Speed Work

I was a little anxious about today's workout. The reason is I didn't really get a lot of sleep last night. Another reason is that I didn't quite do so great at the previous workout. So I debated whether or not to postpone this workout until Friday. I could have done it and it wouldn't have really messed my schedule up. I decided against it because I really enjoy the challenge speed work brings and it would have killed me if I had to wait another day to do it.

I got to the park 30 minutes later than usual and then started on my 2 mile warm up. The first mile I got warmed up pretty quickly and I flew by at about 7:15 pace. The theorem is whenever I run low 7 minute pace or faster then my run will be really fast and today was no exception. The second mile I flew by at 6:30 pace. Wow, maybe my speed workout will not be that bad. This is a good sign. But I thought to myself, maybe I used up some of my speed on the warm up. So I proceeded to get ready for my workout.

Today's workout was to consist of 3 x 2ks. The 2ks were to be run between 5:07 and 5:12 pace with 4 minutes rest in between. 2k is roughly 1.24 miles and change. I started the first repetition really really fast. But it didn't feel like I did. I looked at my Garmin and it read 4:25 pace, so I backed off a lot. It seemed as though I was jogging and it took me quite a while to get back on pace. So I kept up the run, and right at the end with about .14 to go I was running 5:04 pace so I decided to back off and I jogged it in and finished exactly at 5:12.

I rested 4 minutes and was fully recovered by the time I started the second repetition. This time the run felt even easier than the first since I was warmed up now and once again I slowed to a jog the last .14 to come in at 5:11. It seemed if I put any effort at all I could easily run 5:05 or even faster during the run. Hmmm interesting.

I rested 4 minutes and started the last repetition. Once again I was fully recovered and now this time it felt easier than ever. I was barely breathing, breathing softly, and ran in the 5:05 range for much of the lap and at the end I had to make a decision of whether to finish up at low 5 minute pace or to slow it up and call it a day. I decided to do the latter and jogged it in once again to finish at 5:10 pace.

After I was done I did my cool down for a total of 7 miles today. A very good workout indeed. Here are the splits once again.

2k repeats

Lap 1	5:12 pace
Lap 2	5:11 pace
Lap 3	5:10 pace

I guess this shows why sometimes you can't really predict how well you are going to run without getting out there and doing it!