shape would be way faster than me, but she hasn't really been training seriously these past few months so it put us in a good similar place. It was nice because we took most of the run fairly relaxed (I had run a grand total of 3 miles since the half and yet my body was still feeling all kinds of beat, so I wasn't trying to be aggressive) and then we picked it up in the nice straight flats towards the end. We were holding the kind of pace that would have usually been hurting me, but it was so much easier and more intuitive with a partner holding the same pace next to you. It was really nice, really reduced the mental load, made the entire run way more enjoyable. Here's the summary!
Yesterday's Workout: Base/easy 7 mi run (which turned out to be less than that b/c we started from her apartment which is closer to the park, but whatever)
Summary: 6.49 mi, 58:57, 9:05 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:42, 9:42, 9:26, 8:53, 8:35, 8:28, 8:30.
Hit Rate: 5/6 (83.3%)
Today, I did my run in the afternoon and tackled an outdoor long interval workout for the first time in a long time. It was aggressive and painful and I spent most of the day dreading it and being terrified, but I went out and conquered it and I am immensely proud of the effort. Typically when I had run mile repeats before, I did a mile out and a mile back, but because of the layout of the park, I decided to do each mile as an out and back in order to take advantage of a nice straight flat path without intersections. The turn around sapped energy every time but working through that was a big confidence booster. Also I had my watch set to give me splits for the first and second half, meaning I had to hold a more even pace throughout the mile. (Before, I used to do a lot of going out super fast and just sort of dragging my feet the second half.)
Some interesting notes: The pace felt really aggressive until I really lifted my head up and looked ahead on the path instead of at the ground and then I started feeling like the pace was fast but definitely maintainable in a long race under the right conditions. Trying to bring down the perceived effort while I'm doing these is definitely a goal that I have and today I got a glimpse of the fact that it really is possible. Also, I had been aiming to do 8 mile repeats, but was fully prepared to only get to maybe 6, since I hadn't had one of these workouts in a while and they are really tough. I gritted my teeth through number 6 and told myself it was the last one, but after stopping and getting a drink (I strategically picked my start/end point so that I could get a drink between reps) I felt like I had enough for one more, so I buckled down before my brain could change its mind and went for one more (which I made!). I thought about just getting that 8th one in but my legs felt like they were going to disintegrate so I decided I would save it for about two weeks from now when I'll try this workout again. Hopefully I'll get to work both on making the reps feel easier and getting to that 8th one!
Today's Workout: Interval run, 7 x 1 mi repeats @ 7:30-8:00 pace w/ 3 mins rest between reps
Summary: 10.79 mi, 1:44:13, 9:39 pace (total including warm up and warm down)
Pace splits for each set: 7:45/7:40, 7:46/7:43, 7:53/7:43, 7:53/7:44, 7:55/7:48, 7:53/7:49, 7:56/7:52
Hit Rate: 6/7 (85.7%)
Needless to say, my legs feel pretty destroyed right now. I'm going to hit the sack early tonight, planning on hitting up masters swim in the morning, so lots of rest will be needed. It'll be a tough couple of days, but I will most likely either be taking Thursday off or taking it as an easy run or easy swim day (or putting my planned Friday gym day on Thursday and taking Friday easy) so there will be some amount of relaxation waiting for me later on in the week. Just gotta get through it! (Still riding that super proud of myself high. Awwwwww yeah. Hope this feeling stays!)
Much love,
Jess
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