Tempo + 400s

Goal:
Pre Race workout with tempo + speed

Actual:
3 mile warmup
4x400m in 72, 73, 73, 72 w/ 1:30 rest b/w and 3:00 b/w set
2 mile tempo in 11:09 - 5:36, 5:33 (4:00 rest)
4x400m in 73, 75, 75, 74 with 1:30 rest
3 mile cool down for 10 miles total

Today Garrett left for baseball for the entire season, so it was silly of me to think that I'd actually wake up to do a workout with Laurie.  After a fitful night of sleep because I was undoubtedly thinking about Garrett leaving for 5+ months, I woke up to cancel on Laurie and sleep for an additional 2 hours.  By 8AM, Garrett dropped me off at work before embarking on a ten hour drive to Indiana to begin his baseball season.  Our goodbye went something like this as we left the house:

Garrett (heads for the door):  Alright, let's go.
Caitlin:  Uh...don't I get a hug or something.
Garrett (perplexed):  Oh, right...
Caitlin (gives Garrett a hug):  See you in July, I guess.
Garrett:  Yeah, I'm so excited to start pitching.

...In other words, peace out, wife!!  And Garrett left like giddy kindergartner on the first day of school while I remained the dejected, unpopular kid left behind.

Having said all that, I ran my workout in the evening with Caleb and Eric on the Dilworth Speed Loop.  I was really excited about all the splits I ran and felt really comfortable, but as I cooled down I realized that the times may have been a little too aggressive for a pre-race workout.  I'm hoping to win the 10k on Saturday, so I should have put on the brakes a little bit so I didn't feel so gassed after the workout.  We'll see what happens!

Mile Repeats

Goal:
Mile Repeats with 1:30 rest at 5:32-5:40

Actual:
2.2 mile warmup
4x1 mile with 400m rest
5:38 (2:35)
5:33 (2:28)
5:32 (2:46)
5:28
2.6 mile cool down

5.5 miles in the pm for 15 miles total

Finally - victory!  I would prefer that I dominate workouts on Tuesdays because the week inevitably is off on a better note, but I'll take a late one.  Another early morning was spent again at the Dilworth Speed loop.  Quite possibly my second home, the Dilworth speed loop is where I'll be doing the majority of my workouts until marathon training starts in September.  What was nice about this morning was the cool breeze, the company of Matt Jaskot, and the distance of the workout.  Four miles of workout is really easy to prepare for mentally, so I figured it would go well.  Spada, Eric, Matt and I all took off from the corner of Worthington and Dilworth Road East for our first repeat and simply ran two loops of the two mile loop.  The first repeat was rather uneventful.  We jogged back to the top of the hill for the start of the second one, and Spada and Eric took off.  I was a comfortable distance behind them and I heard Eric say something to Spada as they reached the middle of the uphill.  Suddenly, I blazed past them.  Don't get me wrong, I didn't actually speed up whatsoever.  Instead, they had slowed down.  I smiled mockingly and said, "Wow you guys really slowed down on this uphill" and barreled past.  After 200m they caught back up, but again I stayed strong on the uphill portions.  Eventually, they caught me on the flat surface (darn) and we finished the interval.  During the rest, Eric told me he slowed down so much because he saw 5:10 pace on his Garmin for the downhill segment.  As his coach, I used my infinite wisdom to tell him that in a race, if that were to happen, he would have been passed by Caleb Boyd and that sometimes it's just best to rely on your own instinct than your Garmin.

On the third interval, it felt just as easy as the one before, but a tad bit faster.  On the fourth, we ran the same course as the second one and I noticed that Eric didn't look at his pace on his Garmin until after he crested the uphill.  I was proud of him.  He hit his target of sub 5:20 too!  I ran a controlled 5:28 and was pleased with the effort.  Mark wants to make sure that I feel like I could add on some more intervals when I finish my speed workouts.  I definitely felt like that today, although I wasn't complaining about stopping.

I'm already at 70 miles for the week, and I'm on target to hit 100 miles if I double tomorrow.  I'm not that obsessed with hitting triple digits quite yet, so I'll likely be in the mid 90's instead, which will still be my highest mileage ever.  I can already feel the effects of high mileage:  constant hunger, constantly yawning, constantly yearning a nap, going a couple of days without a shower, and cleaning soaking wet and sweaty clothes.  It's all worth it!