It’s been a stressful few days! Raffi is in New York, so I’ve been playing single dad. The car was in the shop, work has been crazy and to top it all off, my computer got a virus and went totally whacko last night. The good news is that I slept like a rock last night. I needed that.
I opted to wait and do my speed workout in the late afternoon and I was looking forward to it all day. Once again, the plan I designed called for 1 mile warmup, 4 x 1200 m (3/4 mile) at 6:40 min/mile pace with 400 m (1/4 mile) recovery jogs in between, and a 1 mile cool down. Since I came up a little short the first two times I attempted this workout, I decided to call on a some special friends to help me out today. I laced up my first pair of racing shoes. These orange Saucony Fastwitch 3’s carried me to my personal records in the marathon (3:23:27) and half marathon (1:29:11) and also accompanied me over the 7 mile bridge in this year’s Florida Keys Ragnar Relay.
Lacing them up gave me a comfortable familiar feeling and I stepped on the treadmill with confidence. During my warm up, my legs were turning over quickly and comfortably. After a mile, I bumped up the speed for my first interval. My form was efficient and my breathing stayed nice and steady. I even cracked a satisfied smile as I finished it.
I recovered quickly from the first interval and eagerly awaited the second as my 1/4 mile jog came to an end. The second interval was a little tougher, but I strode through it easily. When I slowed to a jog, I got a fatigued feeling in my lower back that made me want to walk, but I resisted it and jogged the whole quarter.
The third interval took some mental tricks to get through. When it was finished, I walked half of my recovery. The fourth interval was very tough and I was sucking some major wind in the last quarter, but I made it through, completing this workout for the first time on this training plan!
I’ll claim it as a little victory and I’m very satisfied with it. It’s nice to complete a quality run like that. I’ve got a long way to go to get back in that 1:29:11 half marathon shape, but I know that putting together lots of small victories like this will lead to the bigger goal.