It's all about the effort

Wed: 6/24/09
AM: 3 w/u, 3 mile tempo (16:00), 6min rest, 4 x 400 (68?), 3 c/d
Went to Druid hill park today to do a tempo run around the lake, which is right around 1.5 miles around. Today was mostly about effort since I didn't have a lot of reliable splits. I mapped the loop last night and got 1.45 miles on gmaps, but we all know how accurate that can be. There were some marks on the ground but the loop has a lot of places where tangents become very important and I don't know how accurately those marks took them into account.

I started out on what felt like 5:20-30 pace and felt pretty decent for the first mile. The weather was a tad humid but it wasn't oppressively hot (and I have nothing to complain about since Jordan is doing his workouts in triple digit temps). I ran the first loop in 8:03 but have no idea is that is a real 1.5 mile mark or not so I just decided to run effort and try and run a little faster for the second loop. Things got drastically more difficult with every 1/4 mile and I pushed hard the last 800 or so to come in at 7:55. I was happy to run faster the second loop, granted most of the made up time came in the last 800, and don't really care too much what the pace was. Right now, effort is key and this was a good go at a workout. I took a 6min walking break and strapped on the ST racers for the first time in ages. I found a quarter mile mark and got to work. Again, the tangents could have played a huge roll but I was quite surprised to hit the first 400 in 68 seconds. I took about 70 sec rest and started the sprint back to the start and once again stopped the watch at 68 seconds. I am convinced I was cutting the course but for now I will let myself believe I can do a 68 sec quarter. I closed the last one in 66 and it felt good to feel like I was really moving again

Overall I am content with the workout. I know right now I need to just focus on effort and not be concerned about the times I am running since I know they will be slow. This was a good step, 4 miles worth of work and still healthy.